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. 😥