Rio Azul Tomar

... desserts and all this for 15 euros. The women got much thanks and a big tip as we left with our stomachs full and satisfied!

We decided to make our way to Tomar and do some more sightseeing before calling it a day but unfortunately when we got there what we wanted to see was closing. We got ourselves a campsite in the city so that we could go visit in the morning.

Arrived after a short uneventful journey. Campsite similar. Weather changeable.

Tourist sites do not always live up to the flowery language used in the brochures eg. "Musicological Nucleus of the Salt" turned out to be a Musee de Sel. We did not go.

The local beauty spots, like every where else, that we did go to were covered with ingrained litter.
We are moving on tomorrow.

... plastic bottles around the edges. They were obviously expecting stormy weather. They left great heaps of rubbish all over the site.

We visited Aveiro the nearest town which lived up to its publicity we took the one photograph of their famous boats which was all the brochure had to offer.

We have become a novelty attraction as there are no other British around. After the activities of the weekend we moved on.

... looked like there was no order to the waves and they were crashing all over the place. The sea looked angry that day my friends. The next day, we spotted some surfers and set out to rent some boards but all the surf shops were closed (because all the owners were out surfing). The super cheap ghetto tourist shops that sell **** were open, so we opted for 2 hardcore boogie boards ...

... equal measure) or the landing outside our room.

Once we'd settled in (thrown the rucksacks on the bed) we made it our business to seek out the sights. Virg was chomping at the bit to see the convent (she has a thing about convents), but as it was 35 degrees and up a bloody big hill we agreed that we'd wait to go up first thing one morning to make the most of the cool(er) bit of the day. That left a few cafes and cake ...

Day 4 – 25/12/08

LISBON-EVORA-ALCOBACA-B ATALHA-FATIMA-COIMBRA

We left early after breakfast. The GPS proved to be blessing for 'wrong' drivers like me. As it was Christmas there was less traffic on the roads & we had a smooth drive to Evora. There we saw the Roman Temple, the church & the Chapel of St.Francis. The sleepy town had narrow lanes ...

... for them. When we got up to the castle they were shooed away by the locals there. About this time Ally started vomiting over the edge of the castle walls. She decided she and Erik should head back to the hotel where she could barf a little more comfortably. Me and the other girls went into the castle-monastery which was remarkable. It is a massive monastery and the church was very impressive but of course you weren't allowed to take pictures in the church. You could ...

... portion of town. Here the streets are extremely narrow and cobbled. Our pension is on a one-way street, the opposite way of course. We eventually wend our way through torturous lanes to the front door. We unload, and the owner directs to possible parking a few blocks from the building. Finding a spot, I manage to squeeze the car into the diminutive vacancy. Casa Pombal is very much a Pigeon House. We enter the main door and ...

... by grateful European monarchs with vast tracts of land and entitlements to crops and rentals. Less than a hundred years later they had become an uncomfortably strong political force, making potentates and pontiffs alike nervous. A papal suppression required their disbanding in 1314. However, in Portugal, they were calmly reconstituted as the Order of Christ by Portuguese king Dom Dinis. Their headquarters, as the Templars and the Christos, was at Tomar. Convento ...

Hello...

I'm in Portugal now. Last I wrote was in Toledo, I think...I took a night train to Lisbon, where I stayed for one night. It's nice, as far as big cities go, but it's a big city. It's very diverse and the people are real laid back.

After that I went to Sintra, just west of Lisbon. It's a little town in the mountains. Lots of shade, green, and fresh air. I spent many more days there than I planned to. The first night I arrived ...