Lisboa

We spent last weekend in the land of Lisboa where we ate delicious food, drank great wine, and explored the "ups and downs" of this great city. Lisbon is a hilly city and Elise decided it's much more fun to go down them than up! We stayed in the Alfama area and this is a view of the church outside of our window.

The ladies really enjoyed hearing the bells chime on the hour. You could see the arm of the little man in the right steeple that came out just before and after every hour to let you know the time. (Brian and I weren't able to enjoy the chiming as much as the ladies did...when it was 6:00 AM, you knew it by the six chimes at 5:58 and the six chimes at 6:02. We did not share E and C's enthusiasm!) But each time the bells rang, Celia raised up her arms and sang along. It was quite nice.

We ate some of the most delicious food ever. Saturday's lunch we feasted on Sardinhas Assadas! It was the biggest plate of sardines that I've ever seen and they were fabulous! Brian and I shared the plate below with a bottle of Vinho Verde.

Saturday night's dinner was the Fish Cataplana at The Flor dos Arcos Resturant:

This fish stew-like meal is scooped onto a plate of rice and then you eat away into fish heaven! There were mussels, scallops, shrimp, octopus, clams, shrimp, and a white fish that I can't name but thoroughly enjoyed!

We had a fabulous long weekend holiday in Lisboa. We enjoyed watching the boats on the river

and exploring the Castelo de Sao Jorge.

On Sunday we ventured west to Estoril for some beach time. It felt nice to get our feet back in the ocean, jump in some waves, and bury our legs in the sand. It's been awhile and we miss the beaches of Southern California, so this was a nice taste of our former lives. Although Celia is not that excited about the water yet, she loved digging in the sand and destroying my attempts at building a sand castle. Elise loved holding our hands and jumping in the waves as they came crashing ashore.

This was a fantastic adventure and I really enjoyed sipping delicious wine with my husband as our two daughters stuck stickers on their plates and drank mango juice. Elise loved her Lisbon bathtub and kicking her feet "in the beach". I proudly recall terribly communicating with the pastry shop lady and trying so hard to follow the rules of her establishment. We would order out of place but they always welcomed us back. It definitely was a challenge to try and communicate in Portuguese and I was grateful to be back in Paris where communicating is a little less challenging. I can definitely fake it much better on my home turf than abroad! After being away, I feel like I've come a long way in my horrible french! I kept wanting to use my French on these poor portuguese. But we survived and it was quite entertaining!

In other news, we're off to the Roland Garros on Saturday for a day of exciting tennis. We only have tickets to the outside courts so I don't think we'll see any big names. However, it should be an exciting day and fun to have the experience!