Alcochete

A wonderful last day in Portugal! Beautiful hotel right on the banks of the Tagus River. Alcochete used to be a quiet, charming fishing village where the Portuguese royal family used to escape to in times of plague in Lisbon.
I woke up early and had a peaceful stroll on the beach before breakfast. There were so many dead crabs strewn across the beach that I had to watch my step! I don’t like eating the creatures but I can’t help feeling sorry for their plight! “Was the water too hot for them, or is this a normal occurrence”, I wondered.
After I had finished packing, we went on another walk, this time along the jetty, where this photo was taken from.
And then for brunch at Honest Greens, a superb tasty, yet healthy restaurant where we have eaten before when we first arrived in Lisbon.
Daveen and Mike dropped me off at the airport with plenty of time to leisurely get through the tiresome boarding procedure. Which turned out to be even more of a drag, because the plane was an hour and 20 min late, with no announcements as to why or how long it was going to take. Still, to help pass the time I got to chatting to a lady who was born in Sale, the same town as David and has lived in Portugal for 40 years. She also had once lived in Bahía, North East Brazil and her husband constructed a boat and motored down the Amazon from Manaus! Amazing coincidences!
When I eventually landed nearly 10pm, David was there to pick me up and then we drove up to Darlington, where we finally arrived and could sink into bed after midnight. Hence the delayed blip!