Olá Todo o Mundo,
Tivemos um tempo fabuloso em Portugal. A gente foi todos tão muito quentes e amistosos. Outro maravilhoso país, que nunca esqueceremos!
Adeus! (Yeah, this is Portuguese ... the language they use in Portugal, surprisingly enough.)
We arrived on Friday, August 28th to Lisbon, Portugal. This tiny country at the edge of southwestern Europe is a land of rivers, fields and rolling hills with olive orchards and vineyards crisscrossing the land.
We decided to take public transport into the city and then out to our destination "Cascais" (pronounced Cash-caish). The bus ride took around 40 minutes. These were a few of the sights along the way.
Marques de Pombal Square - He rebuild Lisbon after the 1755 earthquake ... alone (we guess).
Campo Pequeno - The Bull Fighting Arena (no, Rich did not try it).
Lisbon is a city that is built on "7" hills. In a way similar to San Francisco, with it's rolling hills. Trams were running in every direction. They had elevators which took you up each hill. Quite interesting. These elevators were at the base of every hill and were as old as the city itself. They help transport people up to their homes, nestled on the hiiltops.
Once we arrived, we found a great spot for lunch ... Mega Vega ... in the center of Lisbon. We then ventured out to explore the city ... with our packs still on our backs. Here is the "Arco da Victoria".
And here is Rossio Square ...
We were looking for more sights as we wandered around the city. Here is Sheila displaying her keen sense of direction!
We agreed that next time ... one of us brings a compass!
Here below, is a Portuguese man riding his bike with his goods inside each of the boxes. Thought this was a great shot and had to share it!
Portugal is known for it's beautiful walkways made of ceramic tiles. There are beautiful designs everywhere. It seemed as though every street had a different design.
St. Mary Magdalene church in the distance ... magnificent building, inside and out!
As we said earlier, ceramic tiles were everywhere, including on the
exterior walls of many of the buildings.
Heading up to the main attraction ... Castelo de Sao Jorge! We worked our way through many of the winding tiny city streets.
Reaching the castle was a bit of work with our backpacks. New experience with packing and having backpacks but much easier than dragging rollers ... or having to check into the hotel before we go exploring.
Moorish Castelo de Sao Jorge's towering dramatically above Lisbon is a hilltop fortification dating back to 138BC. The gradual settlement of this area already started during the Iron Age when people from the Mediterranean civilizations, such as the Phoenicians, Romans and Moors, passed through there. There is Rich below with the stance of a "Soldier".
The video below is of the view from the castle above the city of Lisbon
This is a shot as we were walking around the perimeter of the castle. it was so amazing how this castle which was built in the 1500's was still in such great shape.
Rich at the entrance. Just take a close look at this exterior wall and bridge going over the moat below. Amazing!
This Castle of Saint George has played an important role in the history of Lisbon throughout the ages. This fortification protected it's citizens and was also the residence of many a royal family.
Just walking within the castle walls and looking at all of the spectacular views of the city.
This was the kitchen area behind the wall. Sheila could help but look in the ovens to see what was cooking. The people must have been so much smaller than we are today.
A musician playing his guitar within the castle walls. The sound was fantastic!
Leaving the castle we came across this statue of one of the kings.
Walking back down the hill and dealing with these cobblestones was pretty tricky. Just look at these stones and how they appear to be all shapes and sizes and not even on the same level. Apparently these smooth cobblestones have seen it all - Visigoths in the 5
th century, Moors in the 9
th century, Christians in the 12
th century, royals from the 14
th to 16
th centuries and they even survived the convicts from every century.
This is a shot of the interior of St. Maria
Magdalene church on our way back down the hill. The interior walls were
magnificent.
As we moved in and around the city, we experienced so many beautiful buildings.
We arrived at Cascais, after a 1 hour train ride along the coast ... a beautiful ride along the coast and our destination was truly a beautiful little fishing village. We had found out that the past 2 weeks was a festival for the fisherman ... and during this event they have live bands and fireworks for the last "3" days of the festival. Yup, you guessed it! It was set up right in front of our hotel for the closing ceremonies during the weekend of our stay. So let's just say that our windows were shaking ... and not from Rich's snoring, this time! From 10pm when the band started until the fireworks ended at 1am ... we were rockin' Cascais! :) Another experience we will never forget.
Check out this video below, of our arrival into Cascais.
One of the photos from our first evening and the full moon was even shining for us!
The next day we decided to head down the coast by bike. The hotel had told us
that we could get free bikes down in the village, so off we went to find the bikes.