Saturday August 9

(My apologies for the postings getting out of chronological order)

First morning in a new city and what did I do?

I lay in bed reading my twitter stream!

Jet lag will do that to you.

Eventually we went in search of coffee and a supermarket to stock up on gluten free goodies, water and other things we would need on the road. I spent time (possibly a bit too much according to Corto) comparing foods and prices in the supermarket.

Next stop Sintra! The plan had been to go see the inverted tower but we got distracted by the wonderful gardens beneath the castle and spent 3 hours walking up and down taking photos.

We took the long route out walking against the one way traffic of cars and many tourist buses.

A very late lunch in Sintra – starting at 3pm (thank goodness the Portuguese eat later than Aussies…) at Dona Maria was baked fish, cooked beans, carrots and whole baked baby potatoes accompanied by white wine. The whole baked sea bass and vegetables were perfectly cooked. The house white was young but eminently quaffable. The view on the terrace was stunning.

We returned to Lisbon via the coast and river road and rested for a short while in the hotel.

Having made a reservation for Chapito the night before we headed over on foot at 8pm to see if Corto’s brother’s recommendation was any good. Down the hill and back up the other side of the valley in under 25 minutes on steep winding cobbled streets after having spent the large part of the afternoon on foot. We were glad to be shown to an outdoor table with a view over the rooftops of the Alafama towards the river Tagus.

Hot pork strips served with asparagus, mushrooms and sliced potato and a garden salad disappeared quickly – only just staying around long enough to be photographed.

The walk home to the hotel… was uphill!