Blogs from Cascais, Lisbon & Tagus Valley, Portugal, Europe - page 3

The weather was so much better today! No rain, partly cloudy 68 degrees! We had our all day tour today. Our first tour wasnt all that great. The tour guide spoke so fast i couldnt understand her and we barely had enough time to get off the bus and take pictures. We took a ride over the famous lisbon bridge, passed Fatima. We went to the Bellum Tower, a very nice church, then headed to a coach museum!? So random... we also passed old town lisbon and the monument of discoveries. We then went back to central Lisbon for lunch. Two hours later was our 2 nd tour of the day. This one was much better. The tour guide spoke nice and slow.. and we were able to get out and stroll around the towns. Our ... read more

Forgive my not having blogged for nearly two weeks. My adventures will have to be condensed until I get back on track. I´ll pick up in Madrid, our first stop on our five-day sojourn back into Spain. I was not prepared for Madrid´s charm. It is a beautiful city with a vibrant street life and exceptional culture (what little we were able to see of it). Fortunately, our hotel turned out to be very well situated for reaching what we wanted to see in the three days we were there. We were able to walk everywhere, allowing us to enjoy the numerous street musicians (all excellent), wonderful mimes, and exquisite architecture. It reminded me very much of Paris. We were able to visit two excellent museums: the Museo Thyssen-Barnemisza and the Prado. Both had extensive collections ... read more

Bom Dia Bo & Dud, Apart from obrigado (thank you) - this is the full extent of my Portuguese, and I’m not sure that the people understand even then what I am saying. Any road up, where were we? Thank goodness I keep a diary or I think we would have forgotten more than we remember. Before leaving Porto we decided that an outing was in order to follow the route of the Douro River - the Douro Valley is where the grapes are grown for the Port and Wine of the region. Again it was one of those ‘this is not what we expected’ experiences. We had a vision of mile upon mile of hand constructed, terraced vines - to infinity and beyond. No, not at all, the river valley is very steep, and the ... read more