(Sophia’s mini-research project on Portugal has been quite helpful over the last 10 days over here)

Woa. Portugal is beautiful. We landed in the evening to meet Tony after a day of racing and our first adventure of this school year has officially begun!  We were greeted by wild peacocks and friendly locals and loved the small town of Cascais immediately.

Cascais, Portugal.

Tony raced TP52s all week and we got straight into school, museums, exploring and of course, supporting the team by cheering them on all week… The PROVEZZA team are from Turkey and are a joy to be with. We were guests at all the Team dinners which proved both delicious in Portuguese cuisine and interesting by way of the cultural mix of guys and personalities on the team.

Recess time was spent in the POOL, of course.

The local snack of choice here is a delicious little custard tart called Pastéis de Nata.  SO YUMMY. You will find a good description and recipe here:  pasteis de nata recipe!

School-work was done in the hotel and we were always visited by friendly peacocks. They seemed fairly comfortable around people so we often had to shoo them away from our study areas.

After a week in Cascais on the coast, we spent time in Sintra and Evora as well as a glorious trip to Lisbon. We toured castles, cathedrals, neighborhoods and monuments. If there was something cool to see, we sought it out, tracked it down and took notes. We loved seeing what we could in Portugal – though of course there is never enough time.

Sintra (above)

Lisbon (below)

Our Tuk-Tuk driver was fantastic and provided us a great history lesson as we wound through the different districts of Lisbon. Below is a photo from the Castelo de Sao Jorge.

We learned well enough last year that travel-school has to be flexible… in the photo above, we are doing Math and Critical Thinking in Lisbon during lunch.  We have gotten used to moving along our studies where we can, while making sure not to miss the culture and history around us.

Evora, Portugal

Cathedral and Roman Ruins were prominent in lovely Evora.  The town is comprised of a walled city which encases some important trading and religious history. The Diana Temple is regarded as the best preserved Roman structure in Iberia.  Also, we did drag the kids to see the “Bone Chapel” and we were all fairly grossed out. …I took pictures, but will spare the posting 😉

Next stop:  Seville!