Lisbon

Had a lovely evening last night at an original Tapas bar which has been in the one family for 5 generations. Sat with Shelley and Mark who are lovely travel companions, albeit from Melbourne, although in Shelley's defence she is originally an Adelaide girl! Then after dinner which consisted of much more food than I could eat, plus the essential Sangria pre dinner and then a couple of vino blancos with dinner, we then had an open carriage ride through the city back to our hotel which was a lovely way to end the evening. Back to our room at about 10 pm and then lights out.
Bags out at 7.30 for an 8.30 departure after breakfast. It is only going to be about 32 today in Lisbon, which is our destination but we have a long drive ahead of us. This will be the coolest day we've had since leaving home last week. The heat isn't stopping us from doing anything, but it is very tiring, especially on top of full on days touring.
Pretty drive through the countryside where our first stop is a visit to a large ham processing plant where the black Iberian pigs are bred especially for the famous Spanish hams. We did a tour through the plant which explained the very lengthy process they use for curing their jamon Iberian, which we call prosciutto. They kill between 200 and 300 pigs per day when the pigs are about 18 months old. The entire process can take about 3 years and then the legs are sold for something like 500 Euros each. If you are thinking of buying a leg then make sure you get a hind one as apparently they have the better meat and less fat. I really could have done without that visit and I think it was the first time it had been included, but I've been there and done that now.
Back on the coach and past ever changing scenery as we cross the border into Portugal. There are fields of sunflowers, then oak trees, cork trees and rice fields. Lunch at one of those horrible highway service rest stops where the staff don't speak English but with my very limited 3 lessons of on line Spanish and lots of pointing I ordered my chicken salad sandwich only to find that their idea of salad is only lettuce and a flat roll constitutes bread. However it was edible and I fared better than others. Poor Jo attempted to order the same as me and ended up with a ham, egg and salad baguette! Poor thing doesn't eat meat so we did some pulling out of non essentials as we ate. Back on the coach and finally into Lisbon to our hotel about 4 pm having turned back our clocks yet another hour when crossing the border. We've elected not to go to the optional dinner and folk music night so instead are resting up after a bit more hand washing and creating a Chinese laundry in the bathroom, along with the obligatory scotch (and for Gary's information, No we didn't have to resort to sucking spilled scotch out of our undies, there is still a bit left in the bottle) we will soon head downstairs to meet with Shelley and Mark before we hit the streets of Lisbon to find somewhere for dinner.
It has been another long day on the road so an early night will be in order. We are off to visit Sintra tomorrow in the morning after a walking tour of the city. 32 degrees forecast... Just perfect.