We are travelling on a train to Lisbon from Faro, Portugal as I write this. It was sad to leave Espana. We saw a ton of stuff Kelly and Zella. Lots of old forts and castles that date even before Christ walked the earth. Really cool. Plus, we were on the Mediterranean Sea most of the time. Amazingly beautiful. We will remember our time in Southern Spain fondly.
We left our hotel today at 9 AM. Instead of going southeast, we travelled southwest across the Spain / Portugal border. It took, maybe, 1.5 hours to get to the border. Portugal happens to be one hour earlier...which gave us one more hour touring around. We first drove into Faro, a coastal town where many Northern Europeans fly down to vacation and hang out on the beaches. Portugal appears to me to be much poorer than where we were in Spain. But the people appear to be happy, more open to have a chat with you. After finding the train station, to make sure we knew where it was, we headed west along the coast to a town called Silves ( pronounce Silvesh). There, in the middle of town was a Moorish Castle. The town was amazingly quaint, pretty small. It was Saturday so the people were out and about. We drove by a nice farmers market. The castle was pretty awesome. It gave you a wonderful view of the lush hills that were farmed by the people. We spent about an hour there then headed back to Faro.
One funny note....upon entering Portugal, the signs had tourist drivers pull off into a lane where a machine was located. There you were asked to pay a toll but you could only use a credit card. So Kelly put his in. The receipt came back saying he had paid .60 euro. Cheap. So off we went. Then about eveyr 10 miles or so, we would see signs indicating a new fee to be paid but you never had to pull up to a machine again. So we did not think anything of it. But then it occurred to us that at every sign tha indicated a new fee we drove under a bridge thing that probably had some kind of monitor that recognized your car. The question was....do they recognize us? That perked Kelly up to think his credit card was getting dinged every time we went under one of those. I would say, "cha ching' every time we went under one of those bridges and Kelly would squirm in potential financial pain. If his card got billed each time...I am guessing it was hit between 5 and 10 euros. I can't wait to hear if he was being charged or not. Needless to say, we did not take the major highway back to Faro!
We travelled back to Faro hoping to drive on coastal roads. But we never could. The secondary highway did not get close to the shoreline. However, the ride was fun as we passed through one small town after another. We eventually arrived back in Faro. In the food category of the GPS it had Burgers. So we selected that and up popped McDonalds and Burger King. So we headed to Burger King. Turns out that it was in a really cool food court in a really modern mall. In the end, we ended up getting sandwiches, fries and drinks at a local chain called Pan. The lunch was great. But the Postres Denise bought were even better.
After lunch we headed to the train station. The station is really old. It only has a few tracks. The trains in Portugal are not as modern as their counterparts in Spain. Nor do the travel as fast. However, the price was right compared to Spain. We paid 22 euros per ticket in Portugal. In Spain, we paid 68 euros. The distance of travel was fairly equal.
Once we get to Oriente, the Lisbon main train station, we plan to grab a taxi to take us to our hotel. More to come. We leave Lisbon tomorrow at 10:15 AM putting us in Newark a few hours before the Super Bowl starts there. Think we can get tickets? We will then either go to SLC via Chicago or Houston. Chicago is the best choice because we could get to SLC by 8:30 PM . But as usual, seats are tighter going that route. And who wants to get hung up in Chicago in subzero temps. Been there done that! If we go Houston, the earliest we can get home is 11:30PM. Long day ahead!
We arrived right on time to the Lisbon train station. We hailed a cab and arrived at the hotel real fast. We are now in for the night.
Mormon Stake Center in the middle of Sevilla. We passed this as we left Sevilla.
As we drove to Portugal we noticed these large bird nests on power poles. Guess what kind of bird it is....Storks!
Sign entering Portugal and telling us foreigners about the electronic toll.
One of the high speed Portuguese vehicles. I think grandma and grandpa were topped out at 40 km/h.
Denise and Zella in Selvis.
Denise with the protector of the Selvis Castle.....
The small town center of Selvis....
Kelly on the castle wall...
Some very good orange cake....
Faro train station on the sea...
She is ready to go to Lisbon!
Happy rail travelers!
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