28th May 2009

Paul: Got up and had breakfast and showered, the showers are actually quite good on this site.  You do have to keep pushing a button for the water, but it is nice and hot and is a powerful spray which isn't always the case. We are going into Lisbon, or Lisboa as the natives call it, today to do some site seeing, so we walked to the bus stop and waited for a bus.  After a 30 minute ride we were dropped in the middle of God knows where, somewhere in Lisbon! We realised that to get anywhere, we first had to know where we were!  We spotted an open top tourist bus going past and thought that maybe we should do one of those tours.  We couldn't see where they stopped so we asked a policeman who was most helpful and told us where to catch one.  We waited at the bus stop for about 10 minutes for a tour bus to arrive.  They apparently go all round the city and you can get off and on wherever you like.  Ruddy hell, it was expensive though- €15 each!  We could use the ticket over two days if we wanted so I guess that's not so bad if you're staying for a couple of days.

It was soooo hot, about 37 degrees, and so we didn't get on and off the bus as planned but just stayed on and sat in the breeze.  We did stop at a huge marina on the shorefront and got off and bought some post cards and had some lunch in a restaurant.  It was a salad bar and not very good.  Tina left most of hers!  I have to say that eating out in Portugal is not a good idea so far. After a long tour round the city, we finally ended up back were we’d originally got on, but nowhere near the place we needed to be to catch the bus back to the camps site.  That was across the other side of the huge square, and we had only a few minutes to get there or we’d miss our bus back.  Luckily, Tina managed to persuade the driver to go round the square and drop us right next to the place we needed.  Cheeky of her but a good idea as our bus was about to leave.  We got back to the campsite and then collapsed on the bed and cooled off.  We now understand why people tend not to do touristy things when on a campsite, it's just too damn hot.  So I guess from now on we'll just relax around the van and Tina can make cards while I can read and sunbathe. We can save the touristy things for September when we’ll hopefully go to Italy and it will be a bit cooler.

Christ's statue

Beautiful Lilac Trees in Bloom

The Palace

Paul at the memorial for the first Atalantic Flight

Lisbon Marina

The Palace again

Palace Guards

Tina: Whilst I was lying down, Paul saw a Stag beetle in the sand and when I came out he showed me where it had burrowed in the sand, probably to go to sleep for the night.  I found a small stick and prodded it.  He caught hold of my stick with his pincers, glad it wasn't my fingers.  It's funny, I'm not scared of them like I am spiders, but they are bigger, look really evil and can probably give you a nasty bite too!  I was then rather naughty and blocked up the hole he’d made in the sand.  All was quiet for a while and then we saw him pop up a little bit further away.  He then made his way back to the hole and started digging all over again.  We then noticed that there was another stag beetle further in the original hole and thought maybe it had sent out a signal for help and the other one had come back to dig it out.  It was fascinating watching them both.  How marvellous nature is, the insects look after each other and if one needs help the other comes to assist.

Our friends the Stag beatles - She Loves You Yeah Yeah Yeah

The new beetle has small spots on its back and is a bit bigger than the first.   I took some photos and we continued watching them for ages.  We later found out that the one with spots was a female and we had most likely interrupted their mating.  No wonder the male came running back, he hadn't finished ha ha !