Day 3

On our third day, we rose early to prepare for our departure from Casa do Forno. We had another yummy breakfast of bread, coffee, and fresh-squeezed orange juice at the table under the olive tree in the beautiful cool, crisp air. I found it hard to believe that a morning that starts so brisk becomes SO hot, but sure enough, once the sun hits, it warms up quickly.

We left our new friends and set out for Lisbon, where we intended to spend the day. The drive was about half country roads and half highway. We stopped for gas on the highway and had an amusing time trying to figure out how to use our credit card. The pay-at-the-pump feature wanted a PIN (which I'm sure we have, but I sure don't know!), so we needed to determine how to pay without that, but also without disabling our card for too many bad attempts. The attendant didn't speak any English, so at the time, it didn't feel as funny as it seems now. Luckily, things started to fall into place once I realized the Portuguese verb for "to pay" is the same as Spanish and we were allowed to pay after pumping. Funny how the simple things can become so problematic!

Once we found our hotel in Lisbon, we were determined to find the closest McDonalds. Since Chris is so finicky, he hadn't been eating much the first few days. We've found that when we're traveling with the boys, it's best to make some compromises when it comes to food, so we told them that when we arrived in Lisbon, we would search out McD's. As it turns out, the closest one was in the zoo! We hadn't planned on going to the zoo, but since it was only about a 1.5 mile walk, we set out to go!

We found it pretty easily, but so did the rest of the zoo, it seemed! I went and found a table while John stood in line. This McD's was pretty interesting because it was surrounded by the crocodile habitat. Here's one of our lunch companions:



This picture completely cracks me up - Will is determined to ignore his lunch companion! You can also see in this picture John's new found love of Portuguese McDonald's - the McBeer! (As he put it, "This sure would have made all those toddler birthday parties a lot more tolerant!")



The gorgeous tile that Portugal is so well-known for is everywhere! Here's the boys with some:



After lunch, we went back to the hotel for a swim and general R&R (we were all quite tired after our day at the park). After our rest, we took a taxi to one of the older sections of Lisbon (taxis were a great deal in Lisbon!). Here are a few shots that I snapped:












We found the Hard Rock Cafe and decided to have dinner there. Another place to make sure Chris actually ate! ;)



After dinner, we continued exploring. We were hoping to find a little cafe that was having some Fado music (explained HERE). As luck would have it, we did find one, and it was a fantastic little place - just take a look at this ceiling! I didn't take any pictures of the performers out of respect to them (with the flash), but it was really wonderful to see. It was one of the things John most wanted to do while in Lisbon, so I'm glad that it worked out.


After, we grabbed a taxi back to our hotel - we were all very tired by that point! I did manage to snap this picture of one of the old street cars; it gives a nice idea of the streets in the old section.



Thanks for stopping by to check what we were up to!