Our itinerary had us heading to Sintra today but after  a discussion with Vera, plans  were switched, mostly due to the fires burning in the countryside. Vera was hoping things would be better on Wednesday for travelling to Sintra.

We headed out to Castelo de Almourol in the middle of the Tagus river.  The castle was built up on a hill and the only way to get to the castle was with a short boat ride and then up 200 stairs. The group voted to skip this.  

​​

​Linda H., Vera, and I walked up to the visitor center where there was  the strangest vending machines I have ever seen. they was tubular and sold cans of cashews, pistachios and Pringles. I think what really surprised me were the cans of different flavors of Pringles in the one machine.

Next, we headed to Convento de Cristo also known as the Convent of Christ. This is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site, One of the most important Templar cities.  "The Convent is surrounded by the walls of the Castle of Tomar. It belonged to the Order of the Templars and was founded in 1160 by Gualdim Pais, grand master of the Knights Templar." The inside was breathtaking. I think the pictures say it all.

That is a quail egg on my salad. It was almost the size of the cherry tomato.

Vera took us to the little town of Tomar where we had lunch and walked around.  It was a two-hour ride back to Lisbon so we settled in for the drive.  

That evening we had dinner at the hotel and I settled in to work on this blog. I was trying to catch up since the internet was so spotty in Madeira. I had a lot to do.  ​