Thanksgiving in Portugal Day One

For Thanksgiving this year I went to Lisbon, Portugal to spend the holiday with my second cousins, Ray and Penny, who have lived there the past three years.  At first I was going to fly into Porto and then take a train down to Lisbon but a week before I was due to leave I got an email that my flight was cancelled because of strikes in Portugal.  So no flights or anything on the day I was planning to get there.  So I changed my plans.  I had to fly one airline into Madrid on Wednesday and stayed the night.  I didn't see anything of Madrid, I got there late afternoon and was not brave enough to try and take the Metro to the center of town by myself.  So I just walked a few blocks to find something to eat and then returned to the Ibis Hotel I was staying at right near the airport. I realized then that I had forgotten my camera.  Of all the things to forget!

The next morning I took the shuttle to the airport and got on a different airline to fly to Lisbon where Ray and Penny picked me up.  We drove immediately to Obidos, a medeival town that has lots of little shops and an ancient wall you can walk on.  Penny is a great shopper, but Ray pooped out about half way through.  I bought a few things, a wall hanging and some Christmas linen.  We had a light lunch of soup and bread at a place they've never tried before.  Boy, that soup was really good.  Here are some pictures of the town.  I had to borrow Penny's camera and then they downloaded the pictures onto a CD for me.

Very popular all over Portugal are the myriad of pottery styles.  Penny and Ray collect certain patterns.  At this point I don't have anywhere to put such things so I didn't purchase any.

After we were done at Obidos we headed to friends of Ray and Penny's for Thanksgiving dinner.  There were nine adults and two children there so it was quite a crowd and wonderful food.  Penny's sweet potato dish is to die for.  It was nice to meet their friends, have a nice meal, and spend the first holiday away from home with family.  We got home around 10:30, early by Portugese standards, but I was tired.  Ray and Penny allowed me to use their phone to call home and say Happy Thanksgiving to family, that was great.