Two more words for today

---

The two words for today are hills and "chuva." I'll get to that in just a minute. But first . . . .
Wow! What a difference a good night's sleep can make. Our hosts here in Lisbon offered us a nice room with a nice, hard mattress (which we loved) and a small bathroom -- what a luxury when we are so accustomed to sleeping in a tent. We were both asleep by 9:30 last night and did not awaken until nearly 9 this morning. After breakfast with the family, we left Lady and the Tramp in the bedroom and headed out on foot for town. Probably a two mile walk or so -- that's where the hills come in. The steepest, narrowest, most labyrinthine cobblestone streets you've ever seen, lined on both sides with both residential buildings and small stores selling whatever the locals and the tourists might want.
Once in town, having forgotten our map and using pure instinct to get there, we found the Information office and eventually boarded a bus, which took us on a tour of the city complete with English commentary. That small bus took us up and down those hills and through neighborhoods that were oh-so-interesting.
Now comes the second word -- "chuva," which means rain in Portuguese. The clouds let loose, dropping their heavy load and turning the streets into streams. So, rather than disembark the bus, we kept riding it around till the rain stopped and we were able to walk back to our host's home.
Back to yesterday's word -- gastronomy. For lunch we ate at a McDonald's, comparing Portuguese hamburgers to those served in China -- decided that the European version is better than the US version, and everything is better than the Chinese version. Dinner was at a small cafe-type place in the middle of a beautiful park. We were thankful that the menu was written in both Portuguese and English and got a bit braver with our gastronomic choices, even ordered a typical native pastry for dessert.
Tomorrow -- it's on the road again.

---