Hitting the Hilights of Lisbon

 Went for a tiki tour of lisbon today.

Saw a few interesting ornaments.

Saw this. WTF!!!

Went to visit a monastery. 

Here's why you go with a tour, rather than just turn up. These people need to take a sun umbrella and lunch.

Quite nice inside, too. We only get to see the cloisters, as church was in use.

Popped into the monk's cafeteria

There are a couple of famous landmarks that you may feel don’t belong here. 

No, you’re not in Rio. 

And you’re not in San Francisco 

This guy was built by the same company that did the Golden Gate. The ABC. The American Bridge Company. 

Went off to a posh beachside town called Cascais

Discovered that many restaurants in this town don't do electronic payment. Certainly the two who sell the Portuguese chicken Sarah wanted.

As we had survived in Germany without needing a single euro in cash, we were hoping that our winning streak would continue.

Wrong!!

Despite being told that 97% of vendors in Portugal take electronic payment (with the obvious proviso for most street vendors), we weren't told that the remaining 3% are all in Cascais!

Luckily there are cash vending machines everywhere. Yeah not so fast...

The first one I tried, just next to a restaurant we were interested in (and recommended by the sign in the restaurant window) wasn't interested in either of my cards.

Went to another one over the road. It recognised my debit card, and was happy to tell me how many euros I had. It just wouldn't give me any.

Third time lucky?

I stood behind 2 other people using the 3rd machine. The first guy seemed to get rejected, so I didn't like my chances. The second guy was there for a minute, and came away without any cash. He may have just been moving money around. I didn't ask.

My turn comes, and the machine not only recognises my card, but it offers be a bland AND a withdrawal option. Phew.

Sarah's chicken is back on the menu. Here it is.

Their Peri Peri sauce is nothing like what she gets at Nando's. Seems to be flakes in oil.

                              

From there we went on to a place called Sintra. Up in the hills. There's a palace up there.

Took the road along the beach from Cascais towards Sintra. Unfortunately, there had been sand from the dunes to our right blown towards the ocean to our left, and had left residual over the road. This had caused a minor motorcycle accident. There were a couple of motorcyclists sitting on the side of the road looking sorry for themselves, a digger buzzing about scooping sand off the road and dumping it back over the fence, and assorted policemen stopping traffic in both directions.

Then an ambulance and a firetruck arrived. Everyone seemed to be old friends, because there was a lot of collegial hugs going around. Not a lot of clearing the road.

After more than 30 minutes waiting to be allowed through, our driver decided to back the truck up and turn around. He had to go back quite a distance, because this is a narrow coastal road and this is a long bus. Something to note about this bus. It must be hot off the press, because it has the new digital side mirrors. Our last one had the big ears that stick out on busses and trucks in NZ.

I had noticed these side mounted cameras on a couple of trucks in Germany.

I know that some of the flash EVs coming out have that option, but I'm not sure it's legal in NZ yet. 

Anyway, we eventually got to Sintra.

It's another one of those cute little towns with lots of busy streets and alleys going up and down in all directions.