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Lisbon Ladies!
Visiting a hill overlooking Lisbon in PortugalLeaving Granada after having arrived less than 48 hours before, we were on a bus for a 12 hour ride to Portugal! To make the trip longer, the Spanish law states that bus drivers must stop at least every 3 hours to keep them from falling asleep, sooooo, we were on and off the bus all day long. Finally we were there by evening where we had dinner, and fell into bed. Laura, Natalie and I still hadn´t caught up on sleep and had a tour to catch at 8 the next morning so we crashed!
The next day our Irish tour guide, Michelle, took us to Lisbon (we were staying at Costa da Caparica, a beach town outside of Lisbon), and we saw the Monastery of San Jeronimo, the Discoverers Monument and the Tower of Bethlehem. We stopped in the middle of the town to get lunch and then walked through a medieval Moorish neighborhood called Alfama where we saw a Cathedral and the narrow streets, common of the area. We headed back to the hotel and walked literally across the street to hang out on the beach for a few hours before dinner. That evening we all went
up to the top floor of our hotel to hang out at a piano bar and play pool, etc.
The next morning, we headed to some smaller towns around the area. Before picking up our Portugese guide, our bus driver and tour guide took the 7 of us who showed up (yes, 7 out of 57) for the tour for cafe con leche and pastries of the area (Pasteles da Monjas--pastries of the nuns). Delish! First we stopped at Sintra, a small Portugese town with a lot of green and beautiful views of the land around it. We got traditional ¨cheesecake¨, nothing like American cheesecake, and walked past old buildings and the palace. Then we drove through Estoril, a coast town, and then stopped in the adjoining town called Cascais (Cash-Kaish). On the outside of the city is a large rock called Boca da Inferno (Mouth of Hell), which is a large rock with a huge hole through it that was made from many years of the crashing Atlantic waves hitting against it. The water was incredibly blue and the weather was perfect...not too hot, not too cool. We went into the town and walked through the charming streets
Vasco Da Gama
This Portugese Discoverer is buried here in the monastery and checked out their shopping mall....we felt at home with the food court and floors full of stores! We headed back for our hotel and hit the beach for another few hours before dinner.
Our final day in Portugal we were going to make a beach day but woke up to strong winds and cloudy skies so we headed into Lisbon and took a trolley through the streets up to the hill where we visited the Castle of St. George, built in the 5th century by the Moors. We spent some time lazily walking down the hill and hit the metro to see the huge shopping complex of Lisbon...we really felt as though we were back in the states! Too poor to buy, we had fun looking through the foreign shops and eating a hearty lunch. We ended the day with dinner at the hotel and a friendly few games of pool with friends. Though Portugal was a lot like Spain and wasn´t as amazing as other trips we´ve made, it was enjoyable and we saw a lot of different htings. However, after 2 weeks of traveling, we were ready for our señora´s cooking and Granada´s familiarity!
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anonymous
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Hey Laura !
Looks like you are having more fun than study??? What's that all about? Maybe I should forward this journal on to the staff at Drake just so they can see what kind of an education you kids are really getting in Spain...JK I hope you are having a blast! It sure looks like fun anyways. Have a safe trip. God Bless and have a great week! Your Cousin, Jason - Jason Rozell