Apr 21, 2006 - Posting from Lisbon, Portugal

Friday, April 21, 2006 Lisbon, Portugal The tour I chose for Lisbon was again a tour into the countryside. Lisbon is a fairly modern city, having been largely destroyed by an earthquake in the mid 1950's. A lot of lives were lost because as the people fled the collapsing houses, they ran to the shore of the river. But the earthquake caused a tsunami, which came in and swept those survivors out to sea. There are some older structures left in Lisbon, but I wanted to see more of the coast. Our tour drove north from Lisbon along the river until...

Apr 14, 2006 - Lisbon - ouch, the cab fare!

Wow, the turbulence on the Frankfurt to Lisbon leg of my trip was terrible. No one was vomitting or anything, but it sure was rough. The flight attendants had to stop serving at one point and then had to sit down for the remainder of the flight...seemed like we were in constant descent from the moment we got up to our cruising altitude - the captain was constantly looking for smoother air. Once in the Lisbon airport I was shut down...I went to the Tourist Center at about midnight and then had just closed. I even looked through the window...

Apr 5, 2006 - Lisbon, Portugal

Where were we? Thats right, just got off the train in a new city which we didn't have a phrase book for, after making our way to the Metro stop closest to our hotel we proceeded to get lost. Luckily this was corrected with some impromptu sharades and a mud map from a local shopkeeper and we found the hotel. Quite a flash place compared to Madrid, we got our very own room and breakfast for only 16 euros. We dumped our bags and checked out the centre of town. A very hilly place it consists of many windy roads and some dodgy characters (I got...

Mar 10, 2006 - Lisbon and Environs

We had to be at the airport at Lisbon at the ungodly hour of 4:00 a.m. to drop the kids off for their flight back to Canada. We parked in a rest area off the freeway so we could all try to get a few hours of sleep before we arrived at the airport. There was no traffic going into Lisbon (bonus) but when we pulled into the airport, there were hundreds and hundreds of people in front of the airport singing and waving flags. We thought, "What a nice send off it was for the kids".... but seriously, what would get hundreds of people out at 4:00...

Feb 7, 2006 - 29 Hours in Lisbon

Oi (Hello in Portuguese) Before I tell you about Portugal, I first wanted to let you know that it snowed here in Salamanca. Just a few hours after I made my last update (on the 28th) it snowed which was very surprising as it had been a beautiful, sunny day. All of a sudden the sky turned white, it quickly got even colder than it had been already and then snow started falling. By nighttime we had a few inches on the ground. My roommate said that he met someone who has lived in Salamanca for over 60 years and has only seen it snow here five...

Feb 4, 2006 - Sintra/ Cabo de Roca/ Cascais

We decided a scenic bus trip to the towns surrounding Lisbon. We first went to Sintra where we walked around the tiny town and tried a traditional Portugese drink called Ginja which we drank out a chocolate cup - advertised as "Ginja - try the drink then eat the cup". After this was Cabo de Roca which is the westernmost point of Continental Europe. A beautiful cross marked the exact spot with a view of towering cliffs looking onto the ocean. We then followed the Atlantic coast to the port of Lisbon via Cascais - where all of the rich...

Feb 4, 2006 - Lisbon

Lisbon - where do we start. Stayed for 5 nights with a friend and got shown around all the tourist and local places (Thankyou Sara - loved it!). The people were amazing and so proud of their heritage. We explored a castle on a hill complete with donkeys, admired the tiles that cover the city's walls, gazed in awe at the churches and walked though tiny streets not wide enough for cars where washing was hanging randomly and the walls were of every imaginable colour. We rode on old trams that shook to a stop and went in a 100 year old elevator...

Nov 17, 2005 - Lisbon

If any of you have ever considered coming to Lisbon, hesitate no longer.. I LOVE it here! I arrived early yesterday by overnight train from Madrid. It was a better train ride than my last overnight train, but not very restful. I am just too tall to fit in the little berths, and the trains rock and roll all night long. I managed to sleep a little, but not much. I explored the area around my hotel yesterday and went to bed pretty early. After a good nights sleep, I got up bright and early this morning and have been walking all over the city...

Nov 3, 2005 - sleepy in Lisbon

After twelve hours of fitful sleep we had a remarkable buffet breakfast with foods we mostly recognizerd and six different coffee choices - not flavor choices, but brewing techniques. Coffee is very important, because even after twelve hours of sleep, I barely feel that I have regained enough IQ points to speak much less try to write something intelligible here. We have not heard an American voice in our large, well attended hotel. Since Portuguese is a language very few others speak, when tourists try to interact with one another, feeble...

Oct 27, 2005 - M: Charmed in Lisbon

It rained in Lisbon and then it poured. The city's streets became rapids, its narrow stairs and passages - waterfalls. We were caught in the storm as we were climbing a steep hill, trying to get to an internet cafe and communicate our location. Our last change of clothes was drenched in the process, and our morale sunk. Things started to get better as soon as our cheerful host, an energic Portuguese senhora, offered to do a load of laundry for the meager price of 5€. Not only did she do a load of laundry for us, but she used a dryer, which...

Oct 7, 2005 - Cascais

Left town and drove on all small roads around the bays and cliffs. Thru the hills were acres of vegetables growing- seemed to be mostly cabbages and caulis, and as we got nearer to Lisbon it became more built up with thousands of apartments. We stopped for a picnic lunch at Cap de Roca which IS the most western point of Europe- NOT Cap Finisterre. Found a pension to stay the night in Cascais next to Estoril on the outskirts of Lisbon- thr room was completely done out in white, in fact the whole villa was white- not a scrap of colour...

Aug 22, 2005 - Lisbon

Portugal is a place well worth seeing. Unusual by western European standards, it is quite poor. Magic place however. Lisbon is packed with these buildings covered in colourful tiles - very pretty but faded. Bought a pair of 'genuine original armani' sunglasses from a romani gentleman for 20 euros - ok 5 then!