Days 2 and 3 in Lisboa, Sintra, Cascais, etc.

Today we managed to sleep in until eleven thirty a.m. Eleven thirty! Can you imagine? We both thought we'd wake up grossly early, like at five a.m., since we went to bed at nine. Apparently our day of travel wore us out. When we finally awoke, we quickly showered, stopped in the executive lounge to grab a couple of diet pepsis, and took of for the town of Sintra. There we got stuck in traffic and drove very slowly for awhile. Eventually we parked and started hiking up towards the Pena Castle. Turns out it was a very long, three mile, uphill the entire way hike. V was appalled, especially as it kept going and going and the castle never seemed to get any closer. But we still had a fun time, checking out the Moorish Castle on the way and eating a couple of our emergency granola bars. When we made it up to the Pena CAstle, we bought our tickets adn started exploring. We saw the King's quarters, where he kept a phone so he could call Lisbon and listen to the opera. The castle was originally a monastery and was converted to a castle in the mid-1800s. In early 1910, everyone fled.

After exploring the castle, we had a 45 minute stumble down to our car and then drove home. Now we are out to a fantastic dinner that V has planned for us. One interesting thing about our room: There is a little slot inside the door, in the hallway. You have to stick your key into it so that you can have lights and air conditioning. If you don't, you have none of those things. Isn't that strange? It's smart, though, and definitely conserves electricity. We have a bidet but we haven't quite figured out how to use it yet.

Soon, we are off to a fancy dinner V has planned for us. Yum!

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Today was our third day in Lisbon. First, I realize I need to write about dinner last night!
Matt planned two Portugese dinners long ago, when we were still in the states, and had a Portugese speaking classmate make reservations for us. This was one of those. We went to a restaurant called Clara, which was intimate and calm. There were few customers, and it reminded us both as a place that was a bit past its prime -- maybe a place that was big ten, twenty years ago? However, the service and the food were both amazing. We started the evening with glasses of white wine from the duoro valley, melon and proscuitto and the best french onion soup I've ever had. The french onion soup was creamy rather than brothy... I let Matt taste enough so that he can -- hopefully -- recreate it when we get home. For entrees, I had a pork and pineapple mixture with a delicate butter sauce, along with potatoes and roasted vegetables. Matt had a 'torenado clara' - a beef tornado that was also quite good. By then, we had moved on to a delicious red blend from Portugal... when we find the paper where we recorded the name, we'll let you know, because it was inexpensive and good.

After dinner came the cheese course, where we tried six different Portugese cheeses. I surprised myself by liking at least four, maybe even five of them. (I'm usually averse to smelly cheeses.) The manager brought us complimentary glasses of Port after hearing we were on our honeymoon, and we finished the night with chocolate and walnut cakes. The owner and the waiter hung out and talked to us for more than an hour, giving us advice on where we should go on our travels. As we stumbled home, we decided to follow their advice today.
Thus, today, we grabbed a quick breakfast and then got up and headed towards the west coast on one of the slower, smaller roads. We first stopped in Belem, a large suburb of Lisbon, which contains a fantastic church, monastery and cloisters. (It's a Rick Steve's three triangle destination, if that means anything.) We explored the church, and got in just before they closed it to tourists so that a wedding could take place. The bride had an incredibly long, Cathedral length veil. It seemed like the wedding was mostly in French. We had lunch at a small place -- a funky chicken salad for me and pork for Matt -- and then went to the place that is famous for inventing the pastel de nata. We bought a few and took them over to the riverbank to eat them next to the Monument of Discovers (I think). We saw the tomb of Vasco de Gama, who is very famous in these parts.

We continued on towards the resort town of Cascais, stopping for an hour or so on the beach. The water was frigid so neither of us went in much. It started getting quite windy, and we hopped back in the car to head towards our final destination: Cabo de Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe. On the way, the wind blew harder and harder. Soon, traffic on the tiny road slowed to a crawl, and sand was hitting the side of the car with incredible force. We finally came up to the reason for the slow down: on our two lane road, the sand had been blown into such a drift that a car had become stuck in it, leaving only one small lane for both directions to use. A single guy was pushing the car, so Matt and I parked ours right behind him and jumped out to help. Wow, did that sand hurt. We were being hit with it from every angle, but after a mere minute or two of pushing, the three of us got the car out of the sandy road. Matt and I hopped back in our car -- which was now also filled with sand, thanks to our opening the doors -- and traversed the sand bank ourselves. As we continued our drive, we kept finding sand in the worst places: our mouths, our inner ears, our arm hair. Matt had a bunch in his eyes. I don't know how I avoided that fate. However, we felt like we were getting some good karma. Also our skin will be quite soft from now on. The westernmost point in continental Europe was lovely, but again super windy. We only stayed for a few minutes to say we had been, then we hopped on the major highway and headed home. Now, we are here, eating some appetizers and planning the rest of our night. Maybe dinner and drinks?