The last day in Portugal. Trust me when I say this we are TIRED!!!!!!!!! It is really tough to cram all of this stuff in and getting very little quality sleep. One more night sleeping on that rock hard bed. Anyway today we are going to do some easy sight seeing. We will head up the cost to a little village called Cabo da Roca the western most point of Europe. Then from there who knows. We do plan to go to the Casino in Estoril which opens at 3 PM and see what all the hype is about.
Surprisingly we get out the earliest today and the day is overcast and cool. All week the temperature has been in the fifties and climbed to sixty
one day so you can see why we were a bit taken back when I walked out on the patio to an overcast sky and chilly winds. As we head out the lobby doors
we can hear the construction workers going at it but at least they aren't blocking the road out of the parking area.
I start up the GPS unit and it can't find Cabo da Roca. This place must be small. So I go old school and drag out my $20 map I bought at Barnes and Noble. Nope ain't there either. So I look on the map Avus gave us and there it is. It is so small that the name is in the Atlantic Ocean and the spot it is next to is covered by another town's name that is to the right. I then look at a map of Cascais and it shows the village and roads going to it but no names on the roads. Heck I can do this. Get on the road and North and keep the Ocean to our left. Doreen has trusted me so far except for my Mountain escapade yesterday.
The road winds along the coast and we pass the healthy Portugese runners that dot the side walk along the road. Here is a shot of Caboda Roca from the road. It is on the
jutting piece of land in this picture. 
. Continuing up the coast I just follow the small
signs pointing the way. We go through a small town called Azoria 
. Finally I see a
larger sign for Cabo da Roca and head down the road. We start to wonder if we are going in the right direction when a tour bus comes around a turn and I hug the right side of the road as Doreen holds on for
dear life. We make it past and then we see it. 
This place is beautiful. They call it a village. It has a Tourist
Office and combination Resturant and Souvineer Shop. The view is wonderful and the wind is not too bad but chilly. I regret that I chose today
to switch away from my fleece Pull over to my Ramada jacket. One thing that has remained constant has been the smell of smoke. Everywhere we have gone
we smelled smoke. We head into the Tourist office and see why there is a smokey smell. They use wood to heat the building. There is a room to the left that
has a giant fireplace with a wall of wood next to it. The fire is blazing. At the desk I filled out the form to get our certificate that says me and Dorrenn have ventured
to the Westernmost point of Europe. As we leave this dog is lying on the porch and just relaxing. 
.
In this next picture if you look off to the right mountain top you will see a square structure. That is the Moorish Castle in Sintra where we went yesterday.
We didn't go there since we were beat after climbing the Pena Palace. 
. The
surrounding ground of the area is covered with this green plant called the Hottentot Fig. 
. It was brought
to Portugal as an ornamental plant but is very aggressive plant and takes over. Something they didn't expect. Here are some shots of the other flowers
in the area. 
We leave Cabo da Roca and head to a town called Colares. I picked that because they have a winery in that town. I saw it on the wall of the
Tourist information office. The nice thing is that the GPS knows where this town is. It is just 20 mor so minutes away. Here is the road we traveled to get there.
As we come to the town we see the Winery 
. The winery is either closed or they don't allow visitors
because we can't find a way in. We drive around looking for a parking spot so we can stroll the little town. After we park, and there is no meter
so we look all over to make sure it is a free spot. I figure we will each lunch in this quiet town but for Portugese we are early. Doreen wants to
try Portugese pizza so there is a cafe that has a large sign for Pizzeria. We walk in to a deserted room. The waiter comes out after a while as
we make some noise talking. We ask if we are too early for lunch and we get that stare we have become used to when they don't understand us. I do my
best to get him to undrstand and he says yes and to come back later. So we walk around some more and see this cafe 
As we go in we read the menu. We have become pretty good at reading these menus. A young man comes out from behind the counter and sees we are
english. He helps as we ask him if these are sandwiches, salads and ask him what the soup of the day is. He says legumes, which is vegetable soup not peas or beans. We both
order soup and a sandwich. Doreen has the tuna melt while I go for ham and cheese. Our young waiter gets into an argument with the chef who looks like his mother. The food
is great and cheap. As we sit by the window watching the town we see a crowd of kids in costume heading to a small park across from us.
.
It finally dawns on me that Lent starts Wednesday and Mardi Gras and the Carnival in Rio so Carnival is coming here as well. We finish
our lunch with some Portugese Pastry and coffee with milk. I pay the bill and we head back to the car. We pass the taxi stand 
and then
a vinyard 
. We are headed to a small gift shop across from where we
parked and see this blocking our car 
This is a roving recycle education bus show. By the time we get out of the gift shop the bus has left. We leave town and head back to Cascais. Here are
some shots of the shoreline.
This picture is what looks to be an old ocean swimming pool.
.
After a short stop at the hotel we head to the Casino Estoril. This place is big but it doesn't match what we have in the states. The table games are on the second floor and you have to pay to get into that area. I plunk down 8 euros for me and Doren. Then the man asks for our Passports. He enters the info into a computer to see if we are some sharks I guess. when we get in the place is almost empty. There is one table crowded with a bunch of smoking men and then one person at the Roulette table. I head there and hand the dealer a $100 chip. He gives me a stack of chips that gave a one on them. The minimum bid is $5 so I figure it is like AC and put my normal six chips on my normal numbers. Then as I lose that roll it dawns on me I only have 14 chips left. The 1 stands for one $5 bet. I just bet $30. I gasp. All of a sudden there are three more people betting and they mean business. They are betting $200 to $300 a spin. Well I end up losing my $100 and leave to try the slots. Doreen finds a slot machine and we try 20 euros. She hits a couple of times but but not much. A lot of the slot machines are in English. About the only thing we won was a cheap parking spot.
As we head back for the night I stop to fill the Audi's tank. Diesal fuel is 1.245 euros per liter. That is roughly 5 euros per gallon or $7.50 a gallon. It cost me 68 euros to fill up. No wonder the gut smiled when I told him I was filling up. Good thing the Audi got good mileage. We get back to the hotel and eat dinner in the hotel for the evening.