Parking in Lisbon

 Last day.

Probably should start with EE’s birthday dinner at the Michelin star restaurant.  And food porn for the thumbnail.

It was quite the show.  I will dump all the pictures with a brief description.  We got the 5-course tasting menu and there were surprises — as they called them.  The other 3 had the wine pairing that went with them and the sommelier was quite good about telling about the wine, where it came from, and why it paired with what they were about to get. No, Michael, I did not ask for nor, was I offered buttered noodles. :)

Here goes:

(I forgot to “feed my phone” for the opener, a smoky soup)

This is obviously prawns with a side chicken sandwich (the “bread” is chicken skin)

This is a cannelloni whose shell is made from tiger prawn. 

This is lobster with lobster sauce with the little dabs being chestnut puree.

This is cuddlefish.  In the foam somewhere. 

We had a choice of sea bass or octopus for main course — the olds took the sea bass.

The kids got the octopus.

First dessert (I was happy to hear we were doing multiple desserts) was coconut cream with olive oil ice cream and some kind of Japanese citrus fruit in the little buds.

The final dessert was chocolates with truffle and roasted rice ice cream.  

And then they brought these candies as a finish — orange, strawberry and pistachio. 

As you can see, it was quite the experience, with multiple waiters and a plethora of different plates and utensils.  The food was good (I was told; I don’t eat lobster 🤢, so a couple things I didn’t eat).  My favorite was the chicken sandwich, though I loved the sea bass.  I liked the first dessert more than the one with chocolate!!!

I am still recovering from the sticker shock, even though I “knew” — I am pretty sure the bill was more than EVERY other dinner on the trip put together! 

But we’ll never forget having cuddle fish foam in Lisbon. :)

To start the day, the apartment had nothing to make coffee with — there was pieces of a press, but without the glass decanter! 🤦

So, we waited till we got into the city to get “breakfast” and coffee (I know Michael would object to this because he wouldn’t speak until coffee passed his lips).  We made it into the spot where the Hop on Hop off buses were parked and tried to park ourselves.  We found a spot and went to pay and realized it was only two hours.  😡

By the time we made our way back to the traffic circle we started at, we had killed a good twenty minutes.  We ended up parking underground right under the buses.  

Then we waited on a bus to go…about another half hour!

Then we got dropped off at the restaurant stop, but couldn’t find a restaurant.  M said at one point “this doesn’t feel like our day.”  The cafe we ate in was the worst meal of the trip.  Between language issues and it being, literally, a one-person kitchen with maybe one burner…and this was in the center of things in Lisbon!

Then we went to the wrong side of the square to “hop on”…then almost missed the next one as Ee had gone for coffee for K and M.  

Geez. 

We finally ended up at the castle, which, as you can see, has great views. 

The story du jour is from the hop on bus; we circled back to the starting spot — #1 on our maps — and were told to jump to a second bus that was leaving in 5 minutes.  We had to scan our tickets again. This flummoxed the people in front of us.  The one woman sat down in front of us, complaining about having to re-check, searching for the ticket.  She and the driver went back and forth, him telling her it’s a liability issue, and she digging out receipt after receipt without coming up with the right one.  “I just checked in on the last bus”…and she even jumped off in the parking lot, leaving her purse with us!!! Looking for it.  Nope. 

The driver tossed her off at stop 3.  A nightmare we’ve all had. ):

We stopped and saw the pantheon, which is an impressive building, and made our way home. 

And that’s us done in Lisbon.  

It’s been a great trip.  Thanks for reading.  I think our next blog-worthy trip is to Montreal with M & B — the old road show back on the road. 

Happy winter!

Morning addendum:

First, the Abbott and Costello routine of weight and redistribution before going to the airport. Then they didn’t weigh either Ee nor K’s bag 😀 but M got a talking to about being a kilo over. 😂

On the ride over, repeated 3 things that recurred on drives: I missed a turn; the car warned about going too fast; I hit a speed bump faster than I should (see 2 😂). We survived and the check in agent gave me a clean receipt. 👍🏼

At the gate, K and I got pulled out for a random security check. NBD but added to the fun. 

-1 (C) at home. Joy joy. 

Till next time. 

One of THOSE stories on Day 5

 Hi everyone,

I told the fam that I had to lead with the housing story, even though we all were very impressed with Evora. For the thumbnail, I’ll open with this pic of the Roman temple there — the sign said originally thought to be to Diana, but now thought to be from the cult of the emperor.  Dated 50 CE.

