The first group of five headed off early on Thursday morning for the train back to Lisbon. Some of them were going riding in France for a week. One is headed to a cruise - meeting her husband in Lisbon and sailing north with stops in Spain, France, Belgium, Holland and Britain (if I remember correctly - and one is headed home. Huw and Carolyn dropped them and returned to the hotel for a final farewell before they headed south to Lagos to return the van and prepare for their next adventure taking a group through the Historic Heartland. The rest of us, Sandy, myself, Sig, Tilly, Marni, Diane and Barry, were to fend for ourselves with our bus into Lisbon departing at noon. It was an uneventful journey back into the big city and at the bus station we headed in slightly different directions. Sandy and I were booked at a new hotel in the old city - Alfama - while everyone else was returning to the Vila Garden where we stayed at the beginning of the trip. We arrived at the hotel - on the main road through Alfama - past the cathedral, below the castle, looking down on the cruise ships berthed in the harbour - quickly. We were lead to our room then headed out to find lunch. Find it we did - basic and easy - I had roasted chicken; Sandi had a seafood soup. Then some time to explore. The pictures that follow tell a little of the story. We found one of the oldest churches in the city - attached to the castle it has been abandoned for almost 50 years before the community began to take a concern in the preservation of the building. The view from the bell tower is awesome, and for 5 Euros one can tour the building (including an exhibition of neighbour photos from the past) and enjoy a glass of port as you do.
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| Sunrise - the view from our room |
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| The streets of Alfama |
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| the view from the top |
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| Along the street |
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The hotel
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Our evening dinner was fresh fish at Patio 19 in the middle of Alfama's famous twisted alleys. It's completely outdoors with the exception of the kitchen in the bottom floor of an ancient building. The terrace on which Patio 19 sits is the restaurant - the cooler holding the fresh fish, the prep table and the diners all outside together. Sandy enjoyed the Sardines while I had a sea bass fresh from the ocean.
Friday morning began with breakfast at the hotel and a couple of hours of watching as the city woke up. The tourists are here in droves (yes, us among them). The city has become very busy over the four or five years that we've been visiting and it can be seen in the development that is happening all around the center of Lisbon. We opened the windows, enjoyed the view, and watched people for a couple hours before heading to the airport for our flight to Amsterdam.
At the airport we were reunited with Sig, Tilly, Marni, Diane and Barry whose flight to Canada was delayed by approximately 3 hours. We visited with them a little before they needed to head to passport control and the gate for their flight. Shortly afterward we were off to our gate (so nice, staying within Europe, the tension of passport control is not necessary.) Our flight included a long bus ride to the plane where we got to watch the Air Canada flight our friends were on finally depart. We had a pleasant flight to Amsterdam, found the bus we needed to Haarlem, boarded with a little help from some locals (translating our needs to the driver). Our bus took us from the airport to Haarlem's central station where the walk to our hotel was about 5 minutes in length. We arrived to a boutique hotel that is a conversion of an old orphanage. The ceilings in our room are close to 20 feet above us. It's a long narrow creatively decorated room overlooking the courtyard where our bikes are safely locked. Once checked in and dressed in clothing more suitable to the weather - we left Lisbon at 30 degrees to arrive in Haarlem at about 12 and overcast - I, in my wisdom, was dressed for Lisbon...I looked and felt our of place among the dutch local wearing light jackets and scarves...I digress...Once dressed we headed a couple blocks to our trip departure meeting and to pick up the bikes we'll be riding to Bruge. The meeting included a thorough introduction to the bikes - Cube touring cycles with belt driven internal hubs/gears. For the uninitiated that means there's no chain but rather a belt that looks a little like a fan belt in an automobile. The gears are inside the rear hub of the bicycle - not unlike an old three speed bike from my childhood - although in this case there a nine gears, of which we'll probably use two or three. It's a little different than the mountains of Portugal where the e-bike seems to me a necessity. We'll be riding about 40 kilometers a day (compared with sixty in Portugal) and there will be few if any hills to worry about. We returned to the hotel about 10 pm and headed to bed.
This morning we arose to blue sky and what promised to be a lovely day. Temperatures weren't much different than Edmonton and our task for the day was to ride out into the tulip fields. A difficult task, I undertook it for the team. It was an emotional experience to see, and smell, the beauty of the fields. We'd arranged tickets to Kokenoff Gardens (thanks to Sandi Ollenberger's advice) several weeks ago. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves....
Tonight we wandered into the center of Haarlem and I enjoyed some fish and chips while Sandy had Gamba at a oyster bar alongside the canal in the center of the city...a few pictures from here to close this segment of our trip.
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| Proof I lived an earlier life... |
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