Yesterday (my birthday) was sort of a wash out. It rained all day. Sheets. Seriously pouring. My waterproof jacket and boots are no longer waterproof, which was pretty annoying. Elaine and I were both drenched.

Knowing it was going to rain all day, we opted for an indoor activity. There’s a huge oceanarium by the river in Lisbon. Having had my full of regular museums, I thought this was a nice change. We managed to take a couple subways out there and hoped the rain would let up during our 15-minute walk from the subway station to the aquarium. No such luck. We ended up calling an Uber because it got heavier! We tried to walk a bit to start and got drenched for our bravery (stupidity?).

It was seriously a challenge to get into the aquarium from the Uber drop off. More drenching. Eventually we got in and felt one with the sea creatures.It was cool. Huge tanks. Huge variety of sea creatures. Lots of stuff on conservation. Lots of kids but all things considered not terribly crowded. I’m sure the killer rain kept people out. In fact I mostly heard English (American and British) and some Italian and French. Other tourists like us who had to find something to do on a rainy day.

And since I never saw many birds on my trip here’s the obligatory puffen.There was also a tank with this sting ray that kept popping out of the water and staring at people! Elaine got a good picture of his whole face and it was kinda freaky. But here’s one with him just popping up. He’s in the middle and if you expand it you can see his face. I didn’t actually take a ton of photos of the fish — or other birds or even the adorable otters. But I took a lot of the octopus. Perhaps for my sister who is convinced they’re so smart. This guy was not that smart. He kept banging himself against the case. It was odd and a bit startling. And I had no idea they made such a variety of shapes … Anyway I went overboard on his photos. I think I felt a little guilty for all the octopus I’ve been eating this whole trip!! I’ve been eating a ton of seafood and started craving fish there — being in the aquarium on an empty stomach didn’t help.

But enough of the oceanarium! It was a great aquarium but it was still pouring when we left. So I just wanted to go back to the Airbnb to have wine and a delicious dinner of good bread, cheese, olive oil, and Serrano ham. It was good.

Today instead it was beautiful. So we went to a beach town west of Lisbon that’s near the western most point of Europe, Cascais. It was lovely to be on the beach and the water wasn’t even that cold. There are towers and museums but we didn’t do any of it. We sat at the beach for awhile and walked along the promenade from Estoril to Cascais. Then cruised the town and had a lovely seafood lunch with bubbly. And then took a walk to the Boca do Inferno (mouth of hell). It reminded me of the Cliffs of Moher in Galway — but a smaller and more accessible version. (If you’re following my blog, I went there with Joy when we were in Dublin.) And maybe a bit like the Kilt Rock in Skye. But I’m no geologist! The difference is that while the rocks are really cool, there’s a chasm and collapsed cave that was carved out by the incessant pounding of the waves. (The waves were crashing up high all around while we were there.) Below is the actual “mouth” but I think the more beautiful view is from the Atlantic side. It was cool. And afterward we went to a lovely hotel bar where we could watch the sunset. It was great weather to make up for yesterday’s heavy rain. What a difference a day makes!!