Thursday, July 9th 2015. Sintra to Cascais. 25 km.

The shoe stuck. The road was well-paved and easy, through a pretty forest, with hardly any traffic. The weather was lovely. What is this, a vacation? There was one long uphill climb but we’re conditioned for it now. Gabriel kept saying “We are animals!” I thought he was saying “Where are the animals?” which was a good question cos there haven’t been very many this year. As we were climbing, a pick-up truck pulled over and motioned to us. I said: “What does he want?” 1) To tell us we’re not supposed to be on this road or 2) to offer us a ride for money. Nope. Neither. It was just to offer us a ride up the hill because he was nice (or planning to kill us. I can’t be absolutely sure because we didn’t take the ride). In less than 2 hours we were in Cascais at our hotel which was truly on the beach and beautiful. Like stunning.Gabriel, you win the hotel award this year. And–bonus–it has a balcony to hang clothes on because the truth is we’ve left every hotel room reeking like we killed something in it. (Well, the last one we left reeking of glue). Its not us exactly, we take showers every day. Its just so hard to keep up with the clothes. Never take laundry for granted! Something I’ve learned. Other things I’ve learned: 1) Never feel guilty about stealing from the breakfast buffet 2) You can fix anything with zip-ties and super-glue; 3) Ask directions. People like to help; 4) Make peace with the fact that you’re gonna fall on your ass. (Publicly and more than once).

Friday, July 10th and Saturday July 11th 2015. Cascais to Lisbon 42 km

Friday was another easy ride, except when Gabriel wiped out on his bike. But he’s fine, especially after being sweetly attended to by the pretty lady at the pharmacy in Lisbon who cleaned up the cut on his arm herself. Our last ride was mostly all along the ocean. It was flat! We got here in 2 hours. Lisbon is fun and bustling. Dennis Singletary flew in from Spain and met us for dinner at a restaurant called Fartas Brutas. (Brutal Farts). Now THAT’S a friend! And such a fun end to our trip. Oh, another thing I’ve learned. When the restaurant owner offers you that second complimentary glass of port after the meal: you CAN politely decline.And you should. You really probably should. This morning (Gabriel’s birthday), after several rousing cups of coffee, Gabriel got up and disassembled our bikes in preparation for our flight back to Barcelona tomorrow. Had to do it out on the street in the plaza cos there was no room in the hotel. That was yet another attraction for tourists to photograph apparently. Then we

walked around Lisbon, and met Dennis for lunch. More great company. More delicious food. No more delicious port, thanks. My flip-flop broke again on the way back from lunch today. But we’ve got the super-duper glue which should hold me over until I get back to the world of more footwear options. Gabriel is covered in cuts and my legs are covered in bruises from bumping the bike against them a few too many times but otherwise we are intact.  Tomorrow we’ll be back under the care and feeding of Dona Carmen for a day, then home.

Galicia to Lisbon, done. 🙂