First stop - Lisbon, Portugal...

While sitting wheelchair bound for 6 weeks, we started to explore a trip to look forward to and not be too strenuous after not walking or exercising for all that time. We also knew therapy was in my future. So to speed things along (at least in our minds) we spied a cruise in mid April. After a dreary winter of clouds, cold, and more clouds we needed a reprieve…

Having never been on a cruise before we settled on the Windstar Line. They are cruise ships that have 4 or 5 masts and sail as well as motor. The one we chose was the Wind Spirit. It had a total of 124 guests and sailed from Lisbon to Barcelona. We rounded up a few other couples from Koln and became known in the FedEx community as the over 50 cruise group. I don’t think that was a compliment from the young new hires!

Lisbon, Portugal

Bob and I flew into Lisbon a few days early so we would have time to explore Portugal a little. We spent a couple days in Lisbon where some of those dreary clouds followed us. By the time we headed out of the city and up the coast the sun began to show it’s face and stayed with us for the rest of our time! 

In Lisbon we strolled the streets, had dinner in the castle above the city, got lost a few times, and enjoyed being on the waterfront. One afternoon we took a train out to Cascais, a small fishing village and beach town. There we saw children getting their Optis ready for an afternoon of sailing (just like they do all summer on Barnegat Bay!), wandered on sidewalks made of black and white mosaics that make you a little seasick with the motion they invoked, and explored a pretty park where we came across a beautiful peacock that we stalked for quite a while. 

Castle up on a hill looking down over Lisbon

Statue in Cascais (This struck me like something I would see in my history books in school.)

     

We stalked this peacock for quite awhile and he put on quite a show for us. 

Castle at Obidos

View from our room in the castle

Obidos

The weather improved as we headed North and spent two nights in Obidos,  a small village still enclosed in a stone wall with a castle at the top.  We were fortunate enough to rest our heads there for two nights.  It was really an awesome spot and the coolest place to stay and explore.  

Kite Boarding

From Obidos we went to several towns on the Atlantic and put our toes in the sand and the sea.  We watched surfers, a very talented guy on a board attached to a kite, and stopped often along the Portuguese coast. It was both rocky, with forceful waves, and miles of sandy beaches which were still quite deserted. In Lisbon and Obidos there was seafood galore on the menus and in the markets, as the villages support themselves on fishing, and production of seafood products.  You can travel from town to town and find castles, churches, and monasteries along the way. All the areas we were in (including all of the cruise) have buildings and architecture that were influenced by the Moors followed by the Christians many, many years ago.

Sintra, Portugal