Portugal Tour - Medieval to Modern
September 18-26, 2005

 

September 20th was our free day, so I was going to spend my day walking around Lisbon and just being in the moment. I spotted a gorgeous Portuguese guitar in a pottery shop - if you want it, it's yours for 677 Euros. After walking around in the heat for a few hours I decided it was time to have a coffee and one of the local specialties called a custard tart - absolutely delicious and not to be missed. To give you an idea of how steep some of the hills are, I took a few pictures of a car called a funicular car, made to go up very steep hills. Walking up the hill to the garden was quite the chore as the roads are narrow and crowded with either cars or people, but once inside the gate the whole world became quiet, peaceful and cool. What a delight to walk through these gardens - some of the collections here deserve a special mention - palms brought from all continents, very rare cycads, and a very pretty and flowering Chorisia crispiflora (floss silk tree). We later enjoyed a wonderful dinner at a local restaurant and many of us had one of the local specialties of a fish and potato and cheese pie which was incredible!