But more for the fun story.

We booked a two bedroom apartment near Lisbon airport through Booking.com.  I am sure I had K’s approval of this particular, but after being in the place, she denies it. 😋🙁

Wednesday, I got a text from the person, asking when we’d be there.  That she wanted to meet us there.  I said 7, after consultation.

We made it at 6:58, having cut it a bit close getting out of Evora and there was one section of red line on G maps.

When I parked in front of the address, I looked at my phones and now there were directions to a lockbox, with combination. 🤔 Then why did we set a time to meet?

It gets A LOT better.  EE (who yesterday groused that his name changes in every blog, so today is going to be WHN [whatshisname]:)) went with me to find the lockbox.  She gave an address around the other side of this building.  We found the address, but no lockbox.  We looked around the main door, there was a side door, there was a column with something on it.  No.

I look back at my text messages and there’s a photo, which I took as a marker of where the second building was.  Instead, it was a pointer.  We look at the picture and it has the mural in it that is on the wall above a kids playground that is surrounded by a yellow picket fence.  Here’s the photo. 

It’s dark remember?  As we walk back towards this fence, I see a dark blob on the inside of the fence and say “i see it.”  Yes, the lockbox was there!  WHN was able to just get his hand in and put in the code and get out the keys. 

But we’re not done! The key to the outside is sticky — we wonder if we’re at the right door, but we get in, then up to the flat and that key works pretty well.  We walk in and WHN hits the light switch —

NOTHING!!!

We try this and that; I text her.  She says there’s a button on the wall to turn.  It does nothing.  WHN wanders the apartment and there’s nothing on and no light switch works — there’s no electricity!  He finds the fuse box but…

 

It looks good, but we wonder if that right hand switch should be up.  She and I are texting and she tells me to turn off a heater before pushing it up.  I don’t know what she means (yet, it’s dark) but we push it up and we have lights!!!!  Glory to God! :)

“Heater” turns out to be 3 space heaters, which heat the three main rooms.  Adequately.  But it was 2C here last night.  

And, now, for jinky (is that the spelling?) #xxxx — the kitchen is freezing because the window is open!!!  We all work at it, but it won’t close all the way.  It is eight glass slats that fold out and open and the mechanism is broke enough so that it won’t close.  I texted her. 

Then the toilet seat broke!!! Ah, well.

I told K our host won’t want me giving a review. 😡

The day started perfectly well with a fairly early getaway and a quick stop (with a scream of “you can’t get in there” as I whipped into a parking place) at a pastellarie (bakery) in downtown Almancil.  It was the first place that had no English signs 🤔 As WHN said “all you have to do is point at what you want in the case” and “Americano” and “latte” are universal.  It was good, but not great.  But cheap (this has become a thought)

It was over 2 hours from Almancil to Evora.  M was navigating and took us to a parking lot just inside the castle walls.  It was full and I followed the sign out and the traffic flow (one way).  the road got narrower and narrower, to the point the car, which loves to beep, was beeping all over the place.  We climbed up and up till the road turned through a low arch and into a square with parking around it.  There were no places as we circled, or none I could fit into.  And every turn the car beeped because the room between parked cars was limited.  There was finally a small spot after going 360 and K stood and held it till I got there — I ended up backing in, but they were out before I did.  We weren’t sure the car to my right could get in — it was there when we left. 

We went down the hill to see the aqueduct — which is in good shape (and which, it turns out, was the arch we went through to the parking lot!), then climbed the hill to the temple. 

WHN, who didn’t have pastry, was hungry, so we had charcuterie at the restaurant on that square.  It was good. 

Then to the cathedral, ,which had great views from the tower.  No one died climbing the circular staircase to the top. 

It was a very impressive place, started in the 12th c. 

The next stop was another chapel — this one was the chapel of bones.  I kid you not.  

 

They charged admission. 

It was almost 5 as we left there.  I was talking about all the gelato places I had seen and was doing little but getting grief for “ruining my dinner.” 🥲 I never got that gelato.

Back to the car, off to Lisbon for the housing adventure, etc.

Dinner was found after a “4 1/2 stars nearby” search — an Indian place.  It was quite good and the owner chatted us up the whole time — we were the only ones in the place.   K had korma, I had dal, WHN had chili chicken, and M had tikki masala.  The owner was Punjabi (she made it clear, not Indian, not Pakistani :)), who had come to Portugal via Singapore.  Interesting case.

Then home for cards, where it got down to WHN and K tied at 5-2 (?)…the championship will have to wait, or remain a tie. 

