Travel day today, our last main one before heading home. We left our hostel around 9 to walk to the train station for the urban train from Cascais to Lisbon. Once we got into Lisbon, we walked along the shoreline to the station that our train departs from to head north. We ended up meeting a really nice couple from Atlanta on the train. They have 2 girls that are similar age also now living on their own. Neighbours of theirs are doing home renovations, so they rented the neighbours their house for 8 months, and have gone traveling. They'll be in Porto for a month, so we might meet up this week. We got to Espinho, a sleepy beach town about a half hour before Porto. The apartment was a short walk from the train ... read more

The sun was back today, and we set out to explore Cascais. As we had already walked south along the waterfront, we decided to head east, towards Boca do Inferno (Hell's Mouth), which is a steep rocky cavern on the shoreline that spews out water when the seas are rough. There was a lovely walkway along the sea going there. We had brought along books, and stopped by some rocks along the way to enjoy the sunshine and read awhile, then continued on our way. Boca do Inferno is about a 30 min walk. There were quite a few people there, including some marine police, as well as a tv crew doing an interview with someone. We asked someone near us if they spoke English, and asked what had happened. Apparently a couple days before, someone ... read more

We woke early, gathered up our stuff and headed out. The train station was too far for walkkng, so we caught a taxi. We got there pretty early, but we had wanted to make sure we left enough time to find a ride. The train seats were spacious, and the ride was uneventful. We had to switch trains once arriving in Lisbon, and then after our train stop, we walked about 30 min to where we caught an urban train to Cascais. The walk was really nice, along the waterfront. We got the urban train and then followed google maps. For this stop, we have a private room at Ljmonade Eco Hostel. The hostel is very nice, it looks like maybe an old home that has been converted. We got settled, then went for a walk ... read more

Today in the afternoon, we headed out on our boat trip to the Benagil Caves. The coastline of the Algarve is beautiful lined with steep cliffs and lots of rocky outcroppings and caves. The area known as the Benagil Caves have caves opening to the ocean that are large enough for boats to go in. Our boat was like a large Zodiac, with 2 lines of seating, with each seat kind of like a motorcycle seat that you had to straddle, and handles on the seatback in front of you. There were about 20 people on our boat. Before going to the caves, we went to an area where dolphins are commonly sighted, and the boat stayed around for 20 minutes or so, so that everyone could watch the dolphins. Then we headed further up the ... read more

We both slept in today, til after 8. At around 9:30, I went for a short walk to find a sports store, as I hadn't thought to bring workout wear, and wanted to get some exercise clothes. When I got back, we did an exercise video, had lunch and headed out. We had thought about renting kayaks, but thought we'd wander around first. We ended up just walking everywhere, by the time we headed back to the river it was already late afternoon, so decided to skip the kayaking. Some beautiful spots around the city, and we got to watch some women dancing flamenco at Plaza de España. On the way home, we stopped at a little cafe for tapas and a drink. We took a bit of down time, and then headed back out for ... read more