Landing In Lisbon

We knew it was going to be tricky finding our hotel in Lisbon, especially because it's such a big city. Crossing the bridge into the city wasn't too bad, it was navigating the main roads and motorways that got the better of us. So many one way roads and roads that you couldn't turn into at all - frustrating.
Anyway we found the hotel eventually ready to stay put for 3 days. First job was to get some washing done so while I tackled that job Tony went on a recon mission to find out where Vodafone was. Our phones have not worked since we left Egypt :-(.
The next day we spent out and about after sorting out the phone, sort of, at least we can text Jase. The photos show what we got up to while in the big smoke. Very different from the tiny quiet towns we've stopped at.

The entrance down to the metro station where we caught
the train each day.

X Factor was in town. Not as popular as in the US,
looking at the numbers that were queued outside.

We spent most of the day at the Oceanario. They had a temporary exhibit on turtles.
I counted one but Tony couldn't see any. That part was disappointing...

However the permanent exhibits were fantastico! My faves - the puffins,

the penguins (it was feeding time which was hilarious to watch),

and the otters, who spent their time chomping on pieces
of ice and annoying each other while we watched.

Entrance to Vasco de Gama Mall from the Metro Station. We managed to
watch the latest Planet of the Apes Movie dubbed in Portuguese.

Most of our third day was spent on a funbus tour and then relocating places we had passed.
The tour was excellent and would recommend using them, especially hopping on and off.

There were queues everywhere so we didn't bother waiting.

Lisbon is full of monuments, both old and new.

This bridge across the Tagus River is the same design as The San Francisco Bridge.
It's shorter than the one we used to enter the city.
You can see the statue of Christ, similar to the one in Brazil, on the other side of the river.

Bull fighting is still popular in Portugal. Great architecture, not sure about the
bullfighting though.

View from the top of the city park back towards the Tagus River.

Lunch at the Hardrock Cafe, Lisbon style.

Lisbon's Town Hall.

Three days was enough to see the main sights and wander around the city. The Metro is easy to use and a cheap way to get around but the Funbus is a definite just to get your bearings. We hoped getting out of the city was easier than getting in ...

Peaceful Little Alcacer do Sal

If you ever want to visit a quiet little place in Portugal then Alcacer is the one for you. I have a feeling we just missed a celebration of some kind  because there were streamers all over the place. There were a few people wandering along the river bank or just sitting in the cafes but we did notice the quietness after Faro. Maybe Faro is big brother to this little township, much less commercial anyway.
We were only there for the night and spend most of the afternoon catching up on our sleep, from the previous night. There is a church right by our hotel which worried me a bit (the bells) but I slept through the night without waking. I love double glazing!
After a quick breakfast, checking out and a walk around the castle on the hill we headed of to Troia to catch the ferry across to Setubal. Initially we planned to drive right around but took the ferry instead.

Alcacer do Sal.

One of the two churches in the middle of this photo.
Our hotel is the building I chopped off on the right, with the archway.

Morning view from the rooftop terrace

Car parked right outside reception. Don't know who
 the photo bomber was.

View back into town from the castle

Beach at Troia Resort.

Ferry view back to Troia

Setubal from the ferry

The bridge into Lisbon

Scary stuff driving into Lisbon. The bridge was the easy part....

Next leg to Faro

This part was going to test our stress levels.
We had wanted to get to Seville early on the 18th because we weren't sure when the bus went through to Portugal. The website we had used said 3 times a week but the guy at our hotel found another company that went daily, much to our relief. Because the banks were shut the day we arrived in Bahia Sur (Friday) we had to wait til 9 for one to open so we could exchange our US to Euro. So after changing our money we jumped into a cab and headed off to the train station in time to catch one up to Seville, without any more dramas.
Once the train arrived in Seville it was off to the bus station, via taxi once more, to buy bus tickets to Faro, in Portugal. The bus wasn't leaving for another 2 1/2 hours so we wandered around the area close to the bus station. We have decided to definitely return to Spain before returning home to NZ. There is so much to see and do there.
We were a little confused about the border crossing because there was none. Very strange!
It must have been after 2.30 when we checked into the hotel, dropped of our bags and headed to the port area. There were bikes everywhere. The look on Tony's face, you would have sworn he'd gone to heaven. Our whole visit was based in the proximity of these bikes. Our last night in Faro was spent with a wonderful Irish couple, Declan & Geri, who had ridden from Ireland all the way to Faro on their motorbike. I think Faro is going to be the highlight of this holiday for Tony. Our hangovers the next morning didn't help either of us as there was a long drive to Alcacer ahead of us. At least I managed to get a few zzzz in.

