I waited and waited for the bus,the green line of the hop on hop off bus, and after half an hour of watching people, I thought I’m going to start walking. I’ll get it later. Haha! It figures, it’s passing me right now as I walk to the Carmo convent. It’s a tough walk uphill, but worth it in the long run.The Convent of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, is a former-Roman Catholic convent located in the civil parish of Santa Maria Maior, municipality of Lisbon, Portugal. The medieval convent was ruined during the sequence of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, and the destroyed Gothic Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on the southern facade of the convent is the main trace of the great earthquake still visible in the old city. It is amazing that the back chapel is a still up after the quake. It survived, and a lot of artefacts were in there. The video presented on site, which is in Portuguese and English, explains a lot about the attempt at reconstruction and the events. That was really worth it. I’m sitting in the Square Largo da Carma having a beer.
24 hours from now will be sitting on my plane heading home, I hope.

For dinner, I planned to go to a restaurant just down the road that had steak. I thought I wanted something different than regular seafood but then as I was walking down there, another restaurant was open. This place is not more than 300 feet from where I’m staying; this one was called Quermesse.
I saw some Italian dishes on the menu and I was curious. I saw lasagna,and that’s why I walked in the door. It’s another favourite of mine and great a comfort food. It was seafood lasagna and I had a couple of glasses of red wine. It was all delightful.
It wasn’t an inexpensive dinner, but it was good. I met a couple of women there, one from Minnesota one from San Diego, California. They were asking me questions, because they heard me talking to the waiter. They were both in the education field, both principals, and we had an interesting conversation across tables. They were asking all about where I was, where I stayed, what I done; I left my email address if they wanted more information. It was an enjoyable conversation. When you’re eating alone it’s nice to have a conversation with other people.
It was a long day of touring. I’m exhausted, I need to go home to Canada for a rest . I have booked a taxi for first thing in the morning to the airport, and then I am off. I’ll see you or talk to you all in Toronto.
Ta ta for now.

This probably is my last blog edition for a while. I am heading home.

I’m sitting in Lisbon at a bus station waiting for the yellow hop on hop off bus to come along. Apparently they stop at 5 PM so I’m going to buy a ticket for 24 hours and hopefully I’ll be allowed on tomorrow. I’ll check that out first. It’s a good way to see the city just with an overview. The first time I was here I spent a lot of time in Lisbon waiting for buses. I remember my first arrival day February 1, I had waited and waited and found out later the bus had been cancelled.
OMG! The seat is vibrating. I realize there’s a subway right beneath me!
It wasn’t a bad drive in this morning, but when I got here, even with Google map directions, I circled around and around until I got the right turn off, to take the car back. Oh, was it frustrating? I got a cab to my hotel. I’m staying in the old part of town; it reminds me a lot of Porto. The Avenue da Liberdade, a boulevard in central Lisbon that I’m sitting on at the moment, is similar to Barcelona’s Las Ramblas, all tree lined, maybe all inspired by Paris’ Champs-Élysées. Avenida da Liberdade is apparently, according to my taxi driver, the most expensive street to rent or buy property on in Portugal!
It’s weird being in a big city again; I’m really not quite as comfortable as I was in Zambujeira. It’s as usual with cities , always under construction, noisy ,with traffic jams.

Oh but it isnice not having to worry about the car. I could barely fit everything in my suitcase. I actually have my backpack stuffed and I having another bag, so I’m going to have to sort that out. I didn’t buy anything. That’s the funny part but I came with warm clothes on my body, because it was cold when I left Toronto and cold when I got here, and it all seemed appropriate but now, it’s warm, so I either have to dump some stuff or look at my packing again.
I had my breakfast/lunch, whatever you call it, mid afternoon because I was really hungry by then, at a restaurant just down the road from my hotel, called Lusitania. I had my usual omelette, which is a staple for me when I’m travelling. The restaurant was nice enough, but it felt a little bit intimidating for some reason, not the warm feeling that I got in restaurants in the small town I was in.
Tonight, I am at an Indian Fusion Restaurant for dinner. It’s just around the corner from my hotel. I am late because I was on the hop on hop off bus cruising in the city. I will be back on that bus tomorrow, once I do some reading on where to get off and walk around.
It was a great meal tonight, chicken tikka . Lovely atmosphere here and I felt welcomed.
Back to my little room after and watched a movie for the first time on TV in a couple of months. I laughed. It was the Robin Hood movie with Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett in English with Portuguese subtitles
Sleep certainly came quickly even though it is noisy , as a city is.

