Are we in San Francisco.... Are we in Rio de Janeiro?

Where in the world can you go that is on the ocean, has moderate temperatures year round – think 65 in November, has steep winding roads up and down hills, that has famous sites such as the Golden Gate Bridge or the Christ the Redeemer statue, where the people speak mostly Portuguese, where there is a public street elevator built by the same team that built the Eiffel tower, where the town is surrounded by monasteries, an ancient aqueduct straddles a modern train line, and a castle sits on top of the hill watching it all? Well I just cut to it and answer the question, you would be in Lisbon Portugal; a wonderful capital city on the Atlantic with great weather, good food, friendly people, and a relaxed atmosphere. As my tour in Europe starts to wind down to the last few weekends, and after a month where I only took 2 day off, RG and I flew to Lisbon for a nice weekend get away from our get away.

I must admit that Portugal was never on my list of places to go. RG wanted to go so we went, and I am glad we did. It was certainly an eye opening adventure. Portugal is not as rich or industrious as Brittan, France, or Germany, but they a history of world exploration that puts them in a league with any other country in Europe and above most. Portugal was easily as friendly as Dublin, as Clean as Munich (a real shocker most European cities can be a bit dirty and unkempt), and as old as any city I ever been too yet. I was glad to be back in a land where people drive on the right side of the road, and our taxis were all Mercedes. Though unlike in Munich they were all at least 10 years old and my guess is that they probably came from Germany in the second hand market. Most other cars are similar to VW Golfs but of other cheaper French and Spanish brands, and again several years old at the newest.

The local scenery was great. I enjoyed the diverse architecture. The exterior of many builds were sided in painted tile work and bright colors. Most building in Lisbon are plaster covered brick buildings that had been around for generations. The one down side as my wife will tell you is that all the sidewalks were made of pavers. But the pavers used were 4 inch by 4 inch rocks that were never uniform in shape or size. They were simply not level at all. So walking wears on your feet like nothing else. Especially if for some reason you only brought heals along. Lucky for myself I don’t own any heels. We visited great ancient churches, saw the castle in the oldest part of the city, road an elevator that takes you from the downtown to the nightlife part of town, saw a couple of dozen monuments, and 2 monasteries. One that had exquisite stone work, the other has hand painted tiles that tell fables. We also spent some time just sitting and looking out of the city a great little cafe next to the castle.

One interesting and unexpected thing to see was a national protest by school teachers. I assume it had to do with pay, or vacation, or any other typical employee grievances. But there in the main square that faces the ocean 10s of thousands of people gathered to march. And march they did 3 miles through the down town, by the Hard Rock Cafe, by the fancy street elevator, by dozens of monuments, to a large park with yet more monuments - followed the whole time by the media, blaring music, and set of union leader yelling slogans through a PA system setup at intervals. It was quite a different thing to see on a leisurely vacation. All in all I really enjoyed Portugal, I am glad we went, I am glad my wife has good ideas of places for us to visit, and I would actually be willing to go back and possibly rent a car and see what else Portugal has to offer. Who’d a thought it? And yes they do have a copy of the Golden Gate Bridge, and a copy of the Christ the Redeemer statue, but they have a lot of other things too, world class museums, sites, and culture.