Our last adventure of this amazing holiday was a guided tour to Sintra. We were picked up by our guide, Rui Martin. We left our hotel early and we made the 45 minute drive to Sintra while Rui provided us with an orientation to Portugal and Lisbon as he drove us to Sintra and the Pena Palace. We approached the palace through the park created by King Fernando II surrounding the palace. This garden was a labour of love built with his own money. Fernando was the consort of Queen Maria II of Portugal. He was a wealthy German man and a friend of Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria. He was 18 when he married the sixteen year old Queen. She died giving birth to her 11th child at the age of 34.

Fernando bought Sintra, a ruined monastery, and several of the surrounding properties, including the ruined Moorish castle on a nearby hillside. He then took to building a romantic garden. His vision was a response to the rationalism of the French enlightenment. What this meant was he created a garden that had none of the geometric lines of, for example, the French palace of Versailles or the other formal gardens of the previous era.  Fernando created a garden of organic shapes with beautiful follies that reflected aspects of the ruined monastery he set out to restore.

Maria died in 1853 at the age of 34 during the birth of their 11th child. Seven years later, Fernando fell in love with a British/Swiss opera singer. The Portuguese aristocracy were not happy that he was in a relationship with a commoner, so the king of Belgium made her a countess and they were married in 1869. Together they continued to develop the properties, including a private chalet outside the palace. All this development was paid for out of Fernando’s own funds.

The Pina Palace started life as a monastery founded by King Manuel I. Apparently Manuel was a monstrous king. He expelled the Moors and the Jews from Portugal and started the Portuguese inquisition.  Rui was happy to see that Fernando was able to transform Manuel’s monastery, where wayward monks were sent as punishment for acting out.  The yellow stuccoed buildings are Fernando’s, the red stucco is the original monastery.

The main entrance to the inner palace was my favourite part of the castle. It was protected by Poseidon, God of the Sea and was filled with beautiful ceramic tiles.

We appreciated learning the full story of the palace as we walked through the deliberately wild gardens. The calm of the gardens was a juxtaposition to the chaos of the crowds of the palace itself. Rui encouraged us to focus on the exterior and the story rather than the internal trappings of the Victorian era. The one interior we did explore was the chapel, original to Manuel’s time. It survived the earthquake of 1755 and remained as it was with the exception of the stained glass window. If you look closely at the chapel window in the pane with the king in front of the chapel , you will see the modern stained glass window in the chapel.

We loved the walk around the outer walls and the view out to the sea. We looked out over the thousand year old Moorish castle from the palace walls. Castelo dos Mouros was build in the 10th century when Portugal was under Islamic rule. The Moors lived in the castle until 1147 when Afonso, the first king of Portugal reclaimed Lisbon and surrounding area. The king gave the Knights Templar the charter to manage the area in 1154. We didn’t have time to look inside the castle, but it looked like a great place to explore next time we are near.

We then descended back into the lines of people, the chaos of cars and then back into the garden for a stroll back to the van. We had lunch in Sintra village before hitting the road to find the most westerly point of continental Europe. It was weird to look over the ocean and think that the next port is Washington DC. The seashore was windy but worth the need to hang onto our hats.

We drove back to Lisbon via  the Portuguese Riviera. It was lovely to see the Portuguese version of Banff. Salazar, the Portuguese dictator until 1974, kept Portugal neutral during WWII. This allowed him to curry favour  with both sides of the conflict. Portugal, and especially this seaside resort, became an ideal place for spies to gather. Ian Fleming is said to have been inspired to create James Bond from this activity in this community.

We spent our last evening at a local Portuguese restaurant across the street from our hotel. The host directed us to a reserved table as if he had been waiting for us. He spoke no English and, as we engaged in pointing and pantomime to express our choices, he was clear that we could only order the small sizes on the menu, no matter how hungry we felt. He was correct, the food was plentiful and authentically Portuguese. The wine was excellent as we happily brought our Portuguese adventure to an end.

We left our ship and were transported to the train station where we caught the train to Lisbon. The trip took approximately 3 hours. We caught glimpses of the ocean and sped through small villages. The countryside was pretty dry and fairly boring so, it was a good time for a bit of relaxation. We navigated the Lisbon train station easily and made good time getting to our hotel.

