Alex is flying back to Toronto from Lisbon today. Breakfast is so “dignified” here. Low voices, Formal settings and service. Might I say “stuffy”? A tremendous buffet breakfast. Years ago while travelling in a just opening up Greece I was starving most of the day particularly with such meagre breakfasts. This breakfast would have been a dream for me then. I particularly enjoyed the smoked salmon and vast selection of Portuguese cheeses. I love the fresh and tangy goat cheese we have eaten every morning. The yogurt is excellent and served in a little bottle jar with a higher fat content than we are accustomed to . A bit of heaven when you add honey to it. Andrew complained about the milk in his cereal being sour so no questions asked it was immediately replaced with a fresh pitcher of milk.
After breakfast we headed to Sintra in our dusty Megan. Sintra is up in the hills and heavily forested. Up to Castelo Mouro at the top of the hill with a spectacular view including the Atlantic coastline. The coolness and scent of the pine forest is refreshing. We headed back to the hotel and at 15:45 a gleaming blue Mercedes picked up Alex to take her to the airport for her return flight to Toronto. While Andrew was having a shower I took a walk in the neighbourhood. Narrow hilly streets with shops everywhere. I discovered a supermarket with an excellent selection of Portuguese wines and nothing but. Unlike Canada there seems a passion to promote local wines. Picked up a couple of bottles along with some Algarvian peaches and oranges. I walked in the local park facing the Estoril Casino. Plenty of palm trees at both ends with pools of murky water flowing into each other from the higher elevations near the casino. I found a couple of restaurants one offering Spigola (sea bass) or octopus for 15 Euros. Drove to nearby Cascais and sat in a massive fish auction almost like being a movie theatre. I believe the city purchases all the fish from the local fishermen and auctions them off. The streets were winding and unfortunately many trashy souvenir shops. Being tired from a long day stopped in a café for a coffee and a Sumol for Andrew. In the shadows of some construction project there were some weed transactions taking place. We found a little restaurant and Andrew wanting to try steak and eggs was delighted finally to tuck into the dish. Fotini and I had grilled fish. An excellent meal. Returned to hotel and watched a couple of music videos and crashed out. Without Alex around we don’t “party” like we used to.
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