Lazarow World-Hike-About: 71.01 Portugal: Geres: Opening with a superb lake: Canicada, a multi-faceted body of water.

Sitting on the dock of the bay...well almost, more like a couple of thousand feet above the Canicada Lake.

Geres' own Stonehenge has a wonderful view of the lake.

We returned to Geres, some eighteen months post our first trip to Portugal. We think this is a region, the only national park in the country, where a person is able to capture tranquility that seems to be fast disappearing from Mother Earth. Of course, there are many similar places (unlimited actually), but one has to seek them out, and of course, they are invariably remote. Be that as it may, the scenery is lush, colorful and contains many lakes and mountains, the latter less common in this country.

We found over the course of our earlier visit that we would take to the mountains, and as we climbed, feel ourselves meld into the environment. The fact that it is devoid of cars, except for those traveling along limited roads through the park, as well as few hikers about, gives us many opportunities to absorb the surrounding beauty. And beauty, is no exaggeration. After 3 hikes, we have found no differences from that feeling of unifying with the environment. Perhaps, we are a little more experienced and are less likely to get lost, although I would not take that bet.

As with all travel, it seems, we invariably have unusual experiences en-route to our destinations. We had a long layover in London, some 6 hours, as well as arriving too early at the local airport of San Diego because of issues of government shenanigans. We ended up sitting in San Diego for over 4 hours. Our journey from the time we stood before the entry to baggage checking, expected to be at least an hour or more, was our fastest time ever, barely 5 minutes. It seems when the employees are not paid, they work more efficiently. Go figure!

Anyway, back to London's Heathrow. As an aside, I'm always tickled when the term "London's Heathrow" is uttered. People generally tend to cut down on words, shorten sentences and presume one knows what one is talking about when throwing out buzzwords. But it appears not in this case. After all, perhaps one could mistake Heathrow for Paris' or New York's or Oxford's...Heathrow. Anyway, that is another of my peculiarities. Should you have the time, I could list many more. Having mentioned this, I think I feel much better about the situation having got it off my chest. Hopefully, you'll all agree and that will make me feel even better.

Many situations similar to this with houses and apartments tucked into the mountains and forests.

A truly wonderful viewpoint where we stopped for brunch.

Another such position with the trees giving off something hard to explain, but nevertheless, very attractive. Perhaps the coloring and density were distinctive.

We will be viewing the lakes from so many vantage points, including heights ,over the next period. The bridge at rear, moving from left to right, brings traffic into Geres allowing one to drive toward the main church and be on left side of lake. Instead of continuing on that route, a sharp right turn allows a person to cross the water over the fore-bridge and head to the main part of the town.

Jen captures the solitude, even on a road, this one along a mountain, as we return home.

The beach juts into the lake making for a nice view.

To the right is a dirt road that heads down to the lake, reaching the houses below. Further to the right and higher is the official road that takes one across the mountain.

Below left is the that part of a residential district alongside the lake.

This provides perspective of town and lake positioning. Continuing along the lake, it makes a right turn at the bridge and that opens a whole section of another town above the lake.

We left London's Heathrow and headed for Lisbon which of course is in Portugal, I think. This is when our journey became more interesting. Our arrival time after clearing the airport would be after midnight. At first light, we were due to collect a rental car. This gave us a few hours to waste. Usually, we head to an hotel to close the gap: shower, eat and sleep. However, it has become so painful these days--find a taxi, get to the hotel while lugging the luggage, check-in, try to sleep for few hours (almost impossible), and then reverse the process, all in the early hours. Instead, we tried a different idea once before in Tenerife where there were no hotels in the vicinity and it worked well.

We sought a quite spot in the airport with comfortable lounge chairs to rest our bodies. (By the way, airport lounges in Lisbon don't cover our situation). This proved to be a little difficult. Upon finding something tucked away in what we thought was a quiet spot, we surrounded ourselves with baggage, withdrew some thick clothing to soften the 'concrete' floor and lay down to absorb the tranquility of a deserted airport between two large pillars. I assured Jen that as the early hours of the morning ticked by, we could expect a very quiet period.

She woke me, together with an unruly rumble, at about 3am at which time there were lines of people surrounding us. They did appear to be queued to check-in counters heading for other destinations which may have included London's Heathrow. After feeling a little embarrassed, two homeless people, the focus of hundreds of travelers standing above us, we packed up and sought a new temporary home. If nothing else, Hike-about provides many varied, and often allows for, unusual experiences. We regrouped and headed for another section which was not as noisy but not without traffic either. We stopped for refreshments and got back onto the computers and did some planning. Funnily enough, it was quite pleasant. The real kicker was the rental car company ended up being late in collecting us.

Thereafter, we drove about 200 miles to our destination, checking regularly to ensure our driver was alert. We suppose the real test is whether we would do it again. On any stay less then 8 hours, we think we'd prefer to hang around the airport rather than depart from the building, have to clear immigration and security again, where appropriate, and the rest of the process. Some airports have terrific loungers which makes a difference. In the end, there is no simple solution. It does appear to us that as travel becomes more sophisticated, it is also far less pleasant.

Jen faces the waterfall and decides to retreat...for now.