The Alegria is a lovely, century-old building (circa 1870’s) adjacent to a quiet park. It was a few steps from the main avenue, lined with every high end fashion outlet you could imagine. We strolled up and down the avenue  admiring the offerings of street vendors set up all down the mosaic tiled sidewalks.

Lisbon was destroyed in 1755, first by the earthquake and then by the subsequent tsunami. The rebuilding focused on moving into future rather than rebuilding the past. As a result, the city was rebuilt with wide avenues and large squares. The mosaic cobblestones are a distinctive part of the cityscape and added a lot to the ambiance of the city.

Lisbon is built over 7 hills, so walking always involves as much up as down. We took a hop-on-hop off tour of the city to get our bearings. We split up and while some of us went exploring shopping options, Dale and I took the funicular up to a promenade overlooking the city.

We then wandered back to our hotel only to encounter a swing jazz ensemble in the park outside the hotel. It was magical to sip cold beer, sit in the shade, avoid the 30 degree heat and listen to great live music on a Sunday afternoon. Dancers from a local dance school showed their moves despite the heat. It was a good day. We finished the day with a delicious meal of Indian food a few doors down from the park.

The last day of our cruise took us back into Porto. We were grateful for another day to explore this city. We spent the morning shopping and found ourselves in a delightful shop specializing in cork products.

After lunch we took the trolley out to the Atlantic Ocean. This delightful 20 minute long ride took us along the Douro river to the sea.

We enjoyed walking along the piers and watching the waves crash against the rocks.

We returned to the ship and they took us for a bit of a cruise before serving us our last dinner on board.

Lamego is a small town with a big shrine. There was a roman settlement here and an early adopter of Christianity (570AD). There is a castle and a cathedral but most people come to see the shrine and church of Our Lady of Remedies. The church was started in 1761 and finished in 1905. It is built on a hill high above the town.

There is a fountain outside that is said to have healing waters. People come from far around just to fill up bottles with this good-for-you stuff. We filled our water bottle and had a very healthy day.

The church was beautiful inside.

Despite the beauty of the church, most people are in awe of the 686 steps linking 9 terraces leading down to the town. The stairway is a setting for the stations of the cross and encourages pilgrims to reflect and meditate at each station. However, my hunch is that now there is less meditation and more of a focus on the physicality of making the trek either up or down the stairs.

We spent some time wandering this quaint village and explored the local farmer’s market. The focus was on the practical rather than the touristic. There were many stalls with vegetables and plants, as well as bunnies and a variety of chickens and other birds.

There was an option for people on the tour to skip the town and go visit the other important site at Lamego, the Mateus Palace. many of my generation will recall Mateus wine, a sweet concoction that convinced many of us in our youth, that wine was not a good binging beverage. The palace is still owned and occupied by the Mateus family. The prize our group won at the trivia night later on this day was a bottle of Mateus wine. It was much better than I remembered, but still I had no need to buy some to bring home.

The Coa Valley

Imagine if you will, a major dam project has been approved and the construction work is in full force when 20-30,000 year old rock carvings, dating back to the last ice age, are found. They dated the carvings by using a variety of techniques including one where they could measure the last time a soil layer has been exposed to sunlight. Work halted while archeologists explored the finds. Hundreds of carvings over the valley slated for flooding were found. Initially the dam construction continued but as word spread of the uniqueness of the carvings and their historical significance, the world responded. Local high school students protested the building of the dam and a new government stopped the project permanently in 1995. The valley was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1998. The valley is now a 50,000 acre archeological park where there are new finds discovered constantly. Our guide explained that the microclimate created by the valley geography made the area significantly warmer than the surrounding area during the last ice age, making it easier for upper palaeolithic people to live and survive.

There are two types of carving techniques seen on the rocks. Often the drawings are overlapping. The older carvings were created with fainter scratches done with flint. There are no flint sources for at least 400 km so it was clear that these nomadic people travelled and traded. The newer markings were done with quartz and are heavier, with the outlines of the animals easier to see. It wasn’t clear to our guide why the carvings were overlapping or why, with so much rock to choose from, the artists kept coming back to the same spots, sometimes over a 1000 year period. Some of the carvings were large enough (and originally likely painted) to be seen from afar, even from the other side of the river.

