The day dawned as what I've come to believe is a typical winter day in this part of the world - overcast, occasionally drizzly, but warm (60s) unless the wind whips up. Matthew said that this would be a nice place to live simply because the temperatures are so moderate. That is its appealing aspect (although I still say I would choose Prague as a place to live, if I were to choose some non-Portland place). We wore our lighter jackets, more suitable for rain, hoped that the clouds would hold off on their forecasted showers for at least a few [View Full Entry]

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Even though today was supposed to be a slow, early day (due in part to Matthew coming down with something last night - sore throat, fever, cough, headache), as it turns out we had our longest day yet out and about in Lisbon. I hold the metro at least partially responsible - day passes turned out to be just over four euros a person, so we wanted to make sure that we got our money's worth out of them. We started a bit later in the day - shortly before 10AM - so that Matthew could rest a bit after breakfast [View Full Entry]

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We did not discover whether Mexican food in Portugal is authentic - that will have to wait for another day. We did, however, have a lovely day filled with beautiful sites. The day ended a bit earlier than usual, but as I type this and look out the window of our hotel I see rain start to spread down the coastline, so an early day was probably a good idea. Matthew woke up with a bit of a cough this morning and needed vitamins and my feet were killing me, so “taking it easy” might be a good idea for now. [View Full Entry]

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After a long and productive day of walking, Matthew and I are sitting in front of the television watching Portuguese commercials that are still using Christmas music. Is Christmas not over yet? In my confused state I would believe just about anything - I have a hard time remembering what day it is due to the big time change. However, thanks to Matthew's extensive travels and opportunities to experiment with jet-lag, we've done fairly well getting into local time. This morning we awoke and headed downstairs to breakfast. I love having a hotel that serves a continental breakfast! It ma [View Full Entry]

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What a long day! But it's been a good day. After our four hour layover in Amsterdam we loaded on to a plane bound for Lisbon. Unlike our flight to Amsterdam, which was practically empty, the flight to Lisbon booked every seat. It was a relatively short flight, just a couple hours, but since it was operated by KLM they fed us, which was nice. I was impressed, too, that I received both a glass of wine and a cup of water without having to ask for both. (Delta should take notes. And I must give a shout-out to Thu, who [View Full Entry]

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Travel Blog to Lisbon - 2009 Winter Trip December 24-25, 2009 This is it! Our 2009 Winter Trip. The destination this year is much warmer than previous years. At last check, Lisbon's forecast was for weather in the 50s and 60s with a bit of rain, like a fall or spring day in Oregon. Considering that the past two winter trips consisted of temperatures well below freezing, this is a nice change of pace. No need to pack long johns for this trip! Even the weather at home was different this year. I had Matthew take a picture so that we [View Full Entry]

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December 30, 2008 We made it! The end of our vacation. And the first time I've actually blogged all the way through a vacation! Usually I get too tired and give up in favor of sleep. But the night is still young, I have instant latte macchiato in my cup, watching a German M-TV-ish music countdown on television (and wishing I could stab my ears because Phil Collins is currently singing - oh good, that stopped; even Mariah Carey is an improvement), and the bells from the church across the street are ringing like the Second Coming is nigh. So, no [View Full Entry]

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December 29, 2008 We broke our record for walking today. By late this afternoon my feet felt like they were about to fall off - we had 33,000 steps at that point. I had Matthew get us each a ticket for a short trip on the U-bahn because suddenly it seemed worth 2.30E a piece. Even with that, we ended up with 36,000 steps today. I told Matthew that next year before we take a trip I should get us some Dr. Scholl's inserts for our shoes because it doesn't matter how comfortable your shoes are for the first 10,000 steps, [View Full Entry]

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December 28, 2008 This morning when we awoke, we were glad we had decided to sleep in until 8AM. After all of the walking these past few days, we were a little sore. We didn't think that today would involve too much walking because we had plans for museums. In looking at the guidebooks before we left the hotel, I saw that “The Big Easy” offered a breakfast menu from 10-5 on Sundays, complete with jazz music, as any good New Orleans-themed restaurant has. New Orleans-themed restaurant in Munich? Of course we had to check it out. Sadly, it was a [View Full Entry]

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December 27, 2008 We made it back to our hotel after another long day; we're sitting here eating pizza from a place down the road (which was run by a Japanese family who sold pizza and sushi, Japanese beer and Russian vodka all in this tiny shop), and watching a funny German show on television (the host is visiting a royal family - whose royal family I'm not quite sure. Germany? - and acting really silly and enough is getting across to us that we are laughing through dinner. We were hoping to stumble back upon the little Afghani restaurant that [View Full Entry]

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