Rob and i, and his mother, Gert, traveled to Lisbon, Portugal, for one week's stay, 16-24 September 2011. With Gert's side of the family being Portuguese, from the Azores Islands, both she and Rob had always hoped to visit Portugal. The Azores are several hundred miles off the coast of Portugal, and there are no direct flights there, so it was not feasible to visit with just one week of vacation. Perhaps some day.......
As it was, we packed in a lot of sight-seeing and walking and eating and drinking (dry white Porto!) during our week's stay, but there were many things we missed (not by choice!) - so much to see and do, so little time!
Here is a good website to visit if you care to know more information about many of the sites you will see here. And, alas, some that you will not see here because we did not see them. You will have to cut and paste this link.
http://www.portugalvirtual.pt/_tourism/costadelisboa/sintra/intro.html
We left Richmond in the late afternoon Friday, 16 Sept, flew to Philadelphia for our transfer, which left at aprox 8:30 p.m., and arrived in Lisbon at 8:30 a.m. Saturday 17 Sept. Our room was not ready, so we walked toward Baixa-…
On Sunday, we decided to take another stroll back to Baixa-Chiado district and venture a bit further than we did our first day.
We took the Metro to the "Oriente" area, which i understood to be like their financial, "downtown" area, but i could be mistaken. We did not find much to do there so did not stay long. There was a large indoor mall, but it was j…
"Os Jeronimos", the Monestary and Church of the Hieronymites. It was built in the early 16th century. Gorgeous! It is a "blend of Gothic and Renaissance styles" and was fortunately spared destruction in the 1755 earthquake.
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Monument to the Discoveries at Belem is a monument built in 1960 (a very good year.....ha) to the Portugeuse discoverers. It is 52 meters (about 170 ft) high. It stands across the road from the Os Jeronimos and abuts the Tagus R…
We took a tour bus to see Obidos, Nazare, the Cathedral at Batalha, and Fatima. Obidos was fascinating, but alas, because we were with a tour group, we did not have much time to spend at Obidos, Nazare, nor the Cathedral, which …
We took a taxi to Sintra, 30-40 minutes outside of Lisbon to visit the National Palace of Sintra, which is in the central plaza of Sintra, and Palacio de Pena, which is high on a hill overlooking Sintra.
Torre de Belem - the Tower of Bethlehem - built between 1515 and 1521. It is a fortress that overlooks the Tagus estuary. It is a famous example of "Manueline" architecture, which is very characteristic during this time in Portu…