The river valley was steep and it was challenging walking on uneven ground to see these amazing artefacts of early human life, but well worth the effort. It is clear that art, and the representation of life has been, and continues to be, an important aspect of human existence. Our guide didn’t pretend to understand what message was being conveyed by the drawings. He noted that the same style of drawing has been found around the world. Typically, the drawings reflect the major animals of the area, in this case boar, goat, bovines and horses. We were sad that our tour made us choose between seeing the museum about the valley or the actual carvings. The whole site is fascinating.

The flora in Portugal has been interesting. In addition to olive and almond trees we came across both wild and cultivated pistachio trees next to each other.

We had a wonderful lunch back on the boat followed by a cocktail making workshop using port wine. I had never thought about mixing port but we have come to appreciate how refreshing they can be. For example, one cocktail included white port, passion fruit juice and Lime juice. another included pink port, lemon, ice and tonic water.

Our evening activity was a visit to a port wine cellar. We watched a group of men stomping grapes the old fashion way. They continue to stomp the grapes because attempts at mechanical methods tended to crush the grape seeds and this altered the taste of the wine. People from the community participate in the annual crushing process every year, primarily for extra money and the party. We had a delicious dinner in the wine cellar surrounded by huge barrels of aging wine. We bought one bottle of wine at the cellar but 2 bottles of olive oil. We checked and found that we can buy white, pink, ruby and tawny port in Alberta so we figured we’d avoid the overweight luggage charges and stock up in Edmonton.

We got up early and started the two hour journey to Salamanca, Spain. this city is a UNESCO world heritage site and is mostly known as a university city. 1 out of every 5 of the 150,000 inhabitants in town is a university student. The university was founded in 1218 and is one of the oldest universities in Europe in continuous operation. We started our visit to this town with a trip to the market and a tasting of the local ham and cheese.

We then visited the historic centre where there was a dress rehearsal happening in the town square for a ceremony honouring police. There were police from a variety of sectors all looking pretty ready for the rehearsal to end.

Salamanca is on the pilgrim’s route to Santiago de Compostela. There is a lovely building built in 1514, covered in shells, the symbol of Santiago. Initially, when I heard about the decorations, I envisioned tacky small shells covering the walls. The reality was much nicer. You can find shells imprinted into the sidewalks through many centres in Portugal, indicating to pilgrims that they are on the right road.

Salamanca has two adjoining cathedrals. We explored the new one first. It was started in 1513 and finished in 1733, a few years before the earthquake shook its foundations. You can still see the cracks. The new one was built due to the growth of the town and the university. A more recent restoration of the new cathedral’s front decoration had some modern additions. The restorer included an astronaut and a dragon holding an ice cream cone. Does it look like he is holding ice cream to you?

The old cathedral was started in the early 1100s and finished in the 1300s. The old cathedral was also the home of the early university. Students sat on the floor of the chapels to study. The poorer students tended to have the early classes in order to warm up the old stone chapels for the richer students.

University students have some unusual rituals. New students were encouraged to look for the frog on the Façade. It was hard to find but if you look closely you will see it is on one of the skulls midway up the frieze. Finding it was said to bring good luck. The frog is now something of a town mascot and cartoon frogs are sold everywhere. Another example, in earlier times PhD students would spend the night before their defence alone with their books and a candle in a chapel. The next morning they would have their exam. If they passed they left through the jubilation door and went on to celebrate with family and friends. If they failed they went out the back door and were pelted with rotten fruit and vegetables by those same people. Victorious students would also paint a victory sign along with their names on the walls of the university using a mixture of bulls blood, olive oil and paprika.

Students in medieval times (13th C) sometimes found it hard to afford their studies. The tradition of students performing folk music for food or money for housing began. the tradition continues, but now the Tuna bands play to raise funds for travel or partying. We had a great time being entertained by a Tuna of medical students in traditional costumes playing traditional instruments before heading back for a quiet evening on the boat.

Today was a day to explore Portugal’s origins and influence on the world. We started out with our guides, Jose and Ricardo who took us to two delightful historical towns. The Roman influence is still felt in Portugal, both in the language and the communities.

Both Braga and Guimaraes figure prominently in the establishment of Portugal as a country. The first king of Portugal, Alfonso I, was a child (between 1 and 6 years old depending on who tells the story) when his father, a Duke of the County of Portugal, died. His widowed mother looked to improve her lot in life by marrying the most powerful lord in a neighbouring county. The nobles in Portugal didn’t approve and influenced Alfonso to challenge his mom for power. He listened and turned out to be a good leader, pushing back the Moors and winning a battle against his mom and sending her into exile (or a dungeon, depending upon who tells the story). Alfonso solidified his power by sucking up to the Pope, who in turn, supported him and named him King of Portugal in 1137. He is now known as Alfonso the conquerer. I share this story as it was the backdrop in everything we have seen so far.

