A little Lisbon and lot's of Sintra

I have to hold my breath when we walk past the chestnut roasting vendors. I cant stand the smell but the people eat these things like McDonalds French fries.

In the heart of Sintra, Anderson and I headed over there today via the train. We had just walked up to the Museu De Arte Moderna. Our guide book promised some Jackson Pollocks, Andy Warhols and Gilbert and George...All we got was an awesome display of Ghandi's life story and Amarita Sher-Gil which I am very happy to have been introduced to but I was pretty excited to see the previously mentioned artists in the guide book...So, I asked about them and the person at the ticket counter said "Oh, I know what you are looking for, they are not here anymore. They are gone now, they are somewhere else". Okay...

Then we decided to hike up the road to the Moorish Castle. We saw a cyclist on a mtb with slicks doing hill repeats and Anderson yelled him on "Allez" (really loud and many times in typical style).

Then we got into this garden somehow with out paying the 6 Euros. Ooops!

Moorish Castle on top of the hills. This area is amazing and hiking up to the top of the castle was worth the time and effort as the views were amazing!!!!!!

My knee scrapes are healing. I still get a lot of looks. Today there was a couple who walked by and their eyes widened and I watched them as they went past us and they did an open arm display as if they thought I got the scrapes from doing a swan dive down the blacktop road...They could actually be surprised that I was wearing a skirt. It is really cold out, high today was about 63 so I guess they have a good reason for concern for my skirt wearing knowledge.

Really?

Once back to Lisbon we finally sought out Hotel Borges and it's Pastelaria. We did have a cappuccino as the Bica's are making me ill. They are too bitter for my tastes.

Tonight off to a release party at Club Journalista.

Museu Calouste Gulbenkin

Hit up another major art museum in Lisbon yesterday. It totally nocked my socks off. First we started with some amazing Egyptian artifacts, then onto some Parisian textiles, pottery and ceramic tiles. Then the paintings!

Savelli: Portrait of a Man

Battista: Maroni

Rembrant: Portrait of an Old Man, Pallas Athena

Ruebens: Portrait of Helen Fourment, The Lovers of then Centars Ebracing, Flight of into Egypt

Fragonard, Grancois Bucher, Jean Baptiste Pigalle, 4 Augustine Rodin sculptures, Millet, Manet, Monet, Mary Cassatt, Degas, Renoir and many many more!!!!

Looks like another beautiful day in Portugal. We are planning on jumping on a train to go hiking west of Lisbon near a couple castles near Sintra. This weekend we are heading up to the Douro region and then it's time to pack our bags and head home on Monday.

Sand Cornice Surfing

More Beach Action

Today was actually the first day we were real tourists on vacation. NO hikes or major outings planned. We had a very casual morning. I walked to the grocery store, about 3 blocks away. Picked up some fresh bread (still warm) fruit and yogurt. Then I made some coffee with Violetta's Krups machine. Muesli, fresh bread, yogurt, good coffee and some great sun on the patio!

Then we headed off to see Jesus and then we hit the beach!

Now we are back in Lisbon. Mike is whipping up his famous burritos and we just opened up a bottle of wine from the winery we visited yesterday, Cortes de Cima. Chimine, 2008. It's a well rounded Portugeese wine at a great value. A blend of Syrah, Temprenillo and the Portugeese National grape.

Portugal Weekend

Picked up a rental car on Saturday a.m. and headed East to the Alentejo district of Portugal.

Cork trees are everywhere!

The beaches are rugged and stunning!

Monday we hit up a really great winery. We found this wine after some serious trial and error!

American Oak barrels.

The wine tasting!

One more week in Portugal! My wounds are healing up and the weather has been great! Mike and Violetta have been wonderful hosts and showing us all the beautiful things of Portugal.

One Week Ago

Danielle has a good video of the Iceman of which my crash is at about :56 seconds on her website. We still can't tell how the girl clipped me or fell into me...

Fado Music and Belem

This tourist thing is wearing me down or the Jet Lag is catching up with me. Today we stopped at three major museums. Saw this Bosch (all three panels) and I was surprised to see a Fragonard, Two Sisters (top one in this blog) at the National Art Museum!!! Then my biggest surprise came at the Belem Free Museum was this Ingres and Francis Bacon's interpretation!



Last night we went to the most expensive Fado House. The performers were amazing!! The food was good and the wine very expensive!!!!!! Violetta and I had Octopus (It was suppose to taste like chicken), Anderson had an amazing fish skewer and Mike had the "BEST STEAK IN PORTUGAL" (without an egg on it)!!



We tried the Vino Verhde this afternoon with lunch at a Brazilian resteraunt (Brazil was a former colony of Portugal), the food was really good! Mike had a fruit salad and we had Moqueca. Anyway Vino Verhde is a "bubbly" white, made from green grapes from Portugal. It's pretty good for the price ~6 Euros, and compared to most of the reds we've tried from the Duro region it's by far the best wine. The red wine's have had a very strange mineraly flavor to them with an acidic taste (one we noted to be like a musty smelly basement). Not at all like the Big Californian reds we enjoy.

Maritime Museum. A river barge for royalty. The rowing crew is not allowed to sit in the nice glass box at the back. The last time it was used in April of 1957 for the queen of England but it was built in 1758.

Cool double seater!

On the way home we stopped in at the most famous Pastelarias the Pasteis de Belem , this is where they came up with the widely eaten and known custard cup pastry. It's wicked good and but you can only eat so much of it as it's really sugary...

Now we are resting as people start eating dinner around 9 p.m. every night of the week and then music in the Beirro Alto district and then when that closes at 2 a.m. apparently we will hear the best techno music at some of the clubs in Mini Mercado which starts at about 2 a.m., but it's not really going off until 6 a.m.. and then closes at 9 a.m.! I doubt I'll make it past 2...(9 p.m. bed time in MN)

Lisbon

Another bright sunny day in Lisbon!

Laundry day for some!

Stopped in for coffee and bread at this pastellaria. It also serves as a bar in the afternoon/evening.

A really old wooden foose ball table. This local started talking to us. He is a garbage collector by night and was partying it up. He thought Mike was rich and had a lot of money so he asked Mike to pay for his drink which equaled about .60 cents.

Touring the castle.

Some beautiful tiles on a closed up building.

Cascais, Portugal

Headed East to the beach today via the train and bike.
This family was roasting chestnuts. Had to get em. I thought they tasted like roasted squash but the texture was not as pleasant.

I'm loving the tiles about the towns with their vibrant colors as well as the walk ways as they are made of pavers (limestone, granite or basalt).

Happy to be cruising along! I couldn't push the pace too much though as I have some scabby knees to deal with. More to come...