Castle and Computer Frustration

Wendy - I am the computer frustration part of the title!! Last Tuesday I had problems as well, maybe it is a Tuesday problem in Portugal. Most frustrating part is my Blackberry and our little Netbook are picking up the wireless connection fine. My "good" and much more expensive computer from work must be fussier as it is not picking up the wireless. So, I was able to complete a couple of outstanding reports that I don't need the internet for, but hopefully I'll be back up this afternoon to make some more calls. My knight in shining armor (Andre) get home from his gallivanting and suggests that I use the ether net cable.

Andre - One of my duties for today was to wash the car windows. The car rental company had not done a good job on the inside of the windows. They were all streaky and when driving into the sun it was hard to see. At the same time I am charging the GPS with hope that it will work ok. It turns out perfect.

Today I decided to go for a hike that is near the castle in Paderne that Wendy and I tried to visit but missed the turn. It is only about a 15 minute drive on the road leading out of town. Very easy to find.

When you get off the paved road you see a sign that says 1.5 km walking trail for the castle. I drove to the 1.5 km to the parking lot to start the hike. The trails follows a small river and ends up at a Roman bridge. At this point the river is dry and I walk down to it to take pictures. There are beautiful views of the castle ruins from the bridge.At the bridge there was also an old flour mill ruin.

Roman Bridge

At the bridge a pack of brownies or something similar were there. I asked one of the leaders if this trail took me to the castle. Yes it was. There were no signs and at some point it looks like I was walking away from it. At least I was going up which is what I wanted to do. Along the way there are some small flowers along the walking path. It is now over 20 degrees and I very happy when I get to the castle. You can not go inside the ruins as it is locked. The outside is beautiful and there are lovely views from the top of the mountain (hill). The castle dates back to the 1200. I climbed on some stones where the wall was low and looked inside. Not much to see but the is an old church.

Paderne Castle

I took the direct route from the castle to the parking lot as I could see it. A little bit steep but not too bad and a lot faster and mostly in the shade. At the bottom of the hill where the 2 trails meet, there was a old beautiful house by the river. Not sure what the sign meant but I did not go to the other side to find out.

I think this means I should not go further

The hike took about 2 hours to do. Next to the parking lot, there was an abandoned farm. They had a water wheel well and old orange grooves and wine vines. A few old buildings remained as well.

Grape Vines

Near the paved road there was a large building which I am not sure what it was.

On the way back one place was selling firewood. I am not sure if his last name sounded like lemon or if it was lemon trees. I wonder if you burn lemon trees, if it smells like lemon. Be good on the BBQ when cooking fish.

I stopped at the market in a small town on the way home. I knew it was there today and that was part of the reason to go visit the castle. It was almost 1PM by now and the vendors were half gone already. I picked up a few fresh vegetables. I order a pork sandwich from one of the trucks that was still open. Yummmy.

We decided to go out for supper tonight for a change. Started off on a walk to see what sales are on for tomorrows tours, I am booked for a day trip to Seville, Spain. This is somewhere Wendy and I are planning to go for a week-end, so I am doing an advance scout mission. It is 15 Euro for the day for the tour, I am guessing I may be one of the younger ones on the tour :)

We headed towards a restaurant that is at the very top of the hill opposite us on the ocean, but when we got there we thought it may be too cool to eat outside, so decided we would come back for lunch. Then headed to another place further in town that we had seen and ended up eating here. I had calamari, and Wendy had chicken piri piri, of course we had a litre of sangria, and they brought us some port at the end of the meal. Another good meal and a nice change from cooking at home.

Tomorrow my tour leaves at 7AM so it will be an early night for me. We also had a new microwave delivered today, and an electrician is supposed to come by tomorrow, no idea why we need an electrician, but Wendy will deal with it I am sure. Until tomorrow...