Category: 2018_001 Portugal

March 6

In 2016 we had 8 rainy days in the 10 weeks we were in Europe. We’ve been here for 8 days, and we’ve had 8 days of rain. But the good news is that today it only rained while we were in the car so at least we stayed dry.

It started out as a beautiful sunny day so after we left Porto, we stopped in Guimaraes, which is considered the birthplace of Portugal. In the early 12th century, a major battle was fought in the area and as a result the town was considered the capital of the kingdom. Alfonso Henriques, who was born there, declared himself King of Portugal and that was the birth of the new nation.

How cool is this document? It is the original document declaring Portugal belonged to King Alfonso I and his heirs.

We decided to first head to the Palace and Castle. Guimaraes Castle was built in the 10th century to protect the monastery from attacks by the Moors and Norsemen. It became the official royal residence in the 11th century Much of the castle was rebuilt in the early 12th century. King Alfonso the 1st was born and lived his entire life in the castle. All that remains are the outside walls and towers so it’s difficult to picture it as a residence but what is there looks like it was built to last.

Then we toured the Palace of the Dukes of Bragnaza which was built in the 15th century and refurbished in the 19th century. The guides told us that it was built in the 5th century but everything we read said construction started in 1420 so we think there was a bit of a language issue. None of them spoke English very well so we think they were confusing 5th with 15th. We were actually surprised that this type of building was that old so this makes more sense.

Regardless of when it was built, it was quite beautiful. Several rooms had super tall ceilings made out of gorgeous wood. The tapestries, while beautiful, are reproductions as the Spanish stole them somewhere along the way. Again, we had a bit of a language barrier so we’re not sure when that happened or why Portugal hasn’t gotten them back.

Large stone fireplaces in every room

By the time we finished touring the Palace the sky was very dark, so we headed back to our car. We planned to visit the Guimaraes historic city center and the town of Braga but just as we got into the car it started to pour so we decided to head straight to Spain instead.

Even though Santiago de Compostela is directly north of where we were in Portugal, it is on Central European time so we lost an hour as soon as we crossed into Spain. By the time we got settled we had just enough time to get to the grocery store before it started pouring again. So, we settled in for a cozy night at home. Tomorrow we’ll visit the Cathedral and stroll the city center. There’s only a 20% chance of rain tomorrow so our fingers are crossed for a totally rain free day. How nice would that be?!?

March 5

We got to Porto about 2pm yesterday and settled into our beautiful flat. It’s large (at least by European standards) and is very nicely decorated. It’s just north of the city center so it’s only about a 20-minute walk to the main Se (Cathedral) Square.

Once we got settled, we headed out to get a late lunch. Just about everything in Portugal is closed on Sunday so we had a hard time finding a restaurant but eventually found one that was serving all day brunch. It was more than we usually spend (22.5 euro each) for a meal but there wasn’t much else open. The brunch was nice, but Lynn wasn’t wild about the Eggs Benedict, which is usually one of her “let’s splurge for brunch” favorites. The eggs weren’t quite poached enough, and the sauce was cold. And then there was some type of green leafy thing all over it. It wasn’t lettuce and it didn’t have much flavor so not sure what it was. She ate it but this will go one her “don’t eat away from home” list. The best part of the brunch was the sparkling wine “punch” they served. The wine was mixed with a fruit puree of some sort, a splash of 7 up and some other secret ingredients the bartender wouldn’t share. It was quite delicious. Lynn’s going to experiment with it when she gets home.

In spite of cloudy but dry weather on the drive, as soon as we hit Porto it started to rain. While we were at lunch it stopped, and the sun actually came out for a little while. We took advantage of the nicer weather to walk the pedestrian street that had shops that were open. We didn’t go into any of them, but we enjoyed the walk. We had a 3-hour drive, so it was good to stretch our legs a bit especially after a big brunch.

Enough though Porto is in the hills, the streets aren’t as steep as Lisbon. So that was a nice change. The houses are painted different colors and are really quite pretty.

In the evening Lynn was busy uploading pictures to the blog while Peter watched a bit of TV. We’ve got cable with a ton of American stations. Unlike Costa Rica and Italy, the shows are in English with Portuguese subtitles so he’s enjoying quite a bit of TV. But by about 8pm we were both falling asleep, so we played a few rousing rounds of Rummikub. We have a travel size and Lynn taught Peter how to play the other day. She let him win a couple of times to build his confidence but from now on she’ll show him no mercy. It’s a fun game and helps pass time in the evening as we don’t go out much at night. After walking a ton of steps (today it was over 18000 which is 8 miles) we’re too tired to do anything at night. In addition to Rummikub we have a deck of cards and a travel size Yahtzee game. Are we just the life of the party!!

