Lisbon, Portugal

Welcome to Lisbon, Portugal!

We wanted someplace warm for Christmas and decided to go to Lisbon. This is the view down from the fortress that overlooks the city.

This is the view looking back up to the fortress from the shopping district in the middle of Lisbon.

Flowers were blooming up at the fortress. The weather was wonderful.

We took some pictures of the clock and bell towers we happened to see. It is a shame that most of them no longer function. They are expensive to maintain.

Portugal is (justly) famous for their decorative tiles. Entire houses are covered in them.

We didn't see a lot of Nativity Scenes, but we did find this one while we were looking for lunch. This is in the town of Setubal, a well-known tourist destination.

This is the castle up above Sintra. We rode the bus up to the parking lot, but the fee to get in and walk up to it was much too high.

This is Belem Tower over closer to the ocean. Lisbon is actually on a river, not the ocean.

This is walking along the seashore on our way to Cascais. We got of the train at Estoril because the ticket seller told us it was a wonderful walk. He was right!

We went to the Lisbon Aquarium. This video looks an awful lot like snorkeling!

This is the (at that time) largest library in Europe. Still pretty impressive. You have to be a serious researcher to get in. The town is Mafra and we went through it on our way to Ericeira where there the first "Surfing Reserve" in Europe is located.

There are still a lot of the old Roman era ruins around. This is one of the old aqueducts.

The coffee in Lisbon was uniformly excellent!