Our first stop on the tour was the Dom Jesus do Monte Sanctuary. The steps climb 381 ft. Apparently, if looked at from a drone view, the statues form the shape of the holy grail. While the first chapel on the site was built around 1373 and was rebuilt as a pilgrimage site in 1629 dedicated to good Jesus and the passion of Christ. It has been renovated many times over the years with the current configuration dating from 1882.

One of the quirks of the site is an unusual train that takes people from the bottom of the hill to the top. It has run entirely on gravity since 1882. A train at the top has a tank that is filled with water. It then pulls the bottom train up as gravity pulls it down the hill.

The grounds of this sanctuary also included a number of residences that originally housed clergy and nuns. They have been converted to hotels now. Outside the church is a statue dedicated to the soldier who showed mercy to Jesus on the cross by killing him with his spear. He is considered to be the first “Roman” Catholic.

Next we drove into the town of Braga. Braga was founded by Caesar Augustus and is considered one of the first Christian cities in the world. We went to the Cathedral of Santa Maria, the first Portuguese Cathedral. The cathedral was built on the ruins of a Roman temple dedicated to Isis. The parents of Alfonso I are buried here. One way to know that this is an important church is by the crowns above the towers. (They actually look like spiders). The crowns show that the church was “crowned” by a pope. There was a huge competition between Braga and Compostella for the favour of Rome. Braga remains a favourite place to be buried for bishops and clergy from all over Portugal.

As we walked through town we kept seeing these hooded figurines on display. We learned that that they were the farricocos (the citizens who wore hooded cloaks to announce the coming of a convicted criminal by shouting out the crimes committed to the people of town. To attract attention they would shake black rattles. These figures walk through town during Holy Week processions basically announcing Jesus during the stations of the cross).

Our lunch in a local restaurant was delicious. We ate cod fritters, duck rice and a beef & bean stew. we drank local vinho verde “green wine” and relaxed. This regional wine is not a varietal grape but a process where the wine is released 3-6 months after the grapes are harvested. It can be red, white or rose. When young it can have a slight effervescence. So far we have tried the red and white, the white is much better to our palate.

After lunch we moved onto Guimaraes where we walked through the old city and viewed the impressive Duke’s palace. It was originally built in the early 14 hundreds and was lived in by successive dukes for 200 years. It then fell into ruin until it was restored in the early 1900’s. The palace was unique for the times. It had 39 chimneys (making it warm) and 200+ windows (making it bright). They also devised a system of collecting rainwater which helped, among other things, flush out the indoor toilet chambers. The refurbished castle was beautifully furnished with antique furniture and gorgeous tapestries.

One of the most interesting parts of the palace tour was the discussion of how a princess of Portugal changed the British world. Henry II of England married Catherine of Braganza, the daughter of the Portuguese king in 1662. She was Henry’s second wife. They married when he was 43 and she was 16. Catherine’s dowry was huge, approximately the equivalent of 360 million euros by today’s standards. She also came with the cities of Tangier and Bombay, as well as fur trading rights in the Indies. She basically helped build the British empire. (We learned that Bombay is a Portuguese word for Good Bay). After she became Queen of England she radically changed British ways of life. She introduced forks to the royal court, changed plates from metal to china, fans, smoking and high tea. Who knew!

We strolled through the old city of Guimaraes and followed some of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. The pilgrimage walk goes through the city despite the historical rivalry between Compostela and Guimaraes for papal privilege. The shells in the sidewalks lead the way.

Our last stop was the castle where Alfonso I defeated his mother Theresa at the battle of Sam Mamede in 1128. The castle is being restored but remains mainly in ruin. The parking lot is where the battle took place and is a national historic sight where battle re-enactments occur.

We returned to Porto and had a leisurely dinner at a very odd restaurant near our hotel. It served Indian, Turkish, Italian and American food. The waiter clearly favoured the curries, which were delicious. The nachos however turned out to be stale Doritos and ranch dip. We crashed.

