Blogs from Lisbon & Tagus Valley, Portugal, Europe - page 5

We woke up to the sound of the neighbors playing with their children, laughing, and enjoying life. Their apartment is just offset from ours, but a little lower, so you can experience their life, whether you choose to or not. Without much of a plan, I looked up a tourist information place, or so I thought, and we started climbing west. As we turned the first corner, the tiniest cafe, on a corner at the foot of some steps, was the obvious breakfast stop. An almond cream tart and a cappuccino gave Sue the energy to continue, and we were soon following the tram line to the top of this hill called Alfama. The vivid colourful ceramic tiled shops, and the working artists inside, drained the purse a bit, and as we stood discussing life and ... read more

Bonjour à tous, La surprise d'hier au soir au souper. Lorsque j'ai enfin trouvé un restaurant qui m'accepte, car seul, j'occupe une table de 2 ou 4 personnes, je me fais refouler, compte tenu du potentiel qu'il y a dans ces rues piétonnes, je peux le comprendre. Installé en terrasse, à la table à côté il y a 3 couples, d'anglophones. Je verrais plus tard, que les 6 ados sont installés sur une table derriere. 50cms me sépare de ces 6 personnes, mais qui parlent, et rient très fort, la centaine de personnes de la terrasse doivent en profiter, moi ça me sature les oreilles. Je ne suis pas attentif à leur conversation, en plus en anglais. Juste quelques bribes de temps à autre. Mais je commence à comprendre qu'il doivent être canadien, à un moment, ... read more

-8 in Chilliwack this morning , a good day to be travelling. Our friends Kathie and Bill picked us up, we turned the rear seat heaters on and started our adventure. Air Canada’s Dreamliner is taking us to almost the Big Apple, we will connect to our destination just across the river in Newark. The checkin , security , customs all was easy peasy ,Kathy did have to stand in the Starbucks lineup for 20 minutes so she could reward herself with a $5 coffee drink. I guess they are cutting back on washroom paper products and only providing a small square of paper towel per mechanical request. Not quite enough to fulfill the task. She just took multiple squares , doesn’t make any sense. Good flight, we missed out on any upgrades but had bulkhead ... read more

Hello from Lisbon Portugal. Wait! We are getting ahead of ourselves. Last night we left you with the adventure on the high seas as our ship swooped in and rescued another ship in distress in the Straits of Gibraltar. It turned out there were about 50 people on that small boat and apparently they were refugees trying to make it to Europe. Unfortunately for them, it appeared to be the Moroccan rescue service which came to help them, so they probably went back where they started. Anyway, our captain announced that we would probably be 2 hours late arriving in Lisbon and they would have to try to keep as many tours as possible, but to wait for morning. In any case they would not sail until midnight instead of the planned departure of 10:00 PM. ... read more

What today offered was a deeper insight into the cultural history of the people of Lisbon. We joined a small walking tour for 2.5 hours and in that time walked many a kilometre, climbed and descended hundreds of steps, wound our way through narrow lanes and alleys, viewed and listened to the local people going about their daily lives as well as absorbing what our guide was telling us about the suburbs of Mouraria, the most multiethnic neighbourhood in the city and still very authentically, Lisbon, and also the birthplace of Fado, and Alfama, meaning ‘hot fountains‘ or ‘hot baths’ and is the oldest district of Lisbon spreading on the slope of between the Sao Jorge Castle and the Tagus River the part of the old city we toured through. These suburbs are definitely poor but ... read more