Selfie in Seville.

Seville train station makes Auckland look tiny.

Bikes, bikes and more bikes

A patch with a message

Pork is everywhere in Portugal.

Pork sandwich and a beer for dinner our first night in Faro

The convention happens every year, hence this sculpture

He even got to watch from our terrace

This is a beautiful church which has a chapel of bones behind it.

Inside the chapel of bones. Over 1200 skulls of monks
that had been buried in the old cemetery.

For sale. Any offers?

Trish, Geri and I after a few beers and Sangria.
Looks like they had mojitos too.

With my Ireland hoodie in front of Declan's bike. Thanks Dec and Geri!

Tarifa to Bahia Sur

This was the part of our trip I wasn't feeling 100%. It involved catching a ferry from Tangier, in Morocco, to Tarifa, in Spain then taking a bus to a place in San Fernando called Bahia Sur. The language had now changed from French / Arabic to Spanish and we need to communicate with people to find the bus depot when we got off the ferry. Luckily there was a travel agent across the road from the port who pointed us in the right direction and a lovely local woman who spoke some English was at the bus depot. I managed to get some sleep on the bus while Tony was entertained by a lady sitting opposite him, who chatted and sang to herself most of the way there.

Thanks to our GPS we walked the long way to the hotel but settled in quickly before heading downstairs to have a beer and some tapas. We found out the reason for so many women wandering the streets wearing traditional dress was because there was a big town celebration. Sadly we were only in Bahia Sur one night before heading off on the next leg of our journey.

Tarifa Port - no hawkers! Tarifa is known for it's beaches.
Saw lots of kitesurfers.

Waiting for our tapas in Bahia Sur

Photo bomber at the carnival

Tony was photographing the man - yeah right!

No more mosques, or calls to prayer, but plenty of churches with church bells.

I wasn't quite sure what to make of the colors of these dolls.

There were bright lights everywhere.

Wish we had known about the carnival, we would have booked an extra day...

Tangier - Tanger Chez Habitant

I have to put a plug in for Tanger Chez Habitant, the B&B we stayed in for 2 nights because I loved it so much. As we drove into Tangier we thought we would be staying in another riad but we were wrong. Trying to find the place was tricky without the help of a local, whose father's restaurant and uncle's shop we had to visit so we didn't have to pay him anything. Once we found Chez Habitant we felt much more relaxed and Olivier was an outstanding host. His English was just as good as our French so it made the stay even more fun. We learned weefee is French for wi-fi and boojay is budget ie Budget Rental Cars. Luckily Olivier's partner Hicham had a little more French and he could explain how to get to places without the charades. The artwork they have displayed is beautiful. The little touches of furnishings around the rooms make it such a nice place to stay. We loved our floor which included our double room, a single room and a bathroom, which were all ours. The terrace on the roof and the breakfast terrace provided wonderful views back towards the beach.
Over the two days we wandered through the medina and did a bit of walking  along the corniche and outside the walls as well. It was very relaxing at the B&B though. The biggest let down for Tangier were the idiots at the port. Having bought our "open" tickets for the ferry when we first arrived we were all set to go. We arrived on the port and were immediately approached by 4 men wanting to "assist us to get to the ferry." "No thankyou" didn't work and when we went to check in at the port office and found out our ticket was not "open" and it wasn't even the company we were expecting to be booked on ... that's when I finally lost it. I pushed past the idiots who were still annoying me, made Tony come back with me (via a taxi) to the booking office, made the man change the tickets and got back to the port in time to catch the other ferry (which was leaving 10 minutes later) without swearing once. Tony was bemused by it all :-)

The street down to the medina. I counted 100 steps from the
bottom to the corner of our street.

View to the beach from the rooftop terrace. Apparently it's to polluted to swim in.

My own personal bar man.

This was on the wall on our terrace.

Breakfast on the lower terrace.

Part of the kasbah wall.

Spain is in the distance.

The royal palace. There's one in every city.

These are actually graves set in rock.

Street in the medina. It's hard to take photos when people are sitting
outside their shops or walking past. They expect payment. (only some)

Another piece of artwork at Chez Habitant.

If you asked me where was the best place to visit  in Morocco I couldn't say that there was one place I liked more than all the others. Essaouira, Marrakech, Fes and Tangier had fantastic places to stay! Essaouira was our first riad, Marrakech had the food market at night & the bus tour, Fes had Juliet, Cafe Clock and the electric car tour and Tangier had Olivier and Hicham, and the shop where Tony finally found a leather bag.
Onwards to Spain ...