Where am I?

Good question!  I arrived in Lisbon yesterday and was met by my friend, John, who has retired to Portugal from London with his husband, Pedro.  I thought we were headed to a town called Setubal but, in fact, that is not where they live - my mistake!  We headed to what looks like a very pretty village called Azeitao.  The buildings are mostly in soft colours - yellow, peach, white and terra cotta - with many covered in those famous Portuguese tiles.  Their home is in a quite new "gated community" with all the houses being similar but not the same. 

So, in terms of where I am in relation to Lisbon, I thought the map below would help.  The "blue dot" is where I am.  The second map shows where Azeitao is in relation to Setubal.

Azeitao, which I will get to explore more over the next few days, is in the municipality of Setúbal, Portugal. It was formed in 2013 by the merger of the former parishes São Lourenço and São Simão. The population in 2011 was 18,877.

On the way to his place, John explained there are several well known vineyards here - we passed several of them - and they offer tours and wine tastings.  I am not sure if we will get time to do that but it is on my radar, so to speak.

For my first excursion, we headed through the Parque National da Arrabida along a highway John said has some of the most spectacular scenery in Portugal.  He was right - the views are breathtaking looking toward Setubal and the mouth of the Sado River, across the Troia Peninsula and along a beautiful very long beach.  Dotted along the way were lovely beaches and coves and one village that is usually impossible to drive into called Portinho.  The road into it is so narrow that it is closed to vehicles in the summer season and, even now, there is a signal system to control the traffic, keeping it one way because the road is too narrow and winding for two cars to pass.  We were lucky today and got to drive down to it.  

Portinho

Looking down on Portinho from the scenic highway

We drove along the ridge which runs between the Atlantic and the inland toward Lisbon.  Here are some of the photos of the coastline looking toward Setubal, the mouth of the river and the beaches.  Amazing!  What I found very interesting is that the coastline here with its limestone rocks and red soil is so similar to the Mediterranean coastline between Bandol and Cassis where the Parc National des Calanques is located.  

After we left the coast road, we headed to town of Setubal which has a population of around 121,000.  We visited the covered market although it was close to 2 pm and most of the stalls, all food-related, were closing.  Some of the market hall had walls of those pretty Portuguese tiles I always find so attractive.  

After the market, we walked into the old town with its narrow, cobbled streets.  Many of them were cleverly covered to help provide shade.  It made it all quite colourful.  We weren't sure what all the corpulent statues around were about - and there were lots of them - but I only included one photo.

After that, we headed back to their home with a brief stop at the village post office.  For Day 1, I thought it was an exceptional start to my visit.  The only issue is that Air Canada lost one of my bags - not the one with all my stuff but one with books I was going to mail to a friend here - and so far, there is no sign of it.  That is a major disappointment but, other than that, things are great!