With an easy hours drive we were in Lisbon (toll road). I was looking forward to it again, the campground was 22€ per day and looked like it would be hell as we pulled up. But it turned out to be great. We found a quiteish spot near the very top and set up. Wasting no time we were in Lisbon by noon.Lisbon is a big city no doubt, but the old charm and nice views make it worth the visit. Like any big city, all is not perfect. In one market I came up behind a couple of guys talking about Tam and her “grand photo”. They looked like they came from the hellish campground a few nights previous. One then point to the right side of Tam and motioned for his friend to go left. He then mimed that he would grab the camera. I was at least a head teller then both of them... a simple but loud “humhum” directly above their heads and they took off at a run.
We wandered all over the city and the hills around it. The architecture really grabbed Tam and she was taking photos like a lunatic. Lisbon is built between 5 hills and had elevators in several sections of town. You either had to pay to ride them or get fit and walk up steep hills or a myriad of stairs to get around. Lisbon also had adopted a San Francisco motif it had an exact replica of the SF bridge, as well as street cars that would ferry people around the city and up the steep hills.
The city of Lisbon was once a port kingdom and just our luck the sea defences were closed and
the castle was way to expensive to go into. So we took all those stairs for nothing!!! In truth the views over the city from some of the viewpoints was worth it anyway. On our way down from the hill top that held the castle we came across an archaeological dig site that was in the process of uncovering a roman colosseum that was estimate to be massive in its day, but now is little more then a few bricks.
We spent the rest of the day and evening in Lisbon wandering around little streets and alleys and enjoyed it all. We had read that one of the National dishes or Portugal was fried sardines with sea salt and found a little café that sold it. So we ordered a platter for two (which just so happen to come with a carafe of sangria). 
Shortly after an American couple walked in. Our meal arrived, it was literally a pile of whole fried sardines (not gutted, deheaded, or anything) covered in corse sea salt. The American man shot us a dirty look said to the waiter (in English) that our “meal is making his wife sick.” The waiter simply scoffed at him and walked away. They left shortly after that, why do some people even travel?
We retuned to the city the following night to do some night photography. Most cities are at there most photogenic at night and Lisbon is no exception.Lisbon is a modern city that has maintained its old world charm; it has all the hustle and bustle of any large city but also has a unique prettiness that is lost so often in the race for money and growth. Funnily enough I really enjoyed Lisbon but am finding it hard to say why or explain more.
On our way out of town we stopped in a huge camping store that oddly one sold one brand, but next to where we parked was the ultimate rat travel bike. A modified Honda Deville, would you just look at those tank panniers!
From Lisbon we headed to Sintra.. a massive 20min ride. When we got there we found a picture perfect little village that was dotted with abandon mansions. We could not believe that some of these places were left to rot. One in particular caught both our attention. It looks like it was an old nunnery or something. It was huge and beautiful and empty. It would be a tragedy if it were to fall to bits. It was just calling out to become a B&B.
We wandered around town for a bit, but decide not to pay entry fees in to any of the castles or forts (the cheapest being about 5€, the most was 11€ each). We have been too spoiled by our national heritage and trust cards to start paying at least of 1/3 our daily budget on an entry fee.
After awhile we decided to head to the coast to find a campground. Our GPS and maps both let us down and several listed on the GPS were caravan or wild camps or were closed for whatever reason. Finally we did find a camp and it was nice enough although we pitched to close too the services block and I was unable to sleep for most of the night.
At the time of writing this we are back in Sintra at the library that will not accept our memory stick and says it has a virus but the eee pc and avast claims that the virus come from them. Later to day we head for Evora,