That’s the big day.

Friday in Lisbon.  There was a story ‘what to do with 1 day in Lisbon” and the guy’s first suggestion was “check into the Four Seasons.”  😂  The rest of the list was less funny and not helpful. 

Down to the last day…tears. 

Eastward Ho!

 Having spent the first three days going west out of Almancil, today we decided to head east. 

For geographical reference, Almancil is about equally as far from Sagres on the southwest coast, where we went Sunday, as the Spanish border is east  

We were told by multiple sources to go to Tavira, a fishing village halfway to Spain. We understand why now — it is quaint. 

We started with breakfast. Brunch? It was a hippy dippy place right on the water in town. You know the kind of place: lots of coffees, smoothies, avocado toast and bowls with quinoa. They were all happy with theirs.

On the way back from the casa da banho , I looked in the pastry case and ended up having chocolate cake  😀

The funniest part of the episode is that we sat there and at one point either M or K said “isn’t funny how many people in here are speaking English?”  And they all were.  Then a couple comes in, mumbling English, and the woman to my left gets up to greet them  — in English — but first the two women to my right say “Hey!” And greet them — in English.  We decided it was expat cafe.  A bit odd and coincidental, but weird. 

Then we walked up to the castle, no small thing. It’s been there in part since the Moors. The main courtyard was bought and restored by the city .

We worked west toward “home” to Faro, which turned out to be quite the place.  The castle walls were huge — there was something like 5 hectares (12 acres) enclosed.  We walked up the opening hill to the cathedral, which was much nicer than yesterday’s.  Here’s one shot.  

After looking around, I wanted a sit down and a drink, our afternoon, and there was a place a block from the cathedral called, inventively, The Old Tavern.  

We got the Old Tavern Board.  It was too much. As you can see:

Next, we had not been to the beach.  So, we went, not far from our condo — this is video of Ian going down to the water at Praia de Quinto. 

We made a quick stop at home and went to dinner.  

We were the only one in the Tipsee Turtle. The web said it was a new place.  They served 18 different culture’s food.  I had coq au vin; Ee had pork rolls; K had a shawarma wrap, and M had something gross made with minced chicken.  Something Asian with minced chicken.  I got a taste and the dominant taste was cloves…you fill in the blanks.  Here’s mine:

It was all good.  It was our least expensive meal by a lot, and another table came in as we finished, but we are sure they are going to struggle with their prices and lack of action.  Of course, this is low season.

The chef, who I called Mr. Turtle, which he owned, actually came out and talked to us.  :)

We stopped at Cheeky Pup for drinks and desserts (I avoided the pink peppercorns this time :)) and then home to Ee and K winning the one round of euchre.  This makes K 4-1 for the week.  I’m sure the next two nights will be a vicious fight for the title of champion of the week…I just hope not to finish alone in last. :)

And that is all I have for today.

Tomorrow morning we leave the Algarve; we are stopping on the way to Lisbon at a place recommended by several — Evorra (or Eborra).  It should make for a bunch of good pictures.  I can’t speak for the food porn. :). Amanha 

The beach and caves

 To catch you up after last night’s post, we played euchre, as we usually do on vacation together.  We played with a deck bought at the local grocery store, which was both small and by the end of the night losing its stiffness.

I have to report results: K 2-0, me 0-2. ):  I was told over the course of the evening “what’s wrong with you?” More than once and then there was “I’d be better off with a guy off the street as a partner.”  Talk about keeping me humble.  Sort of. 

Today we were supposed to go on a boat ride to the caves, which K cited as the one thing she really wanted to do.  They called yesterday cancelling today and this morning called cancelling tomorrow.  Two of us are not disappointed.  As we walked along he shore today, I said I was seasick just seeing the waves the way they were. 

So, today’s backup plan was a trip down the Seven Hanging Valleys trail.  I don’t know what was hanging, except us a couple of times, but it was great to see the cave from land as well as other sites.  Here’s one view:

I am saying, without knowing for sure, that this is the famous Bengil cave.  We did see one tour boat try it do its thing today.  It looked awfully bouncy.

But the best part of the story is the story.  In pitching this, K told us about how long it was, which was a moving target (“3 miles” or “7 kilometers both way or 3 kilometers).  Hahaha. Then there was the roughness of the terrain.  There was one quote “it’s got like a boardwalk all along.”  There was NO boardwalk! 😱

K only slipped down once.  No one else did.  And she didn’t get hurt.  

