Lisbon

Lisbon is a city built on 7 hills. It was almost completely destroyed in the 1774 earthquake and subsequent tsunami but has been rebuilt. It’s like most large European cities – busy, noisy, traffic, etc. One key difference – it’s not laid out on a grid making getting around by yourself next to impossible. And the street names are on the sides of the buildings and very hard to read. So far Lisbon proper is probably my least favorite city that I have visited in Europe. The people are extremely nice but the many of the buildings downtown are dirty, rundown and covered in grafetti. Portuguese is hard for me to catch onto. I can make out many of the words when I see them but I do better with reading Spanish and French. Nonetheless , we’re getting by. We’re staying at the Four Seasons and it is a beautiful hotel. We woke refreshed , went down and had a fabulous breakfast – the kind I like with fruit, meat, cheese and smoked salmon, Dave had his eggs and bacon. The only thing missing was the champagne (LOL) and got ready to begin the tour at 2pm.

We met up with the people we had travelled with last year and began the 3 hour city tour. The parks are beautiful but missing flowers, of course it’s Europe so there had to be a couple of churches and monuments. I can’t put my finger on it but there seems to be something missing here that we found magical about other European cities. But all in all, no complaints. Portugal does have an interesting history. There’s a lot of Morrish influence. I keep forgetting how close to North Africa it is. We had the opening night cocktail party and dinner – always fun to find out where everyone is from. The group is a bit younger than those on the last 2 trips we have taken and seem to be getting to know each other quicker.

Tomorrow Sintra and Cascasi. I’m looking forward to Cascasi – it’s on the ocean and considered to be the Portuguese Riveria!