Blogs from Lisbon, Lisbon & Tagus Valley, Portugal, Europe - page 11

I woke up this morning with the urge to go to see the tower of Belem today. I was told that the beach Cascais was a short walk from the tower, by my roommate doctor friend. She told me to take the tram and it will drop me off there. So I did a little research and found the train station. Because a tram and a train are the same thing right? No. I bought an all-day metro pass that included the bus and the tram, so I wouldn’t have to do so much walking after yesterday's hike. So I got to the train station ready to use my pass, when it wouldn’t work. I ended up having to buy a separate pass, because even though the train looks the same and goes to the same ... read more

We flew to Lisbon from Dublin on the 23rd April. Arriving we caught the metro into the town centre and walked 100 metres to our hotel. We were staying right in the heart of Lisbon. First impressions were great, it was sunny, warm, bustling with people and street performers. Lisbon is a hilly city similar to San Fran in the US. It is so similar it modeled the Great Golden Gate San Fran bridge and build the same one in the heart of the city. It has beautiful buildings that were situated on the hills, houses all nestled into one another all had terricoter roof and painted white....for a city once voted one of the top desitinations in the world to visit it was certainly living up to expectations. That night we meet up with freinds ... read more

What follows is a short highly abridged history obtained through Wikipedia of this part of the Iberian Peninsula. Feel free to skip this paragraph if you are one of those who are still recovering from high school world history (sorry John). Pre-Celtic tribes are the first to leave their mark on this part of Portugal. A number of burial mounds and stone carvings have been found in the area around Lisbon. Phoenician influences dating back to 1200 BC have also been discovered and it is believed the Phoenicians had extensive trade with the tribes along the Tagus River. Following the defeat of Hannibal during the Punic Wars, the Romans determined to deprive Carthage of its most valuable possession: Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula) moved into this area conquering and establishing many cities, building bridges and roads which ... read more

October 2008 We awoke to a beautiful, warm, blue sky day in Lisbon, Portugal. Today we took a 3 hour bus tour through downtown Lisbon, the capital, the resort city of Estoril, and back along the Tagus River to Lisbon. While in Lisbon we stopped at the top of the hill that overlooked King Edward VII Park. It was one of those postcard sites. We were warned by our tour guide not to purchase the linens on sale by the gypsies, as they were of inferior quality. Unfortunately, for those wishing to buy linens, it was our only shopping stop on the day's tour. Our stop in Estoril was really a wasted stop. Both as a destination and the valuable time you have on day tours. Our bus had parked near the casino. However, it was ... read more

After nearly six months of teaching, I'm on holiday! Ben and I had planned a short trip to Lisbon before he went home, and then I would do a short tour of Andalucia on my way to the airport. Our plan for the trip was to spend the day in Seville sight-seeing before getting an overnight bus to Lisbon, but of course the trip wouldn't be complete without a Ben 'n' Orla transport adventure! The bus was full and we would have had to wait until the next night. Luckily we took a few minutes to discuss our options and found another bus company that would take us there that day. Which only gave us 45mins before the bus left! We arrived in Lisbon around 9pm and embarked on a mission to find a hostel. Luckily ... read more