This morning it was raining again. Even the locals are getting tired of the constant rain. We’ve been told many times that it is very unusual to have this many days in a row of such bad weather. But, as we keep saying, there’s nothing we can do about the weather, so we just keep moving forward. We did get out of it a little by stopping at the central market. It wasn’t very big, but it was under cover so it worth a look-see. The market had the usual things – flowers, fruits, veggies, and meat but it also sold souvenirs, cork products (very big in Portugal) and, of course, port wine. Porto is where port originates and is sold just about everywhere. We bought several small sample bottles so we could taste several different kinds. The oddest store, though, sold live chickens or maybe they were small turkeys; we’re not exactly sure. Lynn felt a little bad knowing that they were sitting there just waiting to get executed for someone’s dinner. Ew…

Once the rain stopped, we continued our walk to the Cathedral Square. The Se was built in the 12th century and is one of Porto’s oldest monuments. While Romanesque in style it has Baroque touches that were added in the 16th century.

The Cathedral was quite pretty but very dark, so the pictures didn’t come out too well. This the 5th church we’ve seen in the last 3 days and they’re starting to blur. And we’ve only been here a week. Not sure if we’ll remember any of them after 3 months.

After the Cathedral we walked through the oldest neighborhood in Porto on our way to the river. There were lots of very colorful homes and the streets were steep and narrow. Luckily, we were walking downhill but we still had to be very careful. The hill was steep, and the cobblestones were very wet, so it was slow going. But we weren’t in a hurry and safety was more important than speed, especially after we saw a young woman fall on the wet pavement.

Once we got to the river, we had planned to tour the Palace but when we got there neither one of us was much in the mood. The cool, damp weather (not to mention the hills) is taking a toll on our arthritic joints. So, the thought of taking an hour-long tour around another palace wasn’t very appealing. Instead, we hopped on a tram which we thought would take us in a tourist circle around the city. But it was only a one-way ride to the far west of the city. It turned out for the best, though, as we saw where the Douro River meets the Atlantic, which we probably wouldn’t have seen if the driver hadn’t thrown us off the tram at the end of the line. The sea was incredibly rough, and the water wasn’t the least bit inviting. It’s hard to believe that just 3 weeks ago we were swimming in the bath water warm Pacific Ocean.

We took the city bus back to town center. Just as we found a place to eat by the river the sun came out and the air felt quite mild, so we decided to eat outside. Well, the nice weather didn’t last long and before we got our food the clouds rolled in and we moved into the restaurant.

We got in just in time as within 2-3 minutes it was raining. It was still raining pretty hard when we left the restaurant so by the time we walked across the river and got the the Calem Port Cellar for an afternoon tour/tasting we were pretty wet.

There are 5 or 6 major Port Wine Cellars in Porto. We went to Calem because it was the first one, we came to, and it got us out of the rain. They had a nice museum that explained the process of making Port (they actually crush the grapes the old-fashioned way….by stepping on them) which we visited before the tour. The tour was quite interesting, and the guide was very knowledgeable about the process. Some of the oak barrels are huge, holding up to 60,000 liters (almost 16,000 gallons) of wine. There were some smaller ones as well which were aging the 50–60-year-old port. They actually still have several bottles that are over 100 years old. They only sell those to private collectors, but we could have bought a bottle from 1961 that sold for 175 euros…. we didn’t.

Did you know that port is made by blending Portuguese brandy with the grapes? Neither did we. The tour was very informative but, of course, the highlight was the tasting. We upgraded to the premium tasting which gave us three different wines instead of only two. Lynn enjoyed the wine more than Peter as he prefers dry wine while Lynn likes sweet. Even the dry white was too sweet for him. Her favorite, though, was the ruby red (middle glass in the picture). It was sweet but not overwhelmingly so and was quite smooth.

After buying a bottle of the wine, we headed back out into the sunshine and across the river. Our destination was the central train station and the Clerigos Church and Tower. It only took about twenty minutes but most of it was uphill. The train station is fairly small, but the walls were covered with beautiful tile work. Then it was over to the church and tower.  The Clerigos Tower is one of the most iconic landmarks in Porto and the church, while small, was very pretty.

