Lisbon2
Last Day Here
20.09.2007
23 °C
We have enjoyed the 6 days in Lisbon ; nice people, plenty to see, good food. We get by with English, but people always try to help us if we are stuck.
The country´s main exports are cork and marble, which isn´t much to sustain an economy, so tourism is important here , the visitors seem to mostly be Brazilian, Spanish and German.
Yesterday we did a 12 hour tour to areas north of Lisbon and saw . . Obidos, a small castle village preserved the way it was 500 years ago ; two monasteries that are UNESCO rated, one is the longest in Portugal, and the other the highest, both built in the 1200`s ; a beach resort Nazare which was once a nice fishing village but now looks like Maroochydore ; and, a centre of Catholic pilgrimage called Fatima, designed like the Vatican, which has a supermarket for all kinds of religious paraphernalia the size of a Coles supermarket.
The tour leader had to do her talks in spanish, portugese, french and english , a long day for her as well.
Today we went to a suburb along the river called Belem, and saw two distinctive maritime monuments and a superb museum with 40 coaches from the 17C and 18C as used by the monarchy in this country.
Our hotel room fronts onto a nice mall with cafes etc., but also with the noise until late, of the diners, and then even later of the street people. The weather here and Morocco has been superb , not below 23 Deg C, so we haven´t used any of the warm clothes so far.
Tomorrow we go to St Malo in NW France by EasyJet, TGV and regional French rail , another experience to experience.
Not getting any news from the real world, which makes for a nice break.
Goodbye to this blue net cafe.
Rob & Ailsa
Posted by rxhead 08:15 Archived in Portugal Tagged family_travel
