The Castle on the Hill

On a hill on the outskir ts of the city is Sao Jorge Castelo (St. George's Castle). It is all but ruins now but has beautiful vistas of the city from many different angles. We took the tour of the Leonardo Da Vinci periscope. They have the mirrors aimed outside the castle and they pick up many areas of the city "Live"...you even see people hanging out their laundry and airplanes flying and ferries leaving...very cool. They used it at the castle until the earthquake/tsunami/fire of the city in November of 1755 (the earthquake caused the tsunami and the candles people used at night caused a huge fire)...the city was devastated. After a wonderful lunch in an outdoor cafe we tried finding the Port Institute (where you can taste test Port) but we didn't have our guide books with us and nobody seemed to know what we were talking about. We walked and walked through the "local" side of town...very enjoyable. Then Susie found a liquor store that was offering Port tastings so we joined right in. It is very sweet and you need to acquire a taste for it.

After all that, we decided a beach day was on call for the next day...Off to Cascais. A very touristy town and the beaches were crowded and a bit trashy but we enjoyed the sites and the sun anyway! (Look at the name of the Restaurant...Fatocatto...haha). On the way home from in the train we saw the USS Eisenhower...warship 69 out in the port. John looked it up online and it said they were returning from the Gulf. Had to include that photo too!!!