LISBON!!!

Today was our 2nd full day in Lisbon.  Yesterday morning, on the advice of the concierge, we bought 2-day tickets for Lisbon’s Hop On Hop Off bus.  So yesterday we did the trip to Belem, and today we went to the old town and the Castle.  Lisbon is a beautiful city - and once again we have hit Europe during a heat wave!

Anyway, we went to Belem, which is along the Tagus River.  That river is huge - my hometown is along the Mississippi River, which is no slouch as far as large goes - the Tagus is gigantic.  The bridge across it - the 25 April Bridge - was built by the same company that built the Bay Bridge (not the Golden Gate - I looked it up).  It is painted a similar shade of red as the Golden Gate and looks very similar…but not quite ‘golden’ enough.  

Belem is home to everything nautical here in Lisbon.  The maritime museum, docks, marinas, and everything to commemorate sailing out to explore the world.  There is an Orient Museum - it harks back to the days when Portugal had holdings in India and Asia. Vasco de Gama, Henry the Navigator, and Pedro Cabral were mentioned frequently.  Several statues of them and small ships on lampposts abound. We spent a few hours walking around and taking pictures, then headed back to the hotel sunburned.  

Later, we walked down to the restaurant area to the Hard Rock and got my pins. While there we met a couple about our age from Houston and started chatting.  She also collects pins and is a retired teacher, he is a physician, and they used to live in Palo Alto (he taught at Stanford).  Small world, right?

Move on to today - we headed back over to the bus, this time up to the Castle of St Jorge.  This place was built by the Moors during their occupation of Lisbon - between 700 AD and 1147 Ad - and was then taken over by the Christians when they reclaimed the city.  It is stark, and you can see that repairs have been done, but great views of Lisbon.  Pictures will be posted.

After an hour or so at the Castle, we headed down the hill and went to have a late lunch.  We sat next to a young man from Lisbon and chatted with him about the status of Portugal, the U.S., politics, bilingual education - whatever came up.  Like everyone we have met on this trip, he was polite and friendly and enthusiastic about talking with us.  It was a wonderful day, and not quite as hot as yesterday (33 celsius yesterday, 28 celsius today - I’ll let you all do the calculations).  

Tomorrow we go pick up our rental car - which we will have until we head to Madeira in 4 weeks.  The hotel concierge assures us that driving in Portugal is not a problem - once you outside Lisbon.  I believe that.

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the summer.