Here’s picture #2: 

If you looked closely on the ridge, you can see people walking.  ON the path. 

There was talk of walking the whole thing and something back.  Some talk of going both ways.  

In the end, we made it halfway.  It took 2 and a half hours and it was 5 miles of walking.  Real walking, not the calculated walking.  We were worn.  Except Ee. 🙄

At Benagil, not far from the cave, we left the trail.  We had to climb a significant road to a cafe where we had…the Portuguese favorite of camel slobber.  Slobber.

It had the consistency of slobber.  :) 

Back to the condo, rest and change clothes, and off to dinner. 

The place was the Casa Quinta.  It was quite good; both the best food and the most expensive of the trip.  But the service was mediocre. 

The highlights?  Here’s the video of the server carving Ian’s lamb chops —

The desssert highlight was K and M shared pavlova, a rare commodity:

We tried the port again (this will be significant later) and it wasn’t as good as the cherry stuff from Monday night. 

Back to the condo rather late (10?) to continues the eurchre, with K and I playing the kids, with her undefeated and me winless.  Something had to give! 

We won! K was crowned, grousingly, champion. 

Then we went back to the original game and Ian and I reversed Monday night with a win in 3 games — two of which went to 9-9.  

So, I won both rounds.  No one noticed (until they read this and say they did 😂).  I will concede that at various times the three of them discussed being “tipsy,” “a bit drunk” and “judgment impaired.”  One of the bottles of wine from the Monday stop disappeared. (It was explained that the rose wouldn’t travel well 😀)

And that is day 3.  We are going east on Wednesday, maybe as far as Spain. 

It’s hump day, so halfway through. 😥

Ruins, Castles & Wineries (Dia Dose*)

 *PracticingPortuguese

Day 2 begins with a recount of post-blog post Day 1: we returned, almost too late (the waiter seemed annoyed), to the Cheeky Pup (Pup, not Pub, as I nominated it first in y’day’s post) for dessert and drinks. 

There were two highlights: my brownie and ice cream (pictured later for thumbnail purposes) had something in it which shocked me! It was a bit crunchy and spicy.  I then noticed it had these little red beads in the custard! Then went a voyage of discovery with M & K trying them, eventually Ee did too, then searching online, then asking the waiter, who had to ask another waiter.  They were some kind of pink peppercorn.  Who knew?

 This led to #2: M (in full Encyclopedia Hicks mode) says “tastes like something between a black peppercorn and anise” and I made a silly joke, asking if you had meant to say “anus” (😃😂) to which, first I was told that was infantile, THEN I was told “you know, not free things are free.  Like this trip.  The suffering through your jokes might not be worth it.”  

There were moments of near pants wetting on that one.  We discussed a free week in Portugal v Dad jokes and I admitted that maybe that wasn’t enough, maybe i would give her a couple hundred when we got home to assuage her pain and suffering. 😂😂😂

Although we did not get out fo the condo “early” as we all said we would this morning, we got out for a latish breakfast.  I found this pizzeria near the ruin that served pastries and coffee and omelettes (and a full English).  That was good. 

Then to the next stop, Google map “five minutes away” (you know what that means :))

This stop was recommended by Josh’s in-laws, who spent some time here last year.  It is the Vila at Cerra, a Roman ruin.  There is a lot of excavation done & it’s a huge place.  I always love their tile mosaic. 

Although a bit scanty on details, the site was well done; there were some Portuguese to English translation issues — like the workers’ homes were found to have “fish units” in them (pieces?).  Fish units.  

We never got a sense of the date of the vila (or I missed the appropriate sign), but it was interesting that it was depicted with a dock and it was not on the water, though there was a marina across the street.  🤔

From there to our next stop, about half hour away.  This was the Castle of Silves — this is the best Moorish building in the Algarve, so we covered history from the Romans to the Moors.  

You start at Silves with a wow of how big it is sitting on the top of the hill. Here’s my photo from inside looking east to give you an idea. 

And here’s a shot of the courtyard. You can see the red brick walls that it is made of in the pic.  It’s the dominant feature.

But, I skipped the “highlight.” We weaved through one lane, one way streets in the rental car that loves to go “beep”, not finding a parking place.  Finally I found one, EE claimed in front of the police station.  :)

It was straight uphill for about 200 yards (different people have different versions of this distance) toward the castle.  K broke into a coughing fit, then M broke into a bit of an asthma attack.  I was not fine.  Ee, on the other hand, claimed it was “nothing.’ :).  After water bottles, and sits, and more of both, we survived.  But it was gruesome.  There was some thought Ee might inherit today. ):

BTW, one feature of Silves is a large number of storks.  They sit in nexts on the lamp posts, on the electric towers, some trees…and they float around A LOT.  Weird.  But one of the features of the place.

