Portugal

And so we have suddenly started the last leg of our journey. We've arrived in Portugal and are staying with my love's friends and colleagues Christine and Carlos, and their children Vanessa and Thomas. Their house is built in a village on a hill (not uncommon in Portugal...), overlooking parts of Lisboa. Tess and Yarrow are studying hard and have already done one of their exams yesterday. Tomorrow, Wednesday, they will sit their second 'stint'  of papers. I'd like to give them a medal for 'Keeping At It' and their teachers for cooperating in this our Grand Tour venture. As we speak Niki and Yarrow are having a DM (Deep-And-Meaninful) about Utopia and Distopia, in preparation for Extension English. Over dinner we had lovely and lighthearted wordplay about differences between languages in which Thomas decided that tomorrow he will tell somebody "You and me - gezellig, bloemkool.", and see what happens.

This afternoon we drove to Belem, an area in Lisbon, where the world-famous Pasteis de Belem can be had and eaten. Yum! Perhaps Anjes remembers we went there when she and the girls came to Portugal a few years ago?

We then sauntered around the area and visited the Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries) which is surrounded by a giant marble square with a world map. The monument celebrates discoveries made by Portugese explorers and is very impressive to see. Among the plethora of monuments and statues we have come across during our tour through Europe (and there are many!) this is one of the few monuments celebrating secular human activity, and I felt that was quite refreshing (even though it represents a somewhat romanticized idealization of the Portuguese exploration).