They're EVERYWHERE

They’re everywhere.  Marathons, that is.  This is our third European city that we have visited during their marathon.  It screws up an otherwise lovely city.  Today, our plans to visit Belem to see the sights (and pay homage to the national pastry) were shot down, as the transportation to it was blocked by traffic due to the marathon.   We had to move to plan B.

We paid a visit to the Gulbenkian Museum .  The incredible art collection came from the private collection/home of an Armenian named, somewhat unsurprisingly, Gulbenkian.  He gave his fortune and collection to Lisbon .  Nice guy.  VERY nice guy.  Absolutely top-flight museum…and it was free today.  Suddenly, I didn’t hate the marathoners quite as much as I had a few hours earlier.

Then, it was off on a short train ride to the beaches of Cascais and Estoril.  You really needn’t use a map, simply follow all the people toting beach towels and surf boards toward the train.  40 minutes later, we were seaside.   Cascais is charming.  After a lovely lunch and some too-tasty white sangria, we strolled the seaside promenade for a couple of miles toward the next town of Estoril .  We blame the marathoners for our lack of foresight about towels and bathing suits.  We won’t make that mistake again.

Tomorrow?  Maybe Belem .  Maybe Sintra.   There may be pictures!

Horrible news struck today.  Our secret plan to ‘unintentionally’ extend our trip with a couple of nights in Paris due to the air strike were thwarted, as the pan-Euro union agreed to call of the strike on the promise that ‘there would be talks’.  What the hell kind of muscle is THAT???