It was about 3 o’clock and the gang wanted more.  K suggested a winery and there were several highly rated on TripAdvisor within 10kms.  We shot off for one, with no damage to the car. :)

The name of the place was Capitas, which is Portuguese for little goat.  They used to have a little goat on their labels as a logo.  We have no idea why they stopped, given it seemed clever.  

We were the only ones there and 3 did a “classic tasting” for 10euros and liked all the wines enough we bought 3 bottles (there’s no way it is going home…but we’ll see how that works out).

BTW, the place is covered with citrus trees.  At Capitas, on two sides they were bordered by citrus groves.  There was discussion if they were oranges or lemons — they were yellowy color — but I got close enough to see they were just not quite orange oranges.  

Dinner

Dinner was NOT at a place called Free Willy, it was actually called New Mr Freddy’s.  Freddy was Fred Astaire.  He was on all the walls. 

Their specialty was Jorger.  Whatever that is.  None of us got any of the possibilities cooked that way. :)

The highlight of the meal was our waiter, who chatted us up from the beginning (initially we were the only ones there) and started by recommending a very good, inexpensive Portuguese white wine (it was wine day). 

I am going to picture Ee’s meal, tiger prawns, because it isn’t something you see often.  They were cooked so that you were supposed to eat the shell; he didn’t. :)

M had lamb shank; K had seafood linguini, and I had the mushroom risotto.  It was all good.  And we had dessert — chocolate mousse and crème brûlée, also not pictured. 

Our waiter was chatty.  He told us he didn’t work there, we thought joking, then found out it was his god-daughter’s new restaurant and he was helping out. His English was quite good and we wanted to know where we were from.  He said he loved America and dreamed of going there, driving Route 66 in a red mustang, with country music on the radio.  He didn’t tell us his name, until finally showing us on his phone that his name was Serban, who ironically was Rumanian, not Serbian.  He gave us port made with cherries to show his love (it was not too sweet and very good) and we left with a new friend. 

Epilogue:

Having tried to get us back without Google maps, we were lost and got into a conversation about lamb shank, then lambs, then sheep, then somehow “Jesus was the lamb of God” and I said something about never getting to be a sheep.  I was told that I was now in deep debit when I got to St. Peter’s Gate, compounding what I’m told is my deficit from bad dad jokes.  I of course tell them that I get St. Peter credit for the ones i DONT tell, but they are iffy.  But I’m trouble now for saying “Sheep of God.” :)

And on that note, I say good night.  Maybe goodbye, because there’s talk of a cliff side long walk tomorrow.  Fingers crossed. 

Extras:

For John’s sake, again, I picture the full English, which lacked the advertised black pudding. 

And the brownie:

Note red beads in the custard. 

Day 1 in the Algarve

 Hey, all! We’re back!

Here’s the picture link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/feDaG9Bc85BFMEdXA

This is our “Christmas” trip this year (as in “we’re not buying stuff this year for Christmas, instead we’re going to…”

This year, in part due to some resort weeks bought by K (I’m going to stick with initials, to hide but identify the guilty) and there was a spot here when we wanted to come. 

For those of you whose Portuguese geography is shaky, “the Algarve” the region of southern Portugal from Gibraltar to the southwest corner (where we went today) all along the Atlantic. 

Here’s today’s money shot (for the thumbnail) taken at Cabo St. Vincente, which is almost, but not quite, on the southwest tip of Portugal, or, as the sign said “Where Europe Begins.” 😂

The place was beautiful and pretty exotic: it is amazing to us Americans from places with trees and greenery to go to place as dry and desolate as this.  As someone pointed out on the ride home (obviously after sunset) that there were no lights! And no trees down on the southwest corner of Portugal: the little town, which is full of surf shops (we only saw one surfboard near the water), is Sagres, and the fort there, see the picture link, is Fortressa de Sagres. It is huge and imposing and cool and has seemingly never been attacked! I don’t doubt no one has ever actually wanted the place. :)

This was day one.  We have to start with the trip and the place.

Start with the stress of the weather and planes as we weren’t sure till Friday morning if Ee could get out of DFW because of the storm there.  In the end, he had little trouble — the plane was 40 minutes late, but we survived. 

