Sintra & Lagos, Portugal

We chose contrasting places for our first visit to Portugal.

Sintra, a green hilly Northern town near Lisbon with a small tourist centre and several amazing historic castles and palaces. The Quinta da Regaleira was a good choice; we had breakfast at a roadside inn and walked up there passed the line of public art sculptures. Decided to spend the day exploring the house and the grounds which were full of masonic references. The best part was going through the underground tunnels to the submerged tower which was supposed to represent the ascent from earth to heaven. Spooky, but we could have played for days.

We caught the train from Sintra to Lagos and, on the way, met David and Kate from Sydney. They provided good company and the five or so hours went quickly. The whiteness of the town was my first impression. The marina was bright with fluttering flags on small boats, and the tourists (mostly English) were traipsing up and down the long line of shops. We couldn't find a map so we got a taxi up through the strip of town to our hilltop motel which was pink on the outside and lined with tiles on the inside. We walked to the beach the next day but it was too breezy to really enjoy, so we went in search of our Aussie friends and had quite a few beers instead. The next night we wandered around the old town centre and felt sorry for the local tourist trade which seemed to be suffering from a reduction in numbers for this time of year. We watched a World Cup game in the square.

The night before we left we went to a restaurant and had grilled sole and fried squid (a whole one!). The owners wife turned out to be a Kiwi, Karen from Hastings. We chatted for hours then ambled home, happy to have discovered Lagos - but determined to return to Sintra one day.

Lizzie

Bergerac

We arrived from Paris via Bordeaux feeling a bit jaded as the past week had caught up with us. In Paris for the first two days we walked a great deal and got caught in several showers, but it was worth it, especially the Musee D'Orsay. But then Mario got a pinched nerve in his back and I got a headache which just wouldn't go away.

Bergerac became a place to chill out and relax. A perfect place, curving gently up from the wide Dordogne River and made up mostly of golden sandy coloured buildings and narrow streets. We felt we could easily find our way around and just start to enjoy the sunshine and wine. We booked four nights at the Europ'Hotel; a pleasant little place on the edge of the old town with about 20 rooms and a lovely clean swimming pool.

Now two days on we are less frazzled and we've stopped looking at our watches. The market on Saturday was really buzzing with more varieties of tomatoes, radishes and asparagus than I have ever seen before. Today there was some sort of town fete and they strung a hammock type netting alongside the Pont Vieux (quite a stretch, five arches). Locals were lining up to struggle across it, each crossing taking about 20 minutes.

Each afternoon and evening we sit down in the foyer and watch the World Cup games and try and figure out the French commentary. Our friendly hosts can't understand why we are supporting or interested in so many countries - NZ, Italy, Spain, Australia and England. Our French (with bits of Italian and English thrown in) is hopeless, so we cannot explain these things very well, it took us two days to get a good cup of tea sorted.

Lizzie

Goodbye London

Well, that's it! The flat has been cleaned and cleared, and cleaned again. Our neighbour has graciously taken our last minute pantry stuff and is looking forward to trying the NZ clover honey, crab paste and Japanese vinegar...hopefully not together. She even made us cheese and pickle sandwiches to have on the way to Paris.

I feel really confused - sad to be leaving so many good friends in London, terribly excited about the 7 weeks ahead with Mario around Europe, anxious about getting a job back in NZ, and all warm and fuzzy about connecting up again with so many friends and family back home in August.

Not surprisingly I didn't sleep very well last night - it may have been the fact that we'd given the bed and mattress to a charity and slept on a pile of duvets on the floor, or maybe it was the lingering smell of bleach from the spotless floors and walls...

So, here's five things I love about London:

The audiences - for all types of shows and concerts the audiences are generally well informed, enthusiastic and generous in their responses
The football - everyone knows a lot about it, everyone loves it; you can't help but watch it and become enthralled
The comedy - not just the stand-up, everyone's witty. I love the play on words, and the richness of the language, made better by the combination of so many cultures
The Thames - I've walked along beside the Thames most days on my way to work; it's never boring and there is always so much going on. People go mad here at the slightest show of sunshine and race down to sit, sunbathe, eat and fool around.
The diversity - London isn't England, it's the world