Most excellent tour guides

Yesterday morning Paulo and I went down to the river and did a little sightseeing and went for coffee and pastries. Every area has their own special pastry and they are all delicious. Luckily they are all fairly small, so eating just one with a bica (espresso) is OK. No "Supersize Me" portions (though they do have a lot of McDonalds here.) After that we drove out to the beach to see where their tri club does its open water swims. It was then to the bike shop to check it out.

Around noon Sergio and Klep picked me up and we drove up the coast to the marina at Cascais. We sat outside in the sun and enjoyed a very leisurely lunch of grilled fish, veggies and potatoes. We left Cascais and drove up to Sintra and stopped at the palace-Palacio Nacional de Pena. Built in the 1800s on the site of the ruins of a 16th century monastery, the rooms have been left as is after the royal family fled in the 1910 revolution. Pretty cool place and we also had a great view of the Castelo dos Mouros, which was built by the Moors.

On the drive back to Lisbon we again had another spectacular sunset. It was then time to have a coffee and do a little shopping before dinner. Post-dinner we went to the university to get on the internet. Can't do without that!