Lisbon, Portugal

Saturday August 10th

Well, although we got back late last night after the medal ceremonies and watching the 55 women’s and men’s matches, we got up reasonably early in order to reach the Lisbon castle by around 9am, before it got crowded. We succeeded and had a nice time walking all around the castle and seeing the beautiful views of the city. The castle is quite old and though only the walls are intact, is quite impressive with its ramparts, and thick walls…it looks exactly as a castle should to Americans.

The roads leading up to the castle are barely a car’s width wide and are mostly cobblestoned. There were a number of tourist shops on the ground floors with Saturday laundry fluttering from the windows a floor or two above the cobblestones. Cork and tile are very popular gifts here along with fish-themed dish towels.

After looking around the castle we walked back to where we’d started and taste tested another pasteis de Nata, and this one passed muster so we bought a dozen. There are two left (in fairness, we are now a group of five).

I met up in the afternoon with Jenny Klitch from Florida and we had a good hit at another club. In the middle of our hit a whirlwind came through the court. They are pretty common in California, but apparently not in Ohio or Florida where Jenny’s from! The courts were hard and similar to the way the ones at Jamor were at the beginning of the week, before they put more clay on the courts.

Tracey Thompson from USA won today easily (apparently she hit so many winners she needed a practice after her match, which had very few rallies.). Jenny Cerff, RSA, plays tomorrow while the rest of us have the day off. We are all going to practice and obviously, buy more Pasteis de Nata!

Draws Now Available for ITF Seniors Individual World Championships