Blogs from Lisboa, Portugal, Europe - page 2

Arriving in Lisbon, the cicadas are singling merrily indicating it’s getting hotter! and we are looking forward to a dip in the beautiful campsite pool. However, relaxing at the campsite was a challenge, there are hoards of children, primary school aged, seemingly in summer schools, identified by different coloured hats. They are everywhere, including over 100 in our campsite pool! Tram 28 featured highly in the guidebook and social media as the ‘best way to experience Lisbon’. We arrived via bus from our campsite, duly bought our public transport tickets and headed to the recommended start of the tram route, only to find over 100 people queuing! The trams are delightful vintage stock, but they only take around 20-30 people at a time and run every 15-20 mins. Plan B -walk the tram route, its only ... read more

Portugal has been on my must visit list since I was a child reading Robinson Crusoe. I was obsessed with being a pirate and this country has plenty of seafaring history to draw me in and that might be what set me up for major culture shock when I arrived. My hotel is located within the “Bombay” area as my taxi driver stated, which makes sense (now) given the colonial legacy of the Portuguese in Southeast Asia. I can much easier find Indian food than traditional Portuguese food, though I did the best I could as far as finding local foods. Portugal is different and perhaps that is purely because of my expectations for coming to this place - after all, how do you visit a seafaring nation? I joined a hop-on-hop-off bus tour and took ... read more

Seven good reasons:One of the best health systems in the worldMiles of gorgeous coastlineEurope’s best-value capital cityOne of the safest places you... read more

My last visit to Lisboa, or Lisbon was right after 9-11. I spent most of my time in Portugal playing golf on the Algarve, and just a few nights is Lisboa. I hope to learn more about this very underrated city and country during my visit. One thing I learned on my first trip: Do not try to use Spanish, in hopes that the Portuguese will understand. English works better! Lisboa is the capital with just over half a million residents, though the city seems much bigger to me. In fact, the metro area is closer to 3 million people. Lisboa's urban area is the largest in the EU and continues to grow each year. Yet Lisboa only gets about 140,000 tourists annually. The city boasts 290 days of sunshine annually! Seafood is a big deal ... read more

Spending a few days in Lisbon with me, this is what my mum wanted to do for her 80th birthday. We had booked flights from Stuttgart. So, I caught a train to Stuttgart and we left from there together two days later, on the 2ndof November. Our flight was at 9:40 am. I had heard all the horror stories of crowded airports in the aftermath of the Corona pandemic, with passengers having to stand in line at check-in and at security control for hours. Thus, I wanted to be at the airport three hours in before our departure, meaning we had to leave my mum’s place at 6 in the morning. It was an early morning for both of us, and we were pleasantly surprised by a very well-organised airport in Stuttgart: almost no waiting time ... read more