Tuesday - August 2

It's lovely and sunny and warm here in Faro, on the southern tip of Portugal.  Our day intransit yesterday, was interesting since we decided to change destinations during the day.  When we realized you couldn't get anywhere from Beja, Bruce managed to schmmooz a refund and we booked tickets to Faro. We crossed this huge bridge (cars on top), it's 300 meters in the air across the ocean.  Amazing!   The train ride was about 4 hours, with lots of stops - but it's quite roomy and comfortable.  (Ok, there was one screaming child, but what could they do - she wouldn't stop!!!).  We played lots of crib and Tazia's 'card war game'.  I don't think I got the rules, right, Tazia, but we had some good laughs.  We woke up this morning and took a good look at our hotel room - definitely retro 70's - you could tell by the 11" tube TV and green colored furniture.  It's clean, though - no little creatures about.  Bruce and I decided to explore the 'old city of Faro'.  We paid a small fee to go into this church that was built in the 1700's.  We walked up to the bell tower and Bruce just had to 'dong the bell'!!  He's lucky he didn't get arrested!  We parted company after awhile; me to take a boat tour and Bruce decided to try and find the bus station and get things organized for tomorrow.  The boat ride was nice - the guide spoke Spanish, English, Italian and of course Portuguese.  I actually understood some of the Spanish - that was rewarding.  We reconnected at 1 (he'd gotten lost) and I needed help  getting back as well. The streets here are so winding and it's easy to loose any sense of direction.   Lunch at a local restaurant was delicious.  We each had about the equivalent of 2 tomatoes garnishing our meal, and they were scrumptious; garden ripened I'm sure!  Yum! Yum.  Tomatoes and onions - what could be better? After a lovely rest, we're off again to see what else this old town can offer us.  If you want to go to the beach, you have to take a ferry - so we're passing on that.  You'll see our 'bones church' picture on a separate blog.  The rest of the day was spent reading, wandering, and just relaxing.  I checked out Canada's website for Morocco and we're going to try and arrange a day trip with a group.  Today we're off to Spain, Sevila for a few days.  We'll check into Gibraltor from their as well.