For reasons that do not bear explaining, we (the other 3 of us) got to the airport almost 4 hours before our midnight flight — so early there was no one working the desk to check people in yet when we got there. :)

The flight, on Portugal’s airline, TAP, from Newark to Lisbon was brutal.  The pilot said “we have clear sailing” and then proceeded to spend the next 6 hours hitting every bit of turbulence across the Atlantic. 😝 K said it was the worst she’d ever experienced. Then there was the service — unlike every other flight to London or Dublin, the staff didn’t bother offer drinks other than those with the food, nor did they bother pick up the trash!  La di da! K got one of them to tell her that they were going home, so…

It was the weakest customs check in history — there was no line! 

Then there was the brief stress of the Enterprise desk. First, the kiosk didn’t recognize the number.  The staff person came and helped and couldn’t find it.  She had a printout and there was my name with a different number — that didn’t work! Then I was sent to the person at a desk, Michellene, who had to search by name.  Meanwhile, the two guys in front of me didn’t get a car, the guy to my left, an American (you’ll see it) was complaining that he had been double charged for something (EE said it was clearly his fault) and the woman to my right couldn’t find her record either.  

EE was standing next to me (he’s on as a driver) as I was handed the receipt and told “go out that door, to the next building, to the second floor, and someone who get you your car.”  There was one false start up an escalator, then around, through a habitrail, and then up an elevator.  

The guy who handed me the keys said “see that car at the end…” pointing to a Toyota Midget, “oh, no, that’s your car, it’s the one next to it” behind a post.  Right. 

We found the car, a perfectly reasonable Toyota C-HR, a hybrid mid SUV, in a lovely red.  It’s fine. 

EXCEPT — first, if you don’t have your seatbelts on even in the back, it goes nuts, the ping ping ping getting faster and faster and louder and louder.   With four of us, there’s been annoyance.  Then there’s the speed warning — even one mph over the suspected speed and it beeps.  We’ve figured out how to turn it off, but it only turns it off for that trip. ):

The drive from the airport to the condo was 2 and a half hours (you know how much the car beeped 😡).  The shysters who sold K the weeks only sent one email to tell us how to check in.  There was an address that was linked.  It gave us two places, about .2 apart.  We chose number one and it didn’t look like an office.  So, we drove to the other, drove up to the gate and were rudely told that “we’re not even open, this isn’t the right place.”  Thanks for the help.  We went back to the first place, went in and…

Okay, one of the features on the plane’s entertainment system was PracticePortuguese.  So, with EE besides me (the embarrassment factor was important :)) I decided to practice my Portuguese.  This was made better (or worse) as the person spoke in English when we came in.  I tried my best “I speak little English” and she said “I don’t know what you are trying to say.”  I tried again.  “Oh my god” EE mumbles.  “I don’t know…” she looked desperately for him for help.  I asked if we had a reservation there and she said, yes, this is what she said, “no, we don’t have ANYONE checking in today, so no.”  I showed her the one email and she knew right where it was and said (good tip) “this was rotary 2 and they are off rotary 4, take the right off of it and past the golf clubhouse and there’s parking there and go in there” 

And she was right.  Carlos, at the desk there, was great and we got in and the condo is good, with a golf course right here.  It has a patio with a table.  

After checking in, M went to bed.  The other three of us went for groceries — another adventure that included be stuck at the self checkout twice! (Alcohol!)  

Then to a place Ee found called the Cheeky Pub (it is NOT Portuguese, despite the local) and had a great dinner, with better desserts.  (We’re going back tonight)

Here’s Ian’s pork cheek. 

And for dessert K and I split the caramel pudding with lemon sorbet!  

It slayed!1

Tonight’s local adventure was a peri peri chicken place — those of you who’ve been with us in London (and elsewhere) have been to Nando’s.  There were lines out of this take away place had a line out of it everytime we drove by (it’s on the way into town from the resort).  

We went in and they took cash (I had some) and they had a menu on the wall in both Portuguese and English, but my attempt at communication got us fries instead of ribs (I’m not kidding) and instead of peri peri sauce we got something else (which the guy and his kid ahead of us got on theirs).  I approved because the guy miscalculated and we got two chickens and three sides for 23 euros.  I’m ready to go back and Ee is on salmonella watch. 

And that was day one.  

I don’t know exactly what we are doing tomorrow, but Tuesday at 11 we get on a boat (this won’t end well) and look at caves and shit from the water.  Where’s the green puky face emoji?

Till tomorrow…