Since it was after 5pm it was time to head home. It only took about 30 minutes but a lot of it was uphill so by the time we got to the flat we were exhausted. Tomorrow will be a little easier as we leave Porto and head to northwestern Spain. We may stop in a couple of places along the way, but we won’t have too much walking.

Have a great night everyone and we’ll post again soon.

It’s Monday morning and I thought I’d upload the rest of the pictures from Lisbon before we head out to visit Porto. Enjoy!

Thursday March 2 – Obidos; Nazare; Batalha; Fatima

Video Peter took of beach at Nazare.

This is a chapel built to commemorate the Miracle of Our Lady of Nazare when, in 1182, the Blessed Virgin saved the life of a Portuguese knight who was about to ride his horse off the cliff in dense fog. To honor Her, he built this chapel.

Construction of “new” church began in 16th century.

Final stop of day was Fatima

The children are buried in the Shrine. Jacinta and Francisco died in the flu epidemic in 1919. Lucia became a nun and lived until 2005.

Friday March 3 – Peter’s Solo Day of Sightseeing

Okay, so now you’re caught up on pictures of our first 5 days in Portugal. After breakfast we’re going to head out to explore Porto; we’ll post that tonight. Talk soon.

Well, we’re in a new flat in Porto (also called Oporto) and have a crazy fast internet connection. So, here are a ton of pictures from our first two full days in Lisbon. We’ll get caught with the next few days tomorrow.

Tuesday Feb 28 Lisbon on the tourist tram

Wednesday March 1 Sintra and Cabo da Roca

Here’s a short video of some “train musicians” on our way to Sintra. YouTube #1

Pena Palace. Here’s one of the palace. It’s a little easier to see the beautiful colors in the video. YouTube Video #2

That’s our first two days. We’ll post more pictures tomorrow and get you caught up on Porto as well. Love to all….

March 3

Lynn woke up this morning with chills and a bit of a scratchy throat. Not a big surprise given that she’s been walking around with wet feet all week. Since it was raining pretty hard again this morning she decided to stay home but Peter went out to explore the Belem district of Lisbon. He went to the Maritime Museum which had gorgeous models of virtually every type of Portuguese ship. He said it was a pretty impressive display. One of the barges he saw was one used by Queen Elizabeth II on an official visit to Portugal. It looked like a barge Cleopatra would have used and had room for 80 oarsmen.

He also visited the monastery which was built over 100 years beginning in 1501. He didn’t go into the church as there was a wedding and he didn’t want to intrude.

Next he visited the Discoveries Monument which is one of the most iconic monuments of Lisbon. It was built in the late 1950s to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of Henry the Navigator who was responsible for the early development of Portuguese exploration and maritime trade. While Peter didn’t get to see the monument from all sides due to high seas, he said it was pretty impressive.

After visiting Belem he took the bus back to the Lisbon Cathedral. It’s one of the things we missed on Wednesday when we got separated at the Castle and Lynn got lost in Alfama. There was a line to get in and since it was still pouring he decided to take a pass on seeing the inside.

Between the rain and tromping through puddles (which are almost impossible to see on the stone streets) he was soaked, which is of course why Lynn didn’t go out.

So what did she do all day while Peter was out playing in the rain? Took a nap, did a load of laundry (which takes about 3 hours), read a book and repacked suitcases for our departure on Sunday. Really exciting stuff but by the end of the day she felt much better and is ready to brave the elements once again.

Tomorrow we leave Lisbon without seeing quite a few sites but maybe we’ll have time at the end of the month to catch a few things we missed. Even though there is 100% chance of rain over the next couple of days we decided to head to Porto anyway. It’s the 2nd largest city in Portugal and it looks like there are some nice places to visit.  Hopefully wherever we stay will have a faster internet connection so we can upload some pictures. Here are a few more google links for pictures of the things Peter did today.

Talk with you soon.