Our Saturday was spent packing, briefly touring the way-expensive shopping district on Santa Catarina street and moving onto our cruise ship. We set sail tomorrow on the Douro river for the next week. We are excited and looking forward to the adventure.

Porto has been around a long time. The Celts were here 2005 years ago. then the Romans arrived. They stayed in control until the Barbarians took over. The Moors wrested control from them and were later expelled by King Alfonso I who declared Portugal and independent kingdom in 1143. We learned this in the first few minutes with Silva, our walking tour guide. He was a fountain of information as he guided us during our 2.5 hours walking tour. We also learned that Portugal and England have been formal allies since the Treaty of Windsor was signed in 1386. This is the oldest military alliance (637 years) in recorded history. This alliance was crucial for Portugal being able to resist being overtaken by Spain.

Porto rose to prominence in the mid 1700’s after a massive earthquake levelled Lisbon. Porto was unaffected and became a major shipping port. We also learned that Portugal was ruled by a fascist regime from 1930-1974. At the time of the revolution in 1974 (without bloodshed) only 25% of the Portuguese people were literate! Things have changed a great deal since then. Portugal joined the European Union in 1986 and have now got a much better standard of living. Tourism has given a significant boost to the economy but there is still room for lots of change. The average wage in Portugal is 1300 Euros per month and housing costs are very high due to the demand for lucrative short-term rental taking up the housing space.

Silva noted that in the relatively short time as a democracy, Portugal has implemented several progressive laws. For example, they decriminalized drug use, made abortion available and passed gender equity laws regarding same sex marriage and adoptions. We enjoyed getting these brief glimpses into Portuguese culture and history.

Our stating point was the Museum of Photography, a fascist era former prison that has been turned into a museum. Our first stop on the tour was a viewpoint overlooking the Douro river. We learned that the opposite side of the river, where we were yesterday, is another community called Gaia. Due to a better tax situation, all of the major port cellars are located in Gaia.

We moved back to the museum and crossed out of the medieval part of Porto. We passed through a park across from the court house. this statue in front of the courthouse represents Lady Justice. As you can see, she is holding a sword and scales, but is not blindfolded. This is because under the fascist regime, there was no pretence that justice was impartial and punishment was harsh and swift.

The park we walked through used to be the prison hanging and burial grounds. It is much more upbeat these days. We loved this sculpture of laughing old men, this is one of several sculptures in a series. A Spanish artist created the sculptures to capture the spirit of men enjoying themselves in the park, a tribute to their joy.

We continued on, through a street market to the twin churches. The first church (The Carmo with the dome was built in 1616 in the early Baroque style). The second church as built in 1756 in the late Baroque style (or Rocco). It was against the law for two churches to share a wall so the original “skinny house” was constructed between them. It also kept the nuns (Carmelita) and priests (Carmo) apart. While it was originally a home, it later became a place for secret meetings during the civil war and the fascist regime.

Our next stop was the Fonte dos Leoes, a fountain of griffins outside of the university administrative building. This is when Silva started the story about JK Rowling’s connection to Porto. She lived in Porto from 1991-93. Her husband at the time was from Porto. Rumour has it that several of her literary choices in the Harry Potter series were influenced by her Porto experiences. Apparently, she conceived of the outlines for all the books while in Porto and even began writing the Philosopher’s Stone there. It is thought that, for example, Diagon Alley’s bookstore was potentially inspired by the Livraria Lello near the churches. The university outfits I discussed yesterday may have inspired the Hogwarts student uniforms, the griffon statue inspired the Gryffindor logo and Salazar Slytherin May have been named after Antonio Salazar, Portugal’s dictator from1932-1968.

The Livraria Lello is a book store housed in a beautiful art nouveau building. Lello opened the store in 1881 and went through a number of changes in his business structures and the current building was constructed in 1906. Lello was apparently in dire financial straits in the early 1990’s until they connected the bookstore to JK Rowling’s books. So many people flocked to the store that they started charging admission. We didn’t go in because a) you need to buy a ticket in advance, I.e., 6€ for regular admission or 15€ for expedited admission. (Your ticket price is credited toward the price of a book) and b) the line up was super long. This connection saved the store. Recently, JK Rowling denied ever having been in the store, but people still line up for what has been called the most beautiful bookstore in the world.