Is it possible you remember in the beginning, maybe the first week or the second week of this trip, I went to a pop-up restaurant? I was still walking, no wheels yet, so it was quite a way out of the town. The owners of the mobile restaurant decided to move away from Zambujeira Do Mar, after being there about 4 to 6 weeks. The mobile restaurant,called Sobre Rodas, decided to move to the town of Santa Clara-a- Velha.

Apparently there is an a dam here in this town. I didn’t notice that, and I just crossed the bridge and there’s no water under it. I don’t know if the dam changed the Mira river here into a dry spot. I am standing on a sidewalk, in the town of Santa Clara; I was stopped here and can’t leave yet.

Read onward and I will explain.

Wouldn’t you know it, it’s April 2 and I am again wondering why there’s a police presence, as I drive, not as many as yesterday. I’m on the highway now and everywhere I turn there is one of those officers with the very fluorescent green vests. Has someone posted a notice that there’s a crazy Canadian woman loose in the country?

Just turning into Santa Clara, an officer stopped me, and asked if I had a place to stay for at least 10 minutes., I asked why. She said bicycling…blah blah blah. You know the rest. The event is obviously on for the weekend! It is a youth cycling competition (although several competitors don’t look that young); here we go again.

It was a lovely drive to this town, over hills and into valleys, and around hairpin bends. I wanted to get out and take pictures but, you know what happens when I start doing shooting- I get into trouble all the time, and there’s not much of an area to pull off.

After an hour or so looking around, I headed home. I did find the mobile restaurant but they didn’t seem to be set up and reaching them was by a very steep dirt path. I couldn’t find another safer access.

It’s my last evening here in Zambujeira Do Mar and I’m sitting across the road at the coast line having a beer. It’s not the usual Sagres- it’s actually a Heineken, which I bought for a change, since I’m on the move starting tomorrow. I’m toasting the sunset on my last day, here in the south.
A couple just passed me.I toasted to life and we began a conversation about Portugal and how lovely it is. I said I was going home this week. Oh move back here bring your family! That’s what they said. This is the third safest country in the world. So what are the first two? Does anybody know? I know it’s probably not in North America! It is probably a Nordic country.
It’s still 18° here and it’s bright and sunny. The sun is setting. I can see the moon up there on the opposite side. The tide must be out because I could see the beach right below me and the water is really calm right now it is really peaceful here.

I will go back now and prepare to leave in the morning. I am a little sad but I look forward to being home again. I will miss BC. I didn’t expect to get so attached but he is a survivor, much as I am. Tomorrow it is on the road again and Lisbon. Until then friends.

It’s April fools day. Before we know it, it’ll be June and then will be talking about fall.

I am not doing the Uxbridge Studio Tour this year. It was time for a break. At the end of September, I’ll be going off to the Orkneys with my son for my graduation ceremony in St. Magnus Cathedral. Another trip! Of course, you’ll be all invited along. You know I can’t stop yapping about what I do, and where I go, and what mistakes I make, and there are so many.
Today I started to clear up my two months of litter around this place. I did my laundry yesterday, and I thought I’d take stuff to the recycle. Luis was by here earlier with his huge van, unloading stuff, and he said there is some kind of bicycle tour around, but I thought by late afternoon that I could go down the road to put my recycle in in the bins.

As I left the driveway and turned on to the road, a cyclist went by, but I was on the other side of the road. All of a sudden I got screamed at, in Portuguese, by the GNR; that’s the police. And then further down the road, I was told to pull in, make a U-turn and come around. The officer approached the car. Yes, my heart was pounding. What the hell did I do wrong? He didn’t speak English. I had looked up information on this event, on Google for the area, and found nothing. Then an officer who spoke English, explained to me that I can wait and tour this lovely town, if I wanted, by foot, or I could wait until 5pm when I’m allowed on the roads. The officer told me it was on Facebook! I didn’t see it! Facebook for Zambujeira Do Mar? I asked if I could go back home where I’m staying and he said OK. Just wait until a motorcyclist goes by you, a cyclist and then a big police car. Then he signalled me to go. I didn’t receive any get out of jail card!
Back home again I searched Facebook and saw no information. There were no signs on the road. Do we in Toronto offer notice to visitors about what’s happening on the roads? I have heard radio announcements when the DVP is closed for competitions. That’s an interesting question. Does anybody know out there?

It is now after 5 pm and I am out again and I am still stopped by the police and told to detour and park! They are behind schedule.

