The Portugal Open

We awaken to the sound of either enthusiastic terrorist shotguns and automatic weapons or fireworks. The Portugal Open is about an hour's drive to the Estadio Nacional east of Lisbon.

Mrs. Phred watches the Women's final and Men's semifinals.  Both win their matches.

I find a vacant court with a chair in the shade and read and doze for five hours until Mrs. Phred is ready to leave.

Our hotel town, Sesimbra, is impossibly packed with people and illegally parked automobiles. The route to our hotel is closed. We park illegally in a traffic circle and make our way to our beach hotel.

It turns out that we have stumbled into the biggest festival of the year. The Festival of Pescadores (fishermen).




Sesimbra was established by Celts and occupied by the Romans and the Moors. It is still a fishing village where the fishermen auction off the catch of the day on the village docks. The place is loaded with little restaurants that feature fish. The village roads are old, narrow and twisted

The fishermen take a figure from the church in the morning. They mill about offshore all day then return the figure in late afternoon. We have a bottle of white wine, olives, bread, octopus salad, sardines, salmon, potatoes, and a salad. The whole thing is very inexpensive. That's been the case throughout Portugal when we eat where the Portuguese eat. A good sign is a bunch of men sitting outside smoking and drinking wine.