Portugal

The last three days here been busy and I have got behind with the blog. The last  night in Seville was  a Flamenco Show.  The stamina of the dancers is amazing. I really don’t understand the haughty foot stamping, hand waving etc, but it looked quite exhausting. A mini Carmen was performed, as a concession to foreigners I think, and that was really nice to watch.

Next morning we left for Portugal driving to Tavira for morning coffee. Here we had a walk along the river bank to a cafe which we just about took over. Philip arranged to give us tastings of the speciality of the region, a fig sweetmeat type of thing and little carob cakes.

Then we went on to our hotel for the night. We had opted to do the optional extra tour and found it quite tiring. First off we went to a headland, Ponta da Piedade. Robin found the walk hard going and turned back. The views of the sea and the craggy rocks were very good - i didn’t  get very near the edge. 

From there we went to the town of Lagos for a walk around and lunch. Finally we had views of the coast and a lovely beach from a old fort. 

We returned to the motel, booked in and collapsed for an hour or so before dinner in the restaurant with the rest of the tour. It was a pleasant meal and afterwards we stayed out on the river side talking to several other groups, watching the sun go down.  

Next day we drove to Lisbon via a stud farm for lunch and a demo of horses. It did rain on the way and was still raining when when we arrived at the thousand hectare farm, Monte Negro.  After a welcome drink of Spumante with vanilla we went into the dressage ring, for the owner to put several horses through their paces. 

Lunch was in part of the owners home. We sat in a pleasant room at a round table with Joey, Tom, and a family we had barely spoken to - Maddy was the daughter, can’t remember the parents name. 

Then it was onto the hotel in Lisbon but not to check in, just to use the bathrooms and head out on an orientation tour of the city. It is a pleasant city, very interesting buildings and attractive pavements. It was after five when we arrived back to access our rooms.  But we only had a short break for at 6:30 we were off again to a Fado Show and dinner.  I really enjoyed that and was glad we went. 

Tomorrow I will post pictures!