Wow, a month gone by. What happened?

It’s Tuesday morning here in Lisbon and its our LAST day in Portugal; we fly home tomorrow.

It’s been a great trip and it’s hard to believe that a month has gone by since landing here in mid October.  Yes, we are certainly living in a different lifetime from when I was working when we measured vacations in increments of weeks or most often, days.  I have to say that I am liking this lifetime.  Yes, I like it a lot.

As a cap off to our trip Brenda’s old friend Leslie from England flew down to spend a 24 hour whirlwind visit with us on Sunday.  Although they had not seen each other in seven years, they struck up again as if it had only been a month; two girls having a great time, with a token male in tow.

This photo just about says it all.  Happy friends, in the rain.We walked all over Lisbon, in the rain, (It was, in case the umbrellas didn’t tip you off.) for the entire day yesterday and drank our share of wine.  We are in Portugal aren’t we?  Remember that they say “if it’s a meal without wine, it must be breakfast”.  Yes, that has worked for us.   I will say that the “girls” somehow managed to cover days of talking in just a bit longer than 24 hours and it was a lot of fun to watch them together and they did their best to make me feel part of the conversation.  It’s a good thing that I am firmly in touch with my “feminine side”.

We went out for a terrific lunch in an overpriced tourist restaurant and I had octopus, the best yet.  Yum…  Brenda didn’t want a taste at all.  She isn’t too fond of the “sucker thing”.   Good.  No need to share anyway. How about that pool of olive oil it was served in? Yes, that’s Portuguese cooking.  Lots of olive oil used here.  Fabulous.

We walked much of the day, rain or not, like the three tourists that we were.   Along the way we stopped for coffee to dry off.  It was very nice day.

Lisbon looks wonderful in the rain from under the big umbrellas at the sidewalk cafes.  Notice the intricate tile work on the sidewalk.   That sort of detail work is all over Portugal.  I particularly enjoy the contrast of old and new, especially when they are perfectly color coordinated like the trolley and building.   Love the little motorized carriages.  Everything looks so clean and new, well not new exactly, but it looks great in the rain.  Lisbon is a remarkably clean city, actually. It’s going to be tough to leave Portugal as we have had so much fun here during our visit.  However, I am very much looking forward to being home again, at least for a bit, until we rejoin Pandora for the winter in Florida.  I hear it’s near freezing in CT.  And the lawn.  Well, I don’t want to think about that today…

Brenda and Leslie were very gracious when I muscled myself between them and asked for a photo moment.  Nice picture I think.  Well, I had better wrap this up as it’s our last day in Portugal and time’s a wasting.   We are tourists after all, and even though we have been here a month, THERE’S ONLY ONE MORE DAY and tourists don’t waste a moment.

Off we go.