Leaving Harry Potter behind, we continued our tour to the Clerigos Tower. Italian architect Nasoni built the church bell tower for free on the agreement that he would be buried anonymously in the church. The tower was completed in 1763 and stands 75 metres tall. If you climb all 225 stairs, you would get a wonderful 360 degree view of the city.

We put this on our “next time” list and continued on to the street where our hotel is on. It is called the Avenue of Allies and is anchored by Porto’s city hall. This was originally to be the centre of Porto’s financial district but that centre moved away from downtown and the avenue is filled with empty buildings. These buildings are being renovated and a new metro station is going in so hopefully the area will come back to life.

As we started towards the train station, we stopped at McDonalds for architectural purposes, no burgers were purchased. The building was originally the imperial cafe in the 1930’s and was restored for McDonalds in 1995. If you can ignore the restaurant electronic menus you can admire the intact art deco features including stained glass and original chandeliers.

The train station took our breath away as we entered the beautifully tiled main hall. This fully functioning San Bento train station was inaugurated in 1916. The walls are covered with 22,000 tiles depicting historical scenes from Portugal’s history and social life. One man, Jorge Colaco designed all the tiles.

We finished our tour at the cathedral overlooking the river harbour. It was hot and we struggled to the end before thanking our guide and going off to find chairs, food and wine. We succeeded, then did some shopping on our way back to the hotel.

After a bit of relaxation we were off to find supper. Our target was the famous local Francesinha sandwich. It was intimidating! It is a sandwich made of sausage, ham, steak, and cheese between two layers of bread smothered in gravy with a side of fries for dipping. It was delicious and we all entered a food coma as we finished our day.

Our travel to Portugal was fairly uneventful, only one flight delay of 90 minutes and our luggage arrived with us. We joined our group of friends at a delightful hotel in Porto where we are spending a few days before our cruise on the Douro River.

We started our day today with a walk by the Douro, both sides. To get to the river we walked through cobblestone streets, admired local goods in stores, not buying but promising we will come back before we leave. We also dodged construction as a new metro line is being installed. We noticed that Porto is a colourful city. There were murals on the several buildings as well as a ton of graffiti.

The buildings were beautiful as we made our way to the river. Many are covered in decorative ceramic tiles.

We strolled down the river walk and enjoyed a view of the boats and the walls by the harbour. For example, this tunnel through the harbour wall is the last remaining portal to the river pier built in 1386.

We enjoyed the colourful buildings, noticing the laundry and satellite dishes augmenting these older homes.

I noticed the Barcelos Rooster peering down on us as we walked. This rooster is the unofficial symbol of Portugal, symbolizing the Portuguese love of life. It arises from a 15th century legend where a poor pilgrim passing through Barcelona was arrested and sentenced to death. He swore his innocence to the judge who was eating his dinner during that plea. The judge lost his appetite after hearing from the man but still upheld the death sentence. Just as the hanging was to occur, the judge’s roasted rooster apparently stood up and crowed. The judge realized he had made a mistake and saved the pilgrim at the last moment. There are several permutations of this legend but the rooster is everywhere.

We crossed the river from Porto to Villa Nova de Gaia on the lower deck of the Pont Luis I bridge. This 2 deck bridge took 7 years to build and was finished in 1888. The engineer responsible for the bridge was a student of Gustav Eiffel. It replaced an older suspension bridge.

We strolled down from the bridge and had our first glass of Portuguese wine of the day at Quintado Nova. This vineyard has been in production since 1715. It was delicious. It was 27 degrees today and a cool glass went down nicely. We wandered further and encountered the Portuguese Experience. We were served a fried breaded cod cake filled with a delicious cheese and a glass of port wine. While we happily indulged, the organist preformed songs from Queen and Rihanna. It was delightful if not a bit odd. We got to keep our port glasses as souvenirs.

As we made our way to the cable car that would take us up to the high deck of the bridge for our walk home, we encountered a group of university students getting initiated into their first year. the first years are in yellow. The upper year students are in black suits with black wool capes. This is an annual ritual that is about bonding/mentoring more than hazing. They looked like they were having fun.

It was good to have the option of the Telefericode de Gaia (cable car gondola ride) to start the journey back to the hotel.

We finished our day with a delightful cocktail at our hotel bar (tawny port, strawberry, basil and tonic water with a dash of lime). It was a refreshing beverage at the end of a long, satisfying walk. We had incredible seafood for dinner, planned our walking tour for tomorrow and have called it a night.