Across Portugal powered by ice cream and Pastela de Nata

Setubal to Evora

Day 5 - Friday - June 17
We have decided that all graffiti artists around the world go to the same school . The tiger was a nice touch though.

Log truck Portuguese-style. We saw many, many loads of eucalyptus go by. It was our smell of the day. We even saw a mill. It was making chips but we aren't sure what they are doing with this pole-sized eucalyptus.

The other forest product that seems to be common here is cork. This bark is where your natural wine bottle corks start out.

Empada (pastry filled with pork), pastela de nata and ice tea are becoming staples for lunch with ice cream as a mid-morning snack.

We arrived in Montemor O Novo and were looking for a room. This guy just happened to have one 3 doors down from where he is standing. There is a very small sign just above his head. We were a bit skeptical but Donna went to check it out and.........

........hidden behind the plain door and up the stairs was this very nice suite at a very reasonable price. We said "Yes" and were very glad that we did. It had 2 nice little balconies where we could people watch with impunity, especially in the pasteleria across the street.

We had dinner at the Chinese restaurant down the street. This is what the pineapple and chicken dish looked like.  We are finding that the portions here are large and often we can share one dish between us.

Day 6 - Saturday - June 18 - Happy Birthday Jeanne Marie
The pasteleria across the street was also a great place for breakfast. Everyone in the place did their best to help us out with our language disability. It was a lot of fun.

About an hour on the road Donna noticed that her odometer was about to hit a milestone so she just had to take a picture.

This is the St. Sophia church. The village only had  2 streets and this church occupied most of one of them. Even this tiny  place had a cafe just around the corner. We didn't check it out.

We arrived in Evora just after noon. This wall was built by the Romans. First stop was the Turismo, a good place for information, a map and for looking for potential places to stay.

Pork is very popular as evidenced by this art display in the main plaza. It was popular with kids of all ages, including us.

Miss Piggy's rival??

The Cathedral of Evora......a relatively young building being only about 200 years old.

The "greeters"

Our sound of the day was the bells tolling 4pm. We could feel the reverberations for at least a minute after they stopped tolling.

Dad was trying to be helpful though he seemed to be making the wedding dress come apart in the process. We aren't sure how she and the other female guests are going to make it walking in very high and skinny heels on these cobblestone streets but they were sure teetering from everywhere for the ceremony.

Carriage rides are available if you tire of walking.

This is a typical street in the historic section of town. This part of Evora is a World Heritage site.

Day 7 - Sunday - June 19 - Happy Father's Day Doug
The Santa Clara Best Western. We were actually amazed that we had found it on the first try yesterday since street signs are hard to find and the entrance was so understated. The clerk had pretty decent English and was very patient with our questions about different words that we had found we needed.

Before leaving town, we took in the Roman Aqueduct. It runs for a couple of miles outside of town.

Sightseeing Lisbon

Wednesday - June 15 - Day 3
The internal time clock is shifting ever so slowly to Portugal time, at least we were at breakfast an hour earlier than yesterday. Then it was back to the mall where there just happened to be a supermarket on the bottom floor that we had totally missed yesterday......and they had Powerade! The mall is huge and an easy place to get lost. They ran water through the glass ceiling which had an interesting effect on the light.

The Vasco de Gama Tower and the Vasco de Gama Bridge, longest bridge in Europe.....no bikes allowed., thus our investigation of the ferries.  However, the waterfront is very oriented to pedestrians and bicycles and was home to the 1998 International Fair of Lisbon.

We had a 24 hour Metro pass so another bus ride took us towards the mouth of the Tagus River, just west of the "April 25th" Bridge. This is the Padrao dos Descobrimentos, which commemorates the 16th century Portuguese explorers and the starting point of their ships.

The Tower of Belem, iconic guardian of the mouth of the Tagus River and probably one of the most photographed spots in Lisbon.

It was quite well preserved with very thick walls and narrow spiral staircases that took us to the top of the upper towers.

The Palace of Belem, which is where the governor of the Tower of Belem had his headquarters. Must have been tough duty.

Thursday - June 16 - Day 4
The bike trip is really starting today. This was our first experience riding on cobblestones and we are already glad that we went with the 32mm tires. Most of the sidewalks and surface streets in Lisbon are paved this way. Also notice the nice bike path symbol, very permanent and unobtrusive.

This German gentleman, a fellow cyclist, engaged Doug in conversation almost before he unclipped from his pedals so Donna could take a picture. He has toured much of Europe by bike and was very encouraging and enthusiastic.

A couple from Michigan, of all places, took this picture for us. We are in the Praca do Comercio,  next to the historic center of the city. This building was much in the news the next day due some shake up in the government.

Another view of the plaza. There was a woman with 2 cats on a leash taking her rest on the steps of the statue that also wanted to talk to Doug. She talked, he listened but didn't understand a word but still comprehended her intent.

If there isn't shade then you import it. These tree pods were quite popular and portable.

Finally made it to the Cais de Sodre ferry terminal.....only took a couple of hours to go 5 miles! Actually we were really glad we were on bikes because our observation of Lisbon drivers matched their reputation for craziness. We were amazed that there weren't more dents in their vehicles though they are mostly much smaller cars than in the US. A Mini Cooper looks average here. Bikes can use the sidewalks and avoid most of this craziness so we felt pretty safe. Our timing was good as the ferry was leaving in 5 minutes.

Goodby Lisbon

Hello Cacilhas........and it was NOT uphill out of the ferry terminal which has been our experience on all the other ferries we've taken in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Into the unknown after a bite to eat at a little cafe.

 An old-growth olive tree.

The landscape as we headed south. So far only one missed turn but the GPS saved us before we went too far the wrong way.

The view from our room in the Hotel Laitau in Setubal. It looks like it will be a few days before we are able to camp but jet lag still isn't quite finished with us either.

Europe 2011 - Getting Started

Saturday - June 11 - Day minus 1
A big thank you to Cameron for coming down to Sweet Home to pick us up in his pride and joy, his big blue Mercedes Sprinter van. 

Sunday - June 12 - Day 0
Cameron, Meagan, and Megan treated us to breakfast, then dropped us off at the Portland Airport for leg 1 of our journey, PDX to Seattle leaving at 1:30 pm. It only took an hour to check in and get through security and most of that was Alaska Airlines trying to figure out how much to charge us for the bikes since they were our connection to Icelandair.

Leg 2 - Seattle to Reflavik, Iceland - It was a beautiful flight and because it is mid-June the sun never sets along this route. It made it hard to sleep though we did doze periodically as we zoomed through the time zones at 39,000 feet and lost a night.

Monday- June 13 - Day 1There was a video screen on the back of all the seats and one of the options besides TV and movies was information about Iceland and about the flight itself. It told us where we were and how long the rest of the flight would take - very helpful indeed. We landed in Iceland about 6:30am their time and it looked pretty chilly outside. Since this was considered our entry into the European Union, we had to go through security again and this is where they stamped our passports. It made the one hour layover go pretty darn quick. Fortunately it is a small airport so we had no trouble getting to our next gate in time for Leg 4, Iceland to Amsterdam. 

Once in Amsterdam, we left the international terminal with all our luggage, including the bike boxes, which we were relieved to see were still in one piece and in the same place we were. It was a bit of a challenge maneuvering the cart through all the doors between the international and domestic terminals! We had to check in again with Transavia (KLM's discount airline) for Leg 5, our flight from Amsterdam to Lisbon. Our bodies weren't really sure what time it was by now except that we had been mostly awake for a really long time, so we both promptly fell asleep before the airplane even left the ground and woke up when the tires hit the tarmac at the other end.

Lisbon at last! We called the hotel for the shuttle only to be informed that they had stopped running at 7:30 pm and it was now 8 pm. The nice man on the phone asked if a taxi would work but none of the ones we had seen so far looked big enough for the bike boxes. He said he would meet us in 5 minutes just outside the terminal which he did. He took one look at this pile of stuff and zoomed off again, coming back in about 10 minutes followed by a very large Mercedes van (how ironic). That worked! He gave us a ride in his sedan listening to Elvis Presley and asking about the NBA finals and was very pleased that he had been able to help us............so were we.

Tuesday - June 14 - Day 2
This was our day to get our act together as well as the bikes. We took a bus to the Vasco de Gama mall to successfully acquire a cell phone; look for white gas, not successful; check out the ferry terminal and schedules, successful. We also ate our first pastela de nata, a small pie with puff pastry crust and custard filling that is very tasty. Forgot to take the cameras with us since we thought of it as a business trip.