I’m at the tail end of the competition. I follow the officer’s directions and park and go to the grocery store and then to the Azul E Mar, the friendly bar on the corner, opposite the grocery store. I can’t drive home so, I should pause and have a beer, and watch all the young men in their tight pants. The finish line is here and I have the best seat in town.
Cidalia, the owner of the bar and Rubal, the waitress from N. India are here. They have been so wonderful for the two months of my trip and I have stopped here many times. They were the ones who introduced me to the clear spirit that all the men seem to drink with their coffee.

I am heading down to the NW Algarve on a new adventure.

I had to stop in Sao Teotonio first, to get a short term sim card for my phone. The Vodaphone card stopped working because it is the end of the month, even though I had arranged and paid for service until April 5th!! I now have a card that provides service for 8 days (until next Friday) at 15 euros.

I dropped in at noon at the Altura Steakhouse and Bar, just south of the town of Rogil. This is the steakhouse that the tow truck driver in February, (who picked up my last rental car!) recommended, even though he didn’t speak English. I understood that I should try to eat there and I am really hungry. It is crowded as I arrive, with lunch seekers. It is on a really busy highway. This is Friday and I can’t believe the traffic going up and down the highway, quite noisy. I am sitting out in the covered patio; I think I understand why it’s covered with the road activity. Carol, Charlie and I tried to get here together but, every time it was either, not open until hours later, or we were heading somewhere else and had already eaten.

Today I decided to go to visit Carrapateira. I had been reading in the Lonely Planet Guidebook (which has a lot of misinformation!) and that name was mentioned as an area not to miss, part of the NW Algarve, but hidden away from the usual travellers! I thought it was a beach at first, but it actually is a town and I had been through it twice before, once in February, on my on the way south to Sagres, and later, with Carol and Charlie in March. After we visited with Carol and Charlie, we meandered on a road north of the town and found the Bordeira beach, which was fabulous with its expansive white sands and rocky cliffs.

In Carapateira, I was looking for directions on my phone, to the beach, and had pulled over to the side of the road. I saw a couple drive pass in their Toyota vehicle. They went up a long dirt road uphill, so I thought, why not follow them. It was almost 2 km on the road a little bumpy, and I came up to a rise and there was a restaurant sitting at the edge of the cliffs. Just below it was the Amado beach, a long beach, which apparently is linked to the Bordeira beach by a hiking trail. While photographing,a man came up to me and started chatting. He said, if you look over there at the mustard coloured rock, pointing to the cliffs on my right side, there’s an old volcano and it’s right near an Islamic fishing village. I thought that was rather curious, so I went back up the trail, out on the boarded walkway and there were ruins! The sign informed me that this was an archaeological site from a 12th or 13th century Islamic fishing village, at the end of the Muslim period of Portugal. There was a couple walking around on the same boardwalk. I asked them if they knew anything more, once I knew they spoke English, and if they knew about the volcano. Guess what?- the man was a volcanologist and the woman was a geologist, both with PhD’s in their field of study. How weird was that? The expert in volcanos said, no, there was no volcano there. The major hole in the cliffs and the rubble was just the way landslides happen. He also said it will happen where we are standing now in the future. Not today please!!!

From my research later in the day: The Islamic Fishing Village is an archaeological site close to the town of Carrapateira in the municipality of Aljezur, Algarve Region of Portugal. The site was excavated by a team of researchers from the New University of Lisbon in 2001. This permitted the settlement to be dated to the 12th and 13th centuries, during the Almohad Caliphate at the end of the Muslim occupation of the Algarve.

I arrived home just after shortly after 5pm not interested in eating dinner after my big meal earlier. it took the dried laundry off the line , folded it and started organizing my suitcase. Tomorrow I will cook up all the vegetables in the refrigerator, add some chicken and make a stew of sorts. I have to clear everything before I leave early Monday morning. Where did those nine weeks go in such a hurry?

Today has been spent working on my Letters to the Earth project, forwarding images of the letters to the organizers in Scotland for the exhibitions, two of them in May and June. My friend, Susan Torrance is going to get the letters from Scottish participants enlarged and printed out and hang them for the exhibition. We are going to encourage viewers to write their own Letter to the Earth. We are also doing that with our Ontario exhibitions. The first Ontario exhibition is coming soon; you are all welcome to come. (June 3 to August 26) It is in Aurora, and the opening reception will be on Saturday, June 3rd in the afternoon. Here’s the link: https://auroraculturalcentre.ca/event/letters-to-the-earth/

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by this project, that I began in 2021 and I think why did I start? I suppose I’m a little low today. I’m leaving here on Monday morning. Portugal and I get along; I really do like all I have discovered. However, it is getting hot now and I’m not a person good with higher temperatures. Nor do I like cold and major snow either! I’m comfortable when it’s between about 12 Celsius and 22 Celsius.
I spent the afternoon reading. I haven’t done that since I arrived, other than the guide book and research on various places around Portugal, but Carol did leave me a novel that she finished before she left.

