Family affair in Lisbon

Ruth and I have been joined in Lisbon by our son, Michael.

Not counting cousin Bruce's clan, there are more Josems in Lisbon right now than there are in Melbourne.

There is an unqualified Josem pictured here, so don't get too excited.  Michael invited his friend Zoe along coz I suppose it could've been too intense for him to be all alone with Dad and Ruth.  (Zoe and Michael are not an item - just friends).

Now Zoe is friends with two more Josems - here she is with us on the train to Sintra, a resort town about 30Km West of Lisbon. It's popular with the tourists because it was popular with the Portuguese royals and aristocracy.  There are quite a number of national treasures in Sintra, but we are only there for a day, so we just caught the main ones. 

First port of call was the Castle of the Moors.  We quickly found a way to look like four dorks in a row.  These dorks were well protected from passing bows and arrows but not curious glances.

Poor Zoe didn't know what she was stepping into.

But we snapped out of that pose into another very quickly.

I'm not sure this sort of surprise defence is what the builders had in mind, but there certainly were a few tourists below who received a shock - they waited for us to get well out of range before venturing further.

Here's a photo looking out from the castle's ramparts - the haze made it difficult to present you with good pics.  This haze has been hanging around for our whole visit.  I think its humidity rather than caused by pollution or bush fires.

Here's another view looking at the base of the hill under the castle.  We're looking down on the National Palace - I think the steeples on this place inspired Madonna to invent that famous bra of hers.

Here's Ruth and Michael lagging behind me as I skipped along the ramparts.

My attempt at an artistic shot through an archway and into the distance where you can see another tower of the castle.

Looking out to the West, you can't see the Western most extremity of the European continent.  Below is Madonna's palace again.

The guy who architected Schloss van Neuschwanstein (the Disneyland fairy castle) apparently went wild here.  There must have been a dozen or more variances of his theme, displaying the wealth that was enjoyed by the aristocrats.  Here's just a little house down below that follows the theme.

And from the castle's ramparts we can see Pena Palace - we go there next (on foot because Dad was too mean to buy the shuttle bus ticket).

Here's a close up of the clock tower:

Here are a few snaps to give you an appreciation of the palace being of fairytale feel.  First, the entrance arch:

Here's a view of one of the terraces.  If you look carefully, you might find a Josem - one of the good-looking ones.

Inside the palace was a sloooow march through the rooms.  It was much worse than the palace at Versailles.  We crawled along with the multitudes looking at knickknacks - not my cup of tea at all.

And some twit was trying to push her way past me the whole way along (unsuccessfully - I know how to be a road hog as good as anyone). 

Maybe I just wasn't in the mood, but really... having all these old artefacts on display didn't do it for me.  I suppose that collecting authentic knickknacks to display in palaces tourists is an important job for someone.

Here's Ruth in the Queen's bedroom - her legs will need to hang out over the end I think.

Nice nude over the fireplace.  When I get home, I must arrange something similar in our lounge room.

Here's something actually interesting - If the King couldn't be bothered to attend the opera in Lisbon, he would listen to it by telephone.  The wall mounted telephone was installed specifically for this purpose.

So that was our day visiting Sintra with Michael and Zoe.  We returned to Lisbon, back in the crowded metropolis.

If you look hard you might see Michael and Ruth coming down the escalator with an interesting group of Lisbon citizens.  I suppose with the proximity to Africa, it explains why we noticed quite a large population of Africans.

A rest followed in preparation for an extravagant dinner at the Gambrinus restaurant - nice.

Here comes flaming crepe suzette:

An intense end to the day... I think I'm eating too much!