July 28. Setubal, Arrabida, Sesimbra, and Palmela

Another one of firsts on this trip related to driving is operating garage with the elevator in our building. It is engaging process. To get in you have to open garage door preferably while still in motion because if you stop you will be standing on the tram tracks. And famous 28 don’t like to wait.

Drive in fast and gentle not to hit the elevator doors accessible once the car is fully in the building. Get out, run over and press the button to call the elevator. Run back to the car. The door opens and you have a few seconds to slam your car inside the elevator while the door is still open. Preferably it is perfectly positioned since there is no room for maneuvers. Sticking out your hand to press the floor button is simple enough. To get the opposite garage door to open up once you get there, you have run over to the passenger side and put in a key in another control panel on the other side. Running back to the driver side to move the car out before the doors close is anti-climactic at this point.

Maybe they should make this an Olympic sport. There are amazing feats possible. I saw a guy attempt to put the car in backwards. I guess it is small price to pay so that when you are coming out onto the tram tracks, you are facing in right direction and have less on a chance to hit the garbage cans strategically placed in the direction of reverse motion. Rephrasing the words of the song from Chicago “How can you possibly do it alone?”

That little bout of adrenaline aside, we started the day by taking April 25^th bridge from Belem heading for Setubal located on the stretch of land South of Lisbon. This area was subject to pirate attacks. So a fort was built to protect it. Setubal fortress was a giant sprowling structure, not altogether beautiful but having nice views helped. There is a historical hotel there now from the chain called Pousada. We took a look inside. it is nice but there are some even better ones in the area.

Next we drove through Arrabida National Forest located in the surrounding mountains. The road rises some 1640 meters above the coast and views, even in light drizzle and fog were amazing. Incline was fairly gradual and did not present any issues to the car.

The next stop was a small fishing village Sesimbra. On the way we stopped over at Sesimbra castle. It is mostly a shell, with only a few structures remaining. But the views are nice and looks like archeological activities are ongoing and maybe they will restore more of it so it is as beautiful as Obidos castle.

The final stop was Palmela castle. As we got close to the castle we noticed a guy waving us into a parking spot among other cars. So we went there. Whereby he approached us and showed us two euro coin presumably the parking fee. Dan did not see any paid parking signs or any signs that the guy was legit. So we said no. The guy got very upset and animated. He threw the coin into the bushes, and then pulled out of somewhere a ten euro bill and proceeded to crumple it and tear it up.

It was then that we realized that he was a special needs person. Woody Allen had a more specific term in Love and Death, but in this age of political correctness I’ll leave it to others to fill in the blank, sad as it is. We got out of the car and walked to the castle and he took a staircase back into town, presumably having completed his duties. There were maybe ten other cars in the parking lot outside the castle like us and a plentiful parking lot inside the castle walls. Like I said a few days ago – human inertia works.

The castle is beautiful and well restored. There is also another Pousada located inside and this one is way more luxurious than the one at the fort. We could see our route through the mountains and along the coast from its high walls.

 Back in Lisbon, we took a final evening stroll with kids. Locals are not shy about stopping over to pet their heads and yet Irina complains that no one ever gets up when she is on the public transport with both kids. The one time we took the tram with her the tram driver declared that kids must be sitting down or he will not move. No one got up from the handicapped seats in the front. So a young couple in the back got up to give us some seats and get everyone on their way.



Sesimbra specialty -

Lemon-flavored Omelette