Today we went to Carvalho Beach: it was incredibly beautiful. We had to walk down stairs that went through a cave to the beach. It was protected and warm, so I didn't want to leave! We posted a few photos, but it doesn't come close to how beautiful it was. We drove to Albufeira, but couldn't find a place to park, so we went back to Lagos. We found a little restaurant for lunch. I think the main waiter was the husband, and his wife was the cook. They had a special...

Corri: Julie let me go first this time! We had a relaxing day in this beautiful beach town. After a wonderful breakfast (that included eggs; usually our eggs have come at dinner on top of red meat...), we walked to one of the beaches here. I would tell you to look at the pictures, but I haven't downloaded those yet. (I did add some older pictures, though.) It was a clear, warm (by Minnesota standards) day, and the scenery was spectacular. We did some walking arou...

Julie: Today was beautiful-we spent the morning in downtown Coimbra, walking through winding narrow and steep streets. The weather was gorgeous. We had chá (tea), café (coffee), and agua (water) at a cafe inside an old church. The women's bathroom was the old confessional! We had lunch at Café Montanha again, and had the same sweet waiter who remembered to bring extra olives. We took a surprise excursion for Andy to see Batalha, where the Portuguese battled ...

Julie: It's been quite a day! We went into the city walls of Évora and saw Roman ruins and finds. Then we headed to see the megalithics..the road took us through a gorgeous cork tree grove-it was worth the trip for the views alone! The megalithics are rocks-that's how I feel. I was more excited about seeing the cork trees and peeing outside (no port-a-potties!) the trees are beautiful. Next we went south to the Algarve. We booked an apartment for three nights ...

With so many things to see in Coimbra, what do we do? Go see Barbies of course. Well this is Julie's trip after all. But we actually had a blast. It was all miniatures of different places to live in Portugal, with little houses and castles Kids could run around in. There was also a creepy section where they tried to convince the kids that Portugal's conquest of the two-thirds world was all about bringing the weld together. Hmmmmmm..... But really the best parts ...