A little rain never hurt anyone... Lisbon, Portugal

So we have been having fun in Lisbon but the weather has been an absolute disaster. We had imagined our time in Lisbon to be spent largely at the beach - which is not unreasonable at this time of year but sadly we struck a bad week, like literally all week.

However, a little rain never hurt anyone so we are getting out and making the most of our time here. On Sunday morning we made our way back to Belém. Not solely just to enjoy the pastries but rather to explore the Berardo Museum of Modern Art. It was really more Sam's thing than mine but it was interesting none the less. The gallery which has a permanent exhibition showcased a range of works from many different -isms. Trip advisor says that the Berardo Collection " is made up of modern en contemporary art, with major art movements like abstract expressionism, Abstraction-Création, action painting, body Art, constructivism, cubism, De Stijl, digital art, experimental art, geometric abstraction, kinetic art, minimal art, neo-expressionism, neo-plasticism, neo-Realism, op art, photography, photorealism, pop art, realism, suprematism, surrealism". It all sounds a little overwhelming, especially because modern art can leave you scratching your head sometimes - but it was a cool way to spend a day. The exhibit itself was interesting and told an interesting story as you went through the different trends.

An example of Modern Art (yes, that was slightly sarcastic)

I spent the afternoon looking around the shops downtown, while Sam did a little work in a cafe nearby.

Yesterday the weather seemed to get even worse. However, we are determined not to let it stop us. We caught the train 40 minutes North West to Sintra. It's an incredible place, kinda like the train transports you through time... well not really but there is a cool Moorish Castle there. We got there on the train, had a quick coffee and a sweet treat (as motivation to go exploring in the rain) and made our way a good kilometer up a hill through these really neat cobble stone paths. We were the only ones there and moss growing on the stones in conjunction with the overgrown forest made if feel like we were walking through one of Sam's Wizard books. We got to the Castle and paid to get inside before exploring all the different alcoves and keeps. The wall's were really high and the fog made it feel like we were in Game of Thrones. It was actually really cool and the weather seemed to add to the whole experience. However, to dwell on the negative for just a quick second, we couldn't help but wonder what the view from here would have been like on a sunny day.

One of the Wall's on the Moorish Castle looking up at the Keep

Playing in one of Sam's Wizard Books

We came down off the hill and explored the Sintra Village, which was pretty and nestled into the hill with its cobble stone streets. We explored some of the ceramic tile stores and took the best photo's we could given the weather. It was actually pretty fun despite feeling like drowned rats. 

A cute street in Sintra Village

We eventually made our way back to the apartment and dried off. We decided to go out for dinner that night and had some fun exploring the Portuguese cuisine. We have been making a pretty good go of the pastries and coffee but hadn't really tasted much of the main meals. For the most part the dishes are made of fish - cod specifically, which we found out is actually imported. I had some tasty meat kebab's, while Sam had a mixed fish dish with eggs and onions. It was good, but probably not the most interesting food that we have had on our travels - Spanish and Moroccan are hard acts to follow. None the less, we love the pastries.

After dinner the rain let up and we managed to get out for a walk around the downtown area. We went for an explore through some places that we hadn't really seen in the daylight, just enjoying the energy and the busy streets. We tried some more Ginjinha (the cherry liquor) only this time we had it in chocolate cups - which naturally you get to eat afterwards.

Today we got up a little later than normal. Its getting hard to stay motivated and to find things to do when the weather is so bad. Unless you really really love art galleries and museums Lisbon really is made for the sunny weather. So we decided to go checkout one of the beach villages. Cascais is directly west of Lisbon by train. It is another historical town so there were a few things to see other than the beach (although not too many). The weather this morning is probably the worst it has been all week but it was nice to see what the beaches look like and its always fun to find a new cafe.

I finally made it to the beach!!!

We walked around the streets taking in the sights. It really is a lovely little place and despite the weather there were still quite a few people out. Possibly locals who live there. We took in as many of the sights as we could before things really did get shut down by the rain...

 The Beach at Cascais

At which point we found the cafe with the largest sweet treats we could find and settled in for a bit. Sam continued to explore his love of the custard tarts while I decided to tackle the biggest, chocolatiest donut I have ever seen. So you can see how exciting our day has been and we have been reduced to talking about sweet treats. Anyway, we made our way back home later in the afternoon and walked in the rain back to our apartment, where it really was nice to get warm and dry.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Lisbon and we have a couple of things left to explore before we head off to Scotland to meet up with Mum, who seem's to have become quite the world traveller over the last couple of days.

This bad boy actually sweeted me out - that is a chocolate donut