Last evening we walked to the best restaurant!  Our guide Nicky went on and on about how wonderful Portuguese pizza is.  They call it “Pinze”. The crust was very thin, flaky and crisp.  We shared a Parma and cheese pinza with a lovely bottle of red wine.  Of course we had to try the desert. “Caramello Tart”.  It was delicious.  Warm caramel in the middle of the soft pastry with a scoop of vanilla ice cream sitting in a puddle of whip cream.  We needed the walk back to the hotel after that!

We had a fun day today.  We woke up very early after getting some well needed rest.  Breakfast at the hotel Intercontinental then into the bus for our morning in Lisbon.  It was an overcast day, which is nice because it can get hot here.  

We had three tour guides that spoke to us about the history of Lisbon as we drove through the city.  There are about 3 million people in metropolitan Lisbon, 10 million people in all of Portugal.  The name “Lisbon” comes from the Portuguese language meaning “Peaceful Bay”.  The first ruler of Portugal was Queen Mary the 1st.  (I guess you have to start at the beginning, huh?). She didn’t have any children to be heirs.  So, she promised God that she would build a large church to honor Him so that God would give her children to be future rulers of Portugal.  She then had six children.  Our guide stated “Be careful what you wish for.”  

Portugal makes lots of tile.  They love to have it all over the walls of the streets in beautiful designs.  Tile keeps the buildings cool/warm in the seasons as well as when it rains the walls get washed easily.  Clever and the tile walls are so much nicer to look at than pollution stained stucco.  

We ended up in the “Belem” area of Lisbon.  “Belem” is Portuguese for “Bethlehem”.  As is usual in Europe they build huge churches and we went to see one which also doubled for a time as the Presidential Palace.  

                                               

This is called a “Tuk Tuk” and they are all over the place.  You hire them to take you wherever you want to go in Lisbon or even in other places in Portugal. They are a glorified golf cart.  

We went to the ocean to see the landmarks there.  We didn’t get any photos of them, but they were very interesting.  One was a marble map of all the countries that Portugal had been occupying and had trade with in the mid 1500s.  Portugal had quite the empire stretching to India, China and Africa.  

The Tagus River meets the Atlantic Ocean here and lots of shipping goes on.  It was a lovely day to stand at the shore of the sea.  I love the sea!  

We came back to the hotel and took a really nice nap.  We are starting to catch up and get with the local time.  Now it’s off to find some dinner.  Bob wants to visit a local wine store and then have dinner here at the at the hotel.  Sounds good to me!  

Thanks for joining us.  Take care, love BC and GC.