After a ‘chilly’ nights sleep (think we got a bit too excited with yesterday’s heat and set the air conditioning too low) we got up and ready and headed round the corner to a local cafe for breakfast. As we’re here to sample the local culture, it wasn’t bacon and egg that was on the menu, but some mouth watering pastries. They were delicious! 

After breakfast we were taken by bus to the local school. We had a lovely welcoming ceremony where some of the students gave us a presentation on facts about their school and Portugal. They even mentioned something about a famous Portuguese footballer.. someone called Ronaldo??  

One of the students sang us some traditional Portuguese songs. All I can say is wow! He was amazing! It was then the turn of the schools from the other countries to perform their traditional song to the rest of the group. We were first.  After introducing ourselves to everyone, our super 4 students, Mrs Brown and Mrs Tinkler sang ‘We’re so proud of our school’ (along with the backing of the whole of Appleby Primary School recorded last week). They did a fantastic job and received a huge round of applause. The rest of schools took it in turn to perform their traditional songs. They had all clearly spent a lot of time practising. Spain decided that they would perform the iconic 90’s song ‘Macarena’.  This meant of course they expected everyone to join in. I think Mrs Tinkler has evidence of this, which we must remember to destroy later! We then had brunch before we set off to Sintra. 

It was about an hour drive with some sight seeing along the way. We hopped off one bus and onto another to go up the mountain to see the palace. Both Mrs Brown and I commented how glad we were that we weren’t driving. The road was very narrow and we felt ourselves breathing in at times.  But when we got to the top it was worth it. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking around the rooms of the palace. Most of the rooms had the traditional furniture set up. It was certainly an experience to see where King Carlos lived. The views from the towers were some of the best we’ve ever seen.. helped by the glorious blue sky and sea in the background. 

We then took the bus back down the mountain to the village. With health in safety in mind, we told the children not to cross the road unless they see the green man. We went round a corner to find a green man. Literally! It took us a while to work out if he was real or not...

We had a little free time to explore the narrow cobbled streets and traditional gift shops. And we even found time for a quick ice cream and pop corn.

The coach then arrived to take us back to Barreiro. We were dropped off at the shopping centre where we enjoyed our traditional Portuguese evening meal at Pizza Hut. Then back to our rooms to recharge our batteries ready for the day ahead in school tomorrow.