Day One

Our first day in Lisbon, Wednesday, was a holiday in Portugal. This meant that Brandon had the day off and we could spend the day together doing some intense sightseeing. I had done my research before we left Prague and had printed out some walking tour itineraries. Our hotel was in the ocean resort town of Estoril. So, with maps in hand we boarded the train for a 30 minute ride to Lisbon.

A lot of the reading I had done had warned about the poverty of Portugal and that although it is quickly improving to meet EU standards, it is still one of the poorer countries in the EU. Having read all of this, we were both pleasantly surprised at the beauty of the city. The city has such a history and so many beautiful city squares and buildings. I think the plentiful sun and warm temperatures may have tainted my view of the city as well!!!

We spent the morning in the main center of town with the shopping district and city squares. After a ride up on a 100 year old elevator for a panaramic view of the city and some AMAZING fruit salad for a snack (Brandon claims it is the best fruit salad he has ever had...) we began our walk to the area of the city known as Alfama. This area was once aristocratic, but has since fallen into a bit of decay. It was interesting to walk through the narrow streets with houses only a few feet away from one another. The facades of many of the houses are covered in very colorful tile, a trademark look of the city.

We managed to make it to the top of the city to walk through the ruins of St. George's Castle. By that time we were all getting pretty tired (especially mommy) and we called it a day by stopping for some pizza and ice cream. Since Lydia doesn't sleep "on the run", she was well past her naptime but still holding out pretty good. We didn't get back to our hotel until 4:00 and we all crashed for a short but welcome 45 minute nap. We'll be ready for more tomorrow...