Albatroz Cascais

... had been designed for a World Expo in 1998. They whole area looks as beautifully fresh and scrubbed as if it was yesterday.

Our first stop was the Vasco de Gama mall. We walked all 3 floors and I had a great time buying a cute baby overall outfit for Carter and a few fresh pregnancy items for Adie. What fun to have them to shop for! We had bought some souvenir items yesterday in Obidos but these were a bit more personal. I ...

... a general history museum, ranging from ancient times to probably about the late 1800's, but I'm really glad we went because of the quality of the items on display. For example, usually in museums (at least the ones I've been to), there's all kinds of pieces of ceramics from blah, blah B.C. or a glass figurine, who's head had been broken off, from the Txing Dynasty (I made that up, in case you are wondering). However, here all of the ...

... The water of the bay and ocean is sparkling and blue. The yellow sand beach is surrounded by rocky cliffs and there are several surf spots within 10 km. It was a pleasant place to visit before we went on to our final European destination; Madrid.

... and have a drink. In my sleep-inebriated state I actually believed them and said I would go, but then one of them was like "Honey go back to sleep" and they all hugged me and left. I got up early to get breakfast and catch up my writing, but I didn't get much writing done. The number of people who somehow knew it was my birthday when I had only told a select few... yikes. Gabriel and I exchanged congratulations (it was Mexico's Independence Day) and of course the public announcement ...

... in movies. he spoke portuguese very badly and tried to speak to me in french. My resistance (or, must I say, lack of skill) made him quickly change his mind. I guess he was the embassator. The interviews were each one more rigid than the previous one. On this last one, the guy asked me things like how long I've been in Portugal, what have I been doing (studying, obviously!), how was I doing, When would I finish, etc. After this, he went back to his office, and we stood there waiting.

... valwinden van uit de bergen heeft het anker zich goed gehouden en als we opstaan is de zon al aanwezig. Vanaf deze zaterdag wordt het zomer verklaren we plechtig als we heerlijk in de kuip aan het ontbijten zijn. Ons terras heeft uitzicht over de oceaan, aan stuurboord het strand en aan bakboord het plaatsje Cascais. Het is een uur varen voor we in de monding van de Taag zijn en we moeten nog een tij-stopmaken omdat de uitstroom van de Taag nog even doorgaat. We laten het anker op 6.0 ...

... a day it was...very refreshing....I MISS MY BEACHES! Portugal reminded me a lot of Australia, similar trees/vegetation, with a lot of nature still around and still untouched/untouristy in some ways, close to the beach, some nice BIG sandy beaches unlike other parts of Europe and would be a much easier country to live in than Italy with infrastructure...shopping centres ...

... Totally ridiculous. The extra amount for the conditioner was over the top, I think it worked out to $5 Canadian. The whole bill ended up coming to 120 euros instead of the 60 euros we thought it was going to be! Convert that into Canadian dollars and we just paid $180 for two haircuts!!! We walked through a large public park while in Cascais. It was full of families enjoying their Sunday. Most shops and even a lot of restaurants close on Sunday. It is a real ...

... reason the island was so spectacularly green was the amount of rain. In 11 days it rained for 7 of them. We visited the abandoned light house in Capelinhos, which became redundant after a volcanic eruption in 1957 created a new landmass in front of it, requiring another light to be built on the new promontory that had added over two and a half square kilometers of landmass to the island. We took in the sights of elderly and crumpled houses that although had stood the test of time ...

... map and other data like speed, altitude, outside temperature, etc. As we pass over the coast we can see we are over Porto, Portugal, then travel about 50 miles north of Madrid. We fly just south of Barcelona over the Mediterranean and approach the runway. We are soon safely on the ground.