We landed in our final port, Lisbon!  First impression:  beautiful city! 

Final impression:  Need to return … SOON!!!

We got to stay 2 nights at the lovely Lapa Palace hotel, further amplifying our enthusiasm for the city.

I have learned several things about Lisbon I didn’t know before getting here.

1.  They have their own Golden gate bridge, and it’s longer than the one in San Francisco.

2.  Lisbon is not on the ocean. It sits astride the Tagus River about 20 miles upstream from where it hits the  Atlantic.

3.  In 1755, the city was essentially demolished by a mammoth earthquake. Whatever building didn’t get shaken to the ground was burned by the raging fires that ensued. And anything that wasn’t burnt, got washed away by the 20-foot high tsunami that followed the earthquake.  Worse, it hit on a Sunday morning, while people were at church, and many were crushed in their pews as buildings collapsed.

But the calamity provided King Jose and his  prime minister the opportunity to build a new city from scratch.  As a result, Lisbon is laid out in an organized, highly functional