Today was the big day !.. Brit and Brans wedding was this afternoon.. (and I just saw that I took 741 pictures today !!!!) 

Diane , Gab, Sammantha and I went in to Ericira in the morning for a nice brunch. It’s such a lovely town !

 

We headed back to the house and started getting ready for the wedding..  That meant lots of ironing.. Once dressed we headed over to the venue to get ready. The place looked really amazing.. so relaxed and inviting. 

In a short bit. we were all called into the room where the wedding would be.. I say “room” .. but it was actually a many hundred year old runoi of a monestary that had long said goodbye to its roof :-).. We all sat down and waited.. The weather and setting were truly perfect !

 

a little later, the wedding party began to come down the aisle

 

There was a long hush.. then out came Brit and her dad. 

And like that they were married !

Now it was time to celebrate !

 

then it was time to eat !  WHat a wonderful setting.. one very long table under a grape arbor

 

then came dancing.. with a great band singing in portuguese and spanish.. they were so great !

 

folks were dancing on the edge of the pool !

 

The sun started setting and the party changed gears 

 

the place was so beutiful.. the people were too !

 

the party kept going.. at midnight the staff brought out fresh made french fries and falafel.. it was amazing !

eventually people (like us) started drifting off).. I think the party went on until at least 3AM. 

 

What an amazing day. Congrats to Brit and Bran.. 

What a great match !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Long and interesting day. Our destination today was Sintra, one of the most popular tourist destinations in Portugal. It’s a beautiful old city built around a set of small mountains… on the side of the mountains are perched some castles.. some of them very old.. and some not so old.. the main one we chose to visit was oen of the ‘not so olds’.. in fact it was created in the early part of the 20th century.  the Palace of Quinta da Regaleira  was built by Carvalho Monteiro  who commissioned an Italian set designer ..a nd artisans from around the world to build a fairy tale like castle and grounds. It’s got lots of crazy themes from old Portugal, the  Masons, the  Knights Templar.. and I have to believe pre-channeling Walt Disney.  It was a hoot. there were secret gardens, waterfalls, small storybook castles with turrets. even an ‘upside down” tower that went deep into the mountain. 

 

we took a walk through a long set of tunnels underground.. it was dark and wet.. and had very cool ponds and waterfalls

 

We were getting hungry soe we walked down to the town and met up with Sam’manthas freind Amanda. THey’d been roommates at UCLA. Now Amanda is living in Lisbon .. She was elly nice and spoke portuguese, french and german.. We foudn a nice tapas place and Amanda helped us order in Portuguese. 

 

After dinner we walked thoguh the back parts of town back past our car and to a little place that had an occult store.. it was in a beautiful old bar  with a wonderful courtyard. 

From their we drove back an hour or so to Ericera. Gabe and I needed to burn off soem energy so we went for a run along the cliffs at sunset.. 

 

quite a day.. more tomorrow !

nite all. nite sam

-me