Blogs from Portugal, Europe - page 240

I got to the train station in Coimbra about an hour before the train was due to leave. So, I sat around in the sun reading. I happened to look over at my bag and I noticed it had four or five little baby spiders crawling around trying to build little webs on it. I flicked them off and went back to reading. About 10 minutes later I looked over again. Once again there were some little spiders crawling around. So, I flicked those off as well and resumed reading. For the third time I looked over and found more little spiders. So, I got up and started investigating the pack. I knocked a couple little ones off before I discovered the mommy spider. It was a bit big for me to go flicking it off, ... read more

Hello All…. We now have 126 people signed up for our blog and we want to thank you all for your faithful readership. I strongly believe in the power of positive reinforcement and therefore want to take a moment to tell you how much it means to us that you read, comment and email us. It makes all this writing much more fun! So, thanks!! Our time in Lisbon Dwindles The Gublenkian Museum Yesterday we decided to take it easy since we were still a little tired from our long hike to Castle Pena. Thus, we decided to head to the local art museum and otherwise do very little. The Gublenkian museum was opened in 1969 and has some really cool galleries. We greatly enjoyed the Chinese vases and furniture from 15th century France. Since we ... read more

Glorious Lisbon, for whatever reason, seems to have gotten the shaft by tourists visiting western europe. Considering its incredible landscape, history, architecture, people, cuisine, and language, its really a shame that its visited with such less frequency than other cities. I can honestly say that Lisbon is my new favorite city in Western Europe, beating out the big guys like Paris, London, and Madrid. Unless Rome and Florence totally enchant me next month, Lisbon is going to reign supreme... Being that this past week we had Thursday off, much of Spain goes on little trips for the long weekend. My friends Casey, Katie, and I decided we would head to Portugal, taking advantage of its proximity as well as the fact that Casey and I had both started learning Portuguese. Well it ended up that Casey ... read more

Continuing our first Madeira entry these here are more photos of this amazing island, familly, friends, beautiful views, yummi food and AWSOME drinks!!!!!!! Till next time... The traveling Nobregas YEHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA....... read more

Dinner of Simple Food Can be so Satisfying After resting for a few hours we decided to head out into Lisbon at a much more reasonable time than Wednesday night. Reasonable for Portugal, head to dinner at 8:00pm. We went to this great little Alentejo restaurant called aptly enough, Casa do Alentejo. Alentejo is a region of Portugal to the south of Lisbon which is known for its simple food, and some joke, simple people. To get to the restaurant you go into a small door off a busy street. The door looks sketchy and closed but when you get inside you immediately go up a flight of steps and into a beautifully tiled room. Once inside, and up yet another flight of steps, you enter the restaurant. They had a menu in English which ... read more