Domingo in Lisbon

Most of the town shuts down on Sundays, the only day folks get to stay home and rest, but you sure wouldn't know it with the bustle and activity still going on. Restaurants and cafes stay open, some of them, and the people are just out and walking around.

It's raining here today, the first we've had, and the mood and the streets are both a bit slipperier. The broken stone cobbles that comprise all sidewalks and roadways become slick at the least moisture, and to see these young guys traversing the steep hills on their motorcycles and scooters is fairly nervewracking.

Cathy and I wandered into a church after lunch to get out of the rain, and we were stunned at the magnitude of the building's interior. Cavernous, gigantic, with Christ and Mary occupying equal footing at the main altar, sundry saints and other lesser icons all having their places along the side walls. For a small fee you can get candles and pay homage to all of them, as many older ladies were doing, in a circuit, clockwise, with much crossing of selves and muttering and touching of stone toes.

Sometimes I feel I need a city, need the stimula and the crowds and the food options (ESPECIALLY the food options), that our current setup is just a bit too tame and too quiet and too Whidaho. But then, we stumble into a park, some greenspace, and feel the lack of all these things I think I need, or we find a quiet cafe and just sit and talk, or hear a familiar song and I realize that I love these other things most in their absence. It's a tough call, really, but I guess that's what makes traveling so wonderful--we experience these things, get to know them, sit and simmer in them a while and let them wash over us and get into our sinuses and brains and make themselves known in a deeper way, and then we get to leave and go back to our friends and families and dogs and beds and bikes (oh man I miss my bike--me and the Pinarello could be making mincemeat of these cobbled streets in the early part of the day!) and we know how good we have it.

We've still got a couple days to spend in Lisbon. We'll shop, we'll see a fado show, we'll revisit a bar where we've made friends with the owners and we'll visit the owner's jazz record store and recording label (more on that later) and we'll hang out and get ready to miss this place. Then it's southward, in a rental car, to the mountainous coast of the Algarve for a week's rural exploration. All this before we ever get to Seville. So much left!

Bom Dia.