Maritime Museum

Discoveries Monument

Monastery

March 2

Ok….if anyone knows a “stop the rain dance” we’d appreciate a little intervention. We’ve been here for 4 days and for 4 days it has rained. We leave Lisbon on Sunday and since we have a car, we thought we might try to find someplace where the weather is a little better. Doesn’t look like that’s possible as the entire Iberian Peninsula has a 60-100% chance of rain for the next 10 days. So, it looks like we just going to have to deal with it. Yesterday Lynn bought a warm scarf and today she found a nice, handmade sweater, so she was actually quite toasty even in the damp weather. The problem is her feet. She only has her sneakers which are super comfortable to walk in but not water proof. She thought about buying a pair of boots but unless they’re old-fashioned galoshes that go over her gym shoes, it’s pretty much a non-starter. We’ve been walking 15,000-20,000 steps a day and that’s not something she wants to do in new shoes. So tomorrow (when there is a 100% chance of rain) she’s going to try plastic bags over her socks before she puts her shoes on. Might look stupid but if it keeps her socks and feet dry she’ll try anything.

But back to our day. We walked to one of the central plazas this morning for our 9:30 bus tour and we were very excited to see that there were only 7 people on the tour. Our first stop was Obidos, about 75km from Lisbon. It’s a walled city and, other than a few churches, there’s not much to see there but there are a bunch of cute shops. Lynn found a pair of warm socks, which is great because by the time we got there it was pouring and there were gigantic puddles everywhere. Once she got back on the bus she was able to talk off her wet socks/shoes and put on her toasty warm socks. Of course, she had to put her wet socks/shoes back on for the next stop but at least her feet were warm for the ride.

Anyway, it turns out the delicious ginja we had yesterday in Sintra comes from Obidos. Most of the shops sold shots of ginja in a chocolate cup, which of course, Lynn had to try. She also got a small bottle to enjoy over the next several weeks.

We only had about 40 minutes in Obidos then it was back on the bus for Nazare, a cute fishing village on the Atlantic. This is where we had a delicious lunch and where Lynn bought her very warm sweater. We both chose the meat (versus fish) option and it was incredible. For the most part we have really enjoyed the food here. Peter wasn’t wild about his cod hamburger yesterday but other than that it has all been quite good.

After lunch we headed for our 3rd stop, the Batalha Monastery. We only had time to visit the church but it was very beautiful in the gothic style. We’re still not having any luck uploading pictures so here’s a link to some google pics. Batalha Monastery

Our final stop was Fatima, where 3 shepherd children saw the Virgin Mary in 1917. The children saw The Lady on the 13th of the month from May-Oct except for August when they had been placed under arrest for a short while. For the last vision, there were 50,000 people present to witness what is known as the Miracle of the Sun.

There is a separate building that has a statue where The Lady actually appeared. Pope John Paul II attributed his survival of the 1981 assassination attempt to Our Lady of Fatima so the bullet that was removed is now in the crown of the statue….very cool. The churches were beautiful and we spent a very enjoyable 75 minutes there before making the 90 minute trip back to Lisbon. Here are some google pics to hold you until we can get ours to upload. Fatima

By lunchtime the rain stopped and the sun actually appeared a couple of times so in spite of the wet feet, we thoroughly enjoyed our day trip. Tomorrow is our last day in Lisbon so we plan to catch some things we missed earlier in the week.

Guess that’s all for now. Take care and we’ll chat again soon.

March 1

Turns out the problem we had yesterday with the blog was the browser, so we switched from MS Edge to Firefox and we’re up and running again. We managed to upload one picture this morning. This is a picture of the street our flat is on taken from our bedroom balcony.

Today was our day trip to Sintra, Cabo da Roca and Cacais and except for taking the wrong bus and misplacing Peter’s train ticket we had no major issues. The train ride to Sintra was about 40 minutes and the train was very crowded. Luckily we managed to find seats so at least we were comfortable. Sintra is known for its palaces and castles. Once we arrived we bought a bus ticket that makes a loop around the area so we could get on/off wherever we wanted. Our first stop was at the beautiful Pena Palace, on top of a mountaintop. According to Wikipedia, on a clear day it can be seen from Lisbon but, unfortunately, today was so not clear; we could barely see it from the Sintra train station. We’ll upload some of our pictures when we can but they don’t do the palace justice. Here’s a link to a google search page that has several pictures.  Pena Palace

The original part of the palace started in the middle ages as a chapel, then it became a monastery. The great earthquake of 1755 destroyed it and it wasn’t until the mid-19th century when King Ferdinand II (distant cousin to Prince Albert of England) decided to rebuild. It’s easy to tell which part of the palace was the monastery as the ceilings are fairly low (about 12 feet) and the decorations are pretty subdued. The new part of the palace has 20 foot ceilings and is much more ornate. The entire palace is quite beautiful. We got some good pictures of the inside so we’ll upload them as soon as we can.

