Arriving in Lisbon, Portugal

June 10, 2009:

Our main reason for going to Europe was to visit our travel-buddy, Mariana, in Portugal!  We couldn’t fly straight to Portugal from Asia, so we added England to our itinerary as our entry point into Europe.  We were pleasantly surprised with England and thoroughly enjoyed our few days there.  Now onward to Portugal!  We flew TAP Airline from London to Lisbon, Portugal.  It was so nice of Mariana to pick us up from the airport, show us around Portugal, and let us stay with her for the week!  We hope she comes to visit us in California, so we can return the favor.  George and I were both pretty tired after our flight, but Mariana already had our day planned for us, so the sight seeing began!  It was so nice that we didn’t have to do the research and planning, since Mariana had already come up with a schedule of places to take us.  On our way from the airport to Mariana’s place she took us by the river front area, that had been built up for the Expo ’98, and we stopped for a minute at the Vasco de Gama Bridge.

After dropping off our luggage at Mariana’s place it was time for our walking tour of Lisbon (Lisboa in Portuguese.)

The bridge in the photo above has a shocking resemblance to the Golden Gate Bridge, but it’s not in San Francisco, it’s in Lisbon, Portugal!

We made our way up the winding stone streets to Castelo de São Jorge.  I was so excited to go inside the castle, since it was my first time venturing into a European castle!

We all enjoyed the visit to the castle, especially the periscope, that gave us a wonderful 360 degree view of the city!

We lucked out that there were two holidays while we were in Portugal, so Mariana had time off work and could show us around.  We also got to join in the festivities!  After walking down the winding streets from the castle we walked up to Edward VII Park, which has a wonderful view down to the river.