I didn’t even go out in the car anywhere! I pulled out clothes that need to be washed before I leave. I will do all the washing tomorrow. I spent the evening watching Netflix and went to bed fairly early.
I also only took one picture yesterday with my iPhone. That image is of four different coloured recycle garbage bins that Luís bought and put in the barbeque area. Maybe he has some idea that he’s going to organize his guests’ recycling. I have been putting all my scraps – orange peels, egg shells, potato peelings, etc. in one area of the garden to allow it to break down. That’s something Luis suggested.

There is no house garbage pickup here. Everyone around this laneway puts the garbage in a big bin at the main roadway and it is collected several times a week it appears. Recycles stuff is place in bins in available locations. There are several at the town limits marked for glass or plastics etc.

Luis is always working on something around here, to the point that it’s quite an invasion of privacy. He did go in next door and remove the gas cooking plates on the stove and replaced them with an induction surface. He told the neighbours he was going to do that and they went out to allow him space to work. He brought his mother along so that she could clean up after him and vacuum all the mess he made. I really wish he’d spend his money on getting fixtures for the lights in here that are hanging out of the walls purchasing some more comfortable couches and some decent furniture but that might be asking too much. The time Carol, Charlie and I were away in Evora overnight, Luis entered our place without informing me. For that he could be fined by Airbnb if we complained. A host must have permission to enter a rental establishment.
Since I’ve been here over two months, I do see a lot of things that could be improved. In fact, I would’ve put the light fixtures up for him if he’d provided them; it’s not something that takes a rocket scientist to figure out .

I shouldn’t complain; I have been lucky with my choice of location. It’s been a wonderful time here, other than the few housing/landlord frustrations, I have mentioned before. This was my first experience with Airbnb and I understand a lot more about the operation now. There is no official staff who monitor housing offered for the 10% fee they charge; in some ways it can be a hit or miss way of getting lodging. For future, I have the list of contacts for rentals from the Tourist board here in town and that is my best resource but even with that as the woman at the Tourist agency said, you must check the places out carefully.

It’s already 15° here and it’s going up to 24°. Yesterday was hot in the sun. (No, I am not complaining!)

This is when you start to appreciate the coolness of the inside of these houses in Portugal. Again, today the waves are really crashing against the shore; I suppose the tide is coming in so that might be what I’m hearing.
I plan to go and have a look at the beach in front of the apartment that I looked at yesterday. It’s a trail down the cliff. I haven’t gone down there yet but according to my Google search, there are stairs to get down to the beach.
BC is asleep here on the couch. He’s eaten his food, done his socializing, had his cuddles and he’s a happy little cat.

I started walking on the trail in front of the apartment I saw on Tuesday. It is quite amazing, so beautiful, looking at the cliffs from a totally different perspective. At on point I was so far out, the main beach of Zambujeira Do Mar looked tiny and it is definitely not tiny. And the waves were enormous the farther out I was. I will explore south on Thursday, because today I couldn’t find the stairs going down. I know that when tide is out you could probably walk for miles along the sand close to the cliffs. You would certainly want to be able to get back up before the tide came in!

Later on I explored some of the back streets of the town looking for potential rentals or even house sales. Ahhh! If I had more money, I would invest here. One woman (apartment owner) told me she moved here 30 years ago from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and they intended to buy a house in Lisbon but, she came down to Zambujeiro do Mar and fell in love with the area. She said to me: “Can you imagine this area 30 years ago? All these buildings weren’t here. It was just a little village on the shore.” She lives now near Odemira and rents her Zambujeira apartment out (maybe to me next year!) but plans to return here in a few years after she and her husband retire.

The problem is that they don’t have a hospital nearby; the closest is Portimao or you go north to Lisbon and in emergencies that could be a problem. And it’s not just a concern for seniors, it could be critical for babies, young children or anyone who has an injury like a broken leg. My friend, Carol, did mention that there weren’t many children around.

I suppose that’s the same situation anywhere if a town is somewhat remote.

The Boss Man!

Try working with this interference!

The dish pre-wash system!

Potential housing for 2024

View across from the above apartment

Potential housing for 2024

The view west from this apartment

A new trail view

Looking North from new trail