Of course just as we headed outside to tour the terraces, it started to pour and because the wind was crazy strong the umbrellas were virtually useless. In addition to being wet and windy, the temp was only in the low 50s to it was pretty miserable. The good news is that it didn’t rain for too long so after having hot chocolate in the coffee shop, we headed back out spending a few minutes wandering in the garden. If it had been a nicer day we could have walked quite a bit as the park is huge but it was just too cold so we headed back to the bus. Once down off the mountain, we stopped for lunch at a small cafe. Lynn had cod, which is pretty much a national dish in Portugal. Peter ordered a hamburger, ignoring Lynn’s warning that hamburgers in Europe aren’t even close what we have at home. He should have listened….what he got was a burger made out of cod. It wasn’t bad but certainly not what he was expecting. Lynn’s fish was delicious.

Then we wandered around a few shops, buying a few gifts and a warm scarf for Lynn. We also tried Ginja, a cherry liqueur that is a Portuguese specialty. It was delicious. The sun actually came out for about 5 minutes but by the time we got on the bus for Cabo da Roca and Cascais, it was raining again. Cabo da Roca is the western most part of Europe and has a beautiful lighthouse on a hill. The ride was about 30 minutes but, unfortunately, Peter didn’t get a seat. The trip was beautiful and by the time we arrived the sun was actually out. We walked a short way to the cliffs, got our pictures, and headed back to the bus. The wind was even stronger than in Sintra so it was pretty cold, even with the sun.

The plan was to get back on the #403 bus and head to Cascais for dinner then take the train home from there. Well, you know what they say about best laid plans. What we didn’t realize is that the bus is not a circuitous route so when the bus came we got on it without a second thought. But, we got on the bus that was going  back to Sintra…oops. We figured it out fairly quickly (the bus turning toward Sintra instead of Cascais was a big clue) but short of getting off, going back to Cabo da Roca and waiting for the next bus, there wasn’t much we could do about it. So, we didn’t get to see the small fishing village but we have one on the agenda for tomorrow so we don’t feel too badly.

Our second misadventure came at the train station in Sintra. We didn’t realize that the train ticket we bought in the morning was also good for a return trip. We asked for one way so there was no reason to think we’d need it on the way back. Lynn found her ticket right away but Peter’s was no where to be found. He’d given Lynn everything in his pockets during the day which she dumped into her bag. As a result her bag was filled with receipts, maps, guide books, etc., etc., etc. The line was growing quite long behind her so after a few seconds of looking we finally gave up and bought a new ticket. Of course, as soon as we left the window she found the ticket….oh well.

Once back in Lisbon Peter finally got his hamburger as we found some at the grocery store and made them for dinner. Of course they didn’t taste anything like our burgers but they were okay.

Tomorrow is another day trip, this time with Grey Line tours. We’re heading to Fatima and two other nearby towns. We could have gotten to Fatima on  our own by taking the bus, but we wouldn’t have been able to see the other towns so we decided on the tour.

It’s almost 8:30 here and we’re still a bit jet lagged so we’ll close for now. Take care everyone and we’ll talk again soon. Hopefully we can get a couple of pictures uploaded in the morning when the internet connection seems a bit faster.

Love to all…..Lynn and Peter

February 28

Our fist couple of days have been filled with challenges, the last of which is the blog. Not only will pictures not upload but the text isn’t showing up on the screen either. So, we’re writing it in Word, then copying/pasting into the site.

Anyhoo….

The trip was uneventful but long. We had a 7½ hour flight to London, then changed planes for Lisbon. We had a bit of a crisis before boarding our Air Portugal flight because the gate agent didn’t have a return flight in her computer. We explained that we were flying back from Stockholm on 5/26 but because it wasn’t showing up in her computer, she wasn’t going to let us board. Of course, Lynn couldn’t find the confirmation email in her phone so she had to connect her laptop to the airport WiFi and, luckily, found it there. This has never happened before. Even in 2016 when we didn’t have a return flight at all because we took the cruise back to the States, it wasn’t a problem. We have two additional flights (Lisbon to Paris; Paris to Copenhagen) but now Lynn has a picture of the return reservation on her phone so there shouldn’t be any further difficulties.

The flight to Lisbon went smoothly as did getting through immigrations and customs. We grabbed a cab to our AirBnB flat but didn’t hang around long before heading out for some sightseeing. By this time we’d been awake over 24 hours and knew if we sat around too long we’d fall asleep. Our host, Luis, suggested taking the red tourist tram which makes a short loop around the city and takes about 90 minutes. It’s a hop on/hop off but we stayed on the tram, making note of the places we wanted to visit today. Of course, Lynn dozed off a couple of times but she still saw most of the sites.

Lisbon has about 264 days of sunshine a year, unfortunately yesterday wasn’t one of them. When we got off the tram it was raining pretty hard and we’d left our umbrellas at the flat. So, by the time we got home, we were pretty soaked. The evening was quiet…. dinner, watching the Rick Steves’ Lisbon episodes on YouTube and planning our stops for today. We actually managed to stay awake until 10pm before finally getting to bed, a mere 40 hours after waking up Monday morning.

After a great night’s sleep, a delicious breakfast, and 10 minutes of frantically searching for the house keys, we headed back out to the tram. Even though the tram is supposed to be on a 30-minute schedule, we waited about 50 minutes before it finally arrived. We rode for about 20 minutes before getting off at the Praca de Commercio, which is one of the main city squares. It’s right on the marina but since it was another cloudy, rainy day (had umbrellas today; but much too windy to use them) the view wasn’t that great. There’s a 1.5-mile-long bridge that looks very much like the Golden Gate Bridge and it turns out that both bridges were designed by the same company. We didn’t get a real clear view of it due to the weather but maybe the weather will clear before we leave so we can get a better picture.

After stopping at Tourist Information to arrange our upcoming day trips, we strolled the walking street. We weren’t very interested in the shops, but it was nice to walk, especially since the rain had stopped. We had a delicious pizza for lunch then headed back to the red tram. We got off in the famed Alfama district which is one of the few neighborhoods left standing after the 1755 earthquake that killed 30,000 people and destroyed the rest of the city. It’s filled with shops, restaurants and crisscrossing streets. We climbed up the hill (Lisbon isn’t called the City of Seven Hills for nothing; these suckers are steep, too) to the Castle of St. George where, miraculously, the sun actually came out! The Castle was built by the Moors in the 11th century and is still in remarkable condition, at least the exterior walls. There’s nothing left of the inside, but it was very nice to stroll around the grounds. Once leaving, though, we ran into our biggest challenge. Long story short, we got separated when Lynn ran into a shop for a couple of minutes. Apparently, Peter didn’t hear her say where she was going and when he looked up, she was gone. When she left the shop just a few minutes (seriously, no more than 3 minutes tops) she couldn’t find him anywhere. The worst part was, that they had no way to contact each other. In spite of 4 phone calls to Verizon before we left, Lynn’s phone wasn’t working so we had no way to reconnect. Peter said he waited for her at the top of the hill for 30 minutes but since she was at the top of the hill waiting for him, we must have been on different hills. Finally, a police officer let Lynn use his phone and found out that Peter had gone back down to the tram thinking she might be there…. she wasn’t. So, she headed down the hill to meet him at the tram but took a wrong turn somewhere and got lost in the Alfama. After about 30 minutes of climbing up and down hills looking for the tram stop, she found a tourist information office. Turns out, not only did she walk too far down the hill, but she also turned in the wrong direction when she finally found the tram tracks. In order to get to stop 5, she would have had to walk up yet one more gigantic hill. The office let her use the phone to call Peter and this time we decided to just meet at home. What an ordeal!!! The first thing Lynn did when she walked into the flat was to connect via internet with a Verizon Customer Service rep to troubleshoot her phone. After about 30 minutes, it was finally fixed. And we know it works because she just got a spam robocall from New Jersey. Hopefully this won’t happen again but if it does, at least we’ll be able to reach each other.

So, the first couple days of our adventure haven’t exactly gone smoothly but we’re still enjoying Lisbon. Tomorrow we’re going strike out for Sintra and Cascais, both of which are highly recommended. Sintra is about a 40-minute train ride from Lisbon and after site seeing there, we’ll take a bus to Cascais. We could take a tour but decided to go it alone. Hopefully we’ll have fewer challenges than we did today.

Guess that’s it for now. Have a great night everyone. We’ll post pictures as soon as we can.

February 26

Ready to go; just waiting for car to pick us up. Notice the small suitcases. We learned a lot on our last European Adventure so this time we packed super light. We’ll need to do laundry every 5-6 days, but the euro washers don’t hold much more anyway so we should be good.

Talk again from Lisbon. Love to all.