Portugal

=PORTUGAL - Lisbon= For a slight change of scenery we decided to head into Portugal for a couple of days and booked ourselves into Setubal, a fishing town about 30kms from Lisbon. Sarah was on her best behaviour and we managed to find the front of the hotel, with a parking space, without any hiccups. At first glance there appears little difference between the two countries, except for all the cork trees on the way in, but we have had our best meal since arrival. For lunch (2:30pm for we locals – cause the evening meal isn’t until 10pm, and of course breakfast is around 10am) we found a small outdoor eatery which grilled fresh fish on a bbq which sat on the pavement. Really fresh and lovely tasting fish (bit like a bream) with a fresh salad plus ½ litre of wine and even some veggies – also placed on the table whilst we awaited the cooking of the fish (you pick your own from the display) was a bowl of olives (as per usual), 6 large king prawns (cooked), some bread and sardine pate and a dish of salted, vinegary sardines and vegetables – we ate the prawns (very fresh and tasty), some olives, nibbles on the bread and I tried some of the sardines (hmmm, must be an acquired taste (esp eating the heads and all). All up the meal came to 20 Euros – a bit less than $40 – good value we thought and absolutely a great start to Portugal. We plan to eat out again tonight with more fish – the girl at the hotel advised us to have fish today as it won’t be fresh tomorrow (they don’t go out fishing on Sunday it seems). It has a Ramblas similar to large Spanish towns and of course, a few churches although not as imposing or as severe as most we saw in Espana, but we enjoyed a walk around the harbour with all the colourful fishing boats. Tomorrow we plan to take the train into Lisbon for a look around. Hopefully we will get the right train and also find our way back. Before we left Setubal we took a drive up to the castle/fotress above the town which guarded the river entrance. Impressive structure and great views!
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