Lisbon

We spent the last two days in Lisbon but stayed in a hotel just outside in a small suburb called Loures. The hotel property was filled with citrus trees and we ate our fill of oranges and greatly admired the lemons. We dined in a Chinese restaurant both nights before our departure which was a pleasant change.

On Thursday, we drove into Lisbon and I conducted a walking tour of the Monastery of Jeronimos and the Ajuda Palace. In the Monastery are the graves of Vasco da Gama and Prince Henry, the Navigator. The palace was once the royal palace and now houses the Ajuda library. We didn't know how far the palace was but the hike kept us warm and it was down hill all the way back so much easier going.

We had a picnic lunch in the park where we met a Canadian soldier who was backpacking through Europe. Right across was the River Tejo and the Monument to the Discoveries which was designed to commemorate the Age of Discoveries; the central figure is Prince Henry the Navigator, who founded the Sagres School and was the pioneer of the great discoveries made by Portugal.

Although it was a nice day, 20 degrees Celsius with sun, cloud and rain, we just never warmed up and were first in line the next morning to drop off our rental car and get on that plane home.

Antonio Pinto's house

Here are some photos of John's friend, Antonio Pinto's, house where we stayed. Adelie and Chico hosted a BBQ for us and a bunch of their friends. In one of the pictures, you'll see the local padre has stopped in to say hello to us. Another photo shows the wine vines strung up over the driveway. Unfortunately they are looking poorly due to all the rain. They make their own red and white wine and last years wine was just fine so we're in good shape for tasting.

A picture of the beautiful creek shows the rushing water that is just below their house.

North to Amarante

We spent 3 days in Amarante visiting friends and touring the city. The weather here was quite miserable; cold and raining however the city was lit up beautifully at night and our walks through town kept us from freezing. Look at our large group that walked through town one evening to see the lights. Adeli, Chico and their daughter Bia have a large number of friends and on most evenings, after their dinner, walk together for a couple of hours or so. Ambitious bunch.

Hanging out at the Club

Here are some shots of the boys with their friends; us visiting Brian and Sharon, Fred and Mary at their apartment; a view of the large pool from their balcony; and Andrew with staff member, Bruno. It actually looks sunny in a few of these pictures. This will be a fond memory as we move to the cooler north.

Brazilian Night

We all had a fun evening watching the Brazilian dancers and because our table of 8 was right next to them, many of us were seconded to dance as well. Look at that hair fly!

Hiking the cliffs to old town Albufeira

Here are a few pictures of us hiking the hills to Albufeira from our club. It's always fun to climb and the boys remembered this from years past.

One of the pictures is a look back towards our club. The cactus and other lovely flowers are in bloom along the way.

Boys in the Pool , Gardens and sea at CPO

From the lobby in the club you can view folks in the swimming pool; well, mainly their legs. However, I asked the boys to swim down so I could recreate a few of the pictures we did 4 years ago. They also posed for me with their friends and the children's statue.

Portugal in May

Well, the Gallant family vacationed in Portugal for the month of May. We spent three weeks at our timeshare in Albufeira at Clube Praira da Oura in the Algarve. The last picture is a view from our apartment out to the sea.

The word Algarve is derived from the Arabic Al-Gharb, meaning West. This is Portugal's southern most province. For a period of two weeks we were joined by our friends Brian and Sharon, from Kelowna, and Fred and Mary, from Calgary/Costa Rica. Although the weather did not cooperate - one of the worst springs on record - we did manage to have a good time.

Here are a few pictures of us touring out to the west coast to see the furthest tip Cape de San Vicente and then some pictures of our tour east to Faro where we visited one of the old cathedrals (where the storks nest) and the surrounding old palace full of orange trees. Look at the one shrine done in skeletons. There is also a chapel of bones (Carmo Church) which we did not visit. The purple flowering trees were really spectacular which the pictures don't really do justice to.

We visited Silves which is a very old town formerly the capital of the Algarve. Here there is a wonderful old cathedral (Se) and Moorish Castle with a huge cistern. Much of it is being reconstructed (interior) so basically you just walk on the inner ramparts and take in the surrounding views. Eventually they will have reconstructed some of the inner spaces and of course a "coffee" house for tourists to dispose of a few more euros!

For our last week, we ventured to northern Portugal, to a town called Amarante where we visited some friends. There was no heat in the house here and it was a mere 9 degrees celsius when we arrived. Considering we have little to no warm clothing I, particularly, was a frozen popsicle! The incessant rain has ruined their cherry crops and the wine vines don't look too healthy either! This is more serious in my opinion. As always we consoled ourselves with the national green wine (vinho verde), port wine, pate and delicious varieties of cheese. You can never go wrong here.

I made the boys go in the pool at the club because four years ago when we were there we lost our camera on the way home and have no pictures; therefore I made them recreate many of the scenarios from before. I just love the one of them holding hands with the children statue. They were most cooperative for their mother!

Our routing took us on a night flight from San Jose to Madrid with a small layover and then a short flight of one hour to Lisbon. Here we rented a car and drove down to the Algarve. The highways are a dream especially coming straight from Costa Rica however they are toll highways and we spent half the amount on tolls as gas.

We had various adventures this month including an incident with the Manager of the Club; the Portugal police and our sons in regards to a wrongful accusation of theft from the video arcade. The boys were out of their minds with worry that day considering it was the only day we left them by themselves and we were not around for all this excitement. John had offered, or I seconded him - can't remember which, to drive the ladies around to shop for pottery. Needless to say when we arrived home and the boys were full of tales about theft and the police; we were invited to visit the manager. What fun! Anyway, it was all a big mistake and along with their apologies we and our entire group were invited to a lovely theme evening - Brasilian night. Wait till you see those pictures!

The next excitement was that I lost my watch - not serious but annoying and last but not least we discovered my VISA number had been compromised. Keep in mind, I still had the card but the happy thief was busy charging up delights such as i pod tunes, development software, yahoo voice and of course, an escort service. Charming! Luckily, John's number was not compromised and they were able to reinstate his number so it was easier to finish the trip without a lot of hassle going to banks, etc. So, these adventures along with my chattering teeth ensured I was the first one to the boarding gate to go home.

When we landed in San Jose, the sun was shining and of course we were so warm and then our friends told us how we had just missed 8 days of solid rain and the worst tropical storm (Alma) in 120 years. Real sorry we missed that! We got in on the clean up at home so didn't get out of it entirely.

Anyway, we are back home catching up on "stuff" and will be back to Canada July 27th.