Thursday - 9 August 2018

We arrived at the waterfront area of Lisbon mid morning, after the 40min train journey from Cascais, and said goodbye to Teressa. We’ve had a brilliant ten days together.

First stop was the tourist information centre. We had had little spare time to read up about Lisbon so needed a map and an idea of a route to walk round the city. We’ve always just enjoyed walking round when we’ve been to large cities. After a coffee, studying the map, we set off, delighted at how inexpensive coffee was in a tourist trap cafe in the major square on the waterfront.

A tiny glove shop in the main shopping district

We first walked around the narrow cobbled streets of Alfama, dominated by the Moorish Castelo de Sao Jorge. Much remains as it was before the district was recaptured from the Moors in 1147. We stopped for lunch in a very small, unassuming cafe, when a very nervous young lady, who had a lovely smile, made us a piglet sandwich, a local speciality. It was rather rich for me, but tasty and I’m pleased I tried it.

We continued walking through further narrow streets until we hit the main shopping area and were tempted into buying some sports gear in the sale, as it was much cheaper than at home.

We then arrived at the parliament building and sat to rest in a shady park across the way. By now it was late afternoon, so we continued on to the train station to make our way back to Cascais. I think we had done a pretty good job of walking central Lisbon in the day.

When we arrived back in Cascais, the forecast gale was blowing. The wind was whistling through the rigging; we recorded gusts of 40 knots and were very happy to be tucked up in the marina. It is bazaar to us to be in a gale but with it still warm and sunny, with blue sky and no rain.

Distance covered today	0	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	1083	nautical miles
Distance covered 2018	1803	nautical miles
Tricia (and Steve)