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 and get rid of at least the headache portion of this bug. He was successful in that attempt, and so we headed out toward the train station, making a quick stop at Estoril's tourist information ... read more

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 makes walking for miles much easier. The Lido Hotel provided bread, meat, cheese, yogurt, juice, coffee, eggs, and several cereals - including something quite similar to Coco Puffs! Of course I had to have some because it's ... read more

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 remember the difference. Last year when we left for the airport we put chains on the car and slowly, ever so slowly, drove the 15 or so miles to the airport, unsure whether our flight ... read more

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, eventually they just aren't cushy enough (especially when walking on cobblestones - ouch!). We keep saying we'll have an “easy” day after all of this walking, but that hasn't happened yet. It probably will tomorrow, ... read more

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 we found yesterday so that we could try it, but we didn't have much success. So, pizza it is! And we found a grocery store, too, and stocked up on a few necessities (bread, cheese, ... read more