Mais amigos e mais passeios

Mais amigos e mais passeios (more friends and more trips)

As I mentioned on last week’s blog (Tantos Amigos), I knew I had missed some photos of our friends at the dog park. Here’s a few more of the new friends we have made while we are here in Portugal.

Mari and Brownie

 

Joana and Stitch

Sofia and Napoleão

Vasco and Delta

It’s such a great group of people and dogs…we are very lucky to have this park across the street so that we could meet everyone!

 

And did I mention that my dad came home? I was so excited when he walked in the door last Friday cuz’ it had been over two weeks since he had left. I’m so glad he’s back now and I sure hope he stays this time. But the one thing I like about when he goes away is that when he comes home… he is very cuddly cuz’ he misses me too!

Now on to as passeios (the trips). We were very busy last weekend! It started out with us picking up our friend Cristina on Saturday morning. She lives right beside this neat park where they have plants shaped like animals. Unfortunately I could not get close enough to smell (or pee on) them, but they were pretty cool anyway!

And then we went to Evora, where mom, dad and Cristina had coffee while Smudge and I hung out under the table (sound familiar?).

We walked around a bit and saw some pretty cool fountains, churches and other really, really old buildings.

But of course there was plenty of time to stop for pee breaks…it is so handy that there are fire hydrants all over the place!

Then we drove to Monsaraz, which is close to the Spanish border. Monsaraz  is a cool little (and very old) village. I think Cristina told us it was built around the 11^th century.

The village has a wall all around it (to protect the Portuguese from the Spanish…way back when they were fighting a lot), so we had to park outside the wall and take a walk about the village.

…just look at the cobblestone streets we walked on

…and the pretty stone walls we walked by!

On one of the walls there was a very happy gata (cat)…but she is hard to see cuz’ she’s the same colour as the stones. I think she was happy because she was way above us…away from os cães (the dogs), safe and sound.

Unfortunately the place mom, dad and Cristina went for lunch said that they did not allow dogs on the patio…even though there was a little white dog on the patio when we got there (look closely under the chair of the lady with the red shirt).

But mom and dad did not want to make a fuss, so Smudge and I had to go back to the car for a bit while they ate (without us AGAIN…can you believe it?!).

After THEY had lunch, we all walked around some more and explored this really, really old castle.

There was also an old bullfight ring…which was kinda sad as it made me think about all the blood that had been shed there on behalf of those poor bulls.

But on a much more positive note….the view was amazing!

You can’t believe what I could see when I stuck my head through those little holes in the wall.

Take a look for yourself!

It was such a great day and we even made a new friend. I don’t know her name, but she reminded us of Mel, so we took a liking to her right away.

Now after such a busy day, you would think we would have a day of rest on Sunday…but no way. We went on another fun adventure to the Caparica Coast where the beach goes on and on and on!

Of course I enjoyed rolling in the sand…can you see me way in the background?

And dad buried Smudge when he got too warm (cuz’ he doesn’t seem to like to get wet)…

The beach was down below some cool cliffs…

 

And we had to walk through a sandy forest area to get to and from the beach.  Notice the difference when Smudge is excited about exploring a new area….he runs way out in front!

Besides this being a really cool beach, it was also a popular place for people to “kite sail”. I’m not sure if that is what they call it, but it sure looked like fun!

There were so many of them…

 and they even flew right over top of us.

I think dad wants to try it out…

After such a busy weekend…I’m sure you will appreciate what we did next!

A well deserved repouso (rest) of course!