Lisbon you beauty!

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Geo: 38.7072, -9.13552

Lisbon is a great city to visit for a few days and being in Europe it is so easy to catch a flight to another country for two or three days. As a joint birthday present we also treated ourselves to a nice hotel in the city center.
One of the popular places to go and eat in Lisbon is the district of Bairro Alto. Bairro Alto offers a great range of restaurants with live music entertainment and you can finish it off in one of the bars.
Our first view of the city in the day was a bit gloomy but it didn't stop us pounding the pavement of Baixo and the surrounding areas. It's hard to believe that Portugal was a leading country centuries ago. We stopped for a pretty wicked hot chocolate with a view and and further along the way we stumbled across a gig in a small shopping center.
A popular place just about an hour by train is called Sintra, nestled in a national park. Sintra is composed of ancient royal retreats.It's fantastic for a day trip, there are plenty of cool castles to visit and equally as impressive are the accompanying gardens and landscape.
You can get around all these places easily by taking a bus which takes all over, otherwise there is a lot of walking involved. Unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side, by the end it started raining constantly but in the end the whole day was still amazing.
On our last day in Lisbon, the clouds parted and we took a walk along the river to the bridge and the inspired Christ the Redeemer. We continued along the river to Belem to visit Padrão dos Descobrimentos. After quite a bit of walking we took the bus back in to town and revisited the lookout.
It was nice to be able to enjoy the sun on the back as we walked in to the town for a nice lunch and beer. As the day came to an end, we saved the 11th century Castle of S. Jorge overlooking Lisbon for last. The views were amazing and the castle was great although there was just the exterior of the castle.
Lisbon was great and there are many nice places to see.

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