In Which Our Travelers Are Tested

After a good discussion at lunch, we said our fond farewells to Nadia (if you want to contact any of our four guides, Marta, Luis, John, or Nadia about guiding in Portugal, I will happily send you their What's App contact info) we popped into an Uber and rode down the hill, across the bridge, and into Santa Clara to Unilabs to get COVID tested so we could re-enter the USA.

My appointment was for 3:00pm, while Carol was scheduled for 3:30.  We showed up at 2:45 and they promptly took us.  The medical person (doctor, pa, nurse, heck if I know?) then promptly shoved the swab further up my nose than any previous COVID test I've taken.  It was quite discomforting and I was worried I would sneeze during the test. 

Well, I had it easy compared to Carol.  I'm writing this Tuesday night from the comfort of my own kitchen, and Carol's nose is still feeling uncomfortable.  It hurt her so much she was on the verge of tears!

(Since we are back in the States, you probably correctly surmised we tested positively toward negative.  Research shows I have the most intelligent readers in all of travel blogdom.)

From the clinic we walked back to the apartment, stopping to find the Fountain of Tears.  I will let Wikipedia tell the story:

The name Quinta das Lágrimas ("quinta" meaning "estate", "lágrimas" meaning "tears"; "The Estate of Tears") comes from the legend of Prince Pedro and his bride's lady-in-waiting Inês de Castro who had a forbidden royal love affair for many years, starting in 1340. The tryst ended in 1355 when Pedro's father, King Alonso IV, who suspected Inês and her family to have designs for his throne orders his henchmen to stab her to death. But unbeknownst to the king, when Pedro's wife died from childbirth, he secretly married Inês, who by law, was the Queen of Portugal. After his father's death, Pedro became King of Portugal in 1357, and ordered the men responsible for his beloved's murder to be killed. He also wanted the courtiers to acknowledge her as their new queen and had Inês' body buried in a royal tomb. But the story takes a chilling turn when King Pedro ordered that Inês' body was exhumed and put on the throne beside him for the entire court to swear allegiance to their queen. They had to bend their knee before her decaying corpse and kiss her hand.

This is foreshadowing. . .as we will see Pedro and Ines again on Saturday (well, not literally, as they are still dead, but we will see their tomb).

We walked up to the bridge, which provides great views of the city on the hill.

If we look a bit confused in this selfie, it's

because we were staring directly into the

sun.

That's the university clock tower

at the top of the picture.

The obligatory photo of the country's flag.

Surrounded by the quintessential red roofs.

We had dinner at Sete Restaurant.  Can highly recommend.