Taking our Own Lives in our Hands - Driving in Lisbon

Contrary to the wishes of Claudia, I wanted to drive into Lisbon today to visit a few places that I had been before and see what was new.  We sort of went to Lisbon, since we only made it to the outskirts of the city in an area called Benfica where the Colombo Mall is located.  To my advantage, I had by GPS working with my Portuguese maps and it worked like a charm.  We were able to make a straight shot to the mall without problem.

We entered the mall through the local Continente Supermarket and then into the mall area full of stores, though a lot more American ones now-a-days.  They had McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King, Pizza Hut, The Gap, Timberland, etc.  Although it may be opening up Portugal to the world, some of these influences are hurting the country more than helping.  I can personally see an increase in the child obesity rates here, I wouldn't doubt that it is because of the fast food restaurants that have popped up on every side.

After a nice lunch at the Serra d'Estrela restaurant, we headed out to the Cascais area to visit Boca do Inferno (The Mouth of Hell), a cave where ocean waves enter and cause an upspout of water to shoot out of the ground.  The typical tourist market was there, along with some newer, more permanent cafes and restaurants.

From there we headed to the Cascais Beach for some pictures, and then continued on to the Estoril Casino to take a quick look around.  I had passed the front many times, but this was the first time inside.  The funny part was that we found a slot machine with the same Hot Sauce theme that we had played in Vegas.  It was an older machine and not all the lights worked, but it payed out regularly and we spent a couple of hours there and broke even on our money.  Good time to leave.

We ended the night by visiting our very good friend Ines and her daughter Beatriz in Carcavelos.  She has been freinds with my wife for many years, but this was the first time I had met her in person, because we had spoken by computer many times before.  It was a great reunion for all of us.