In planning the trip, we wanted to do a wine tour, but many of the ones offered are multi-day tours. I searched around on-line and found a "Full-day Arrabida Private Tour With Wine and Food Tasting. It was an all-day tour, and was getting us out of Lisbon, across the river, to a region we otherwise would not have gone.
Honestly, I was a bit fuzzy on the details. I wasn't sure whether "private" meant just Carol and I, or if it was a small group in a van. We were ready promptly at our 8am pick-up, having had breakfast early. After two straight days of the omelet line being long and excruciatingly slow, it was nice to show up and have no one ahead of me for an omelet. It was a good start.
Our guide, Joao Nunes ("call me John," he said, so we did) was waiting for us in the lobby. He escorted us out to his nice, private car. So, it was to just be us. As we drove the hour to the first stop, we talked at length about the upcoming day, being a tour guide during COVID (not easy by any stretch), his kids, our travel in Lisbon thus far, and other topics.
The first stop, after about an hour drive, was at the Mercado do Livramento in the town of Setubal (suh-TOO-bull), the best fish market in Portugal according to John. I love fish markets, and we wish there were markets like this in the U.S.
Before we could park, however, there was an impending half-marathon that was going to shut down the main road in front of the fish market for several hours. John had to find parking in a remote part of the neighborhood so we were not trapped by hundreds of runners or police.
We ended up walking past this very cool sculpture, dedicated to a woman killed in the early 1900s. She had been a voice for better working conditions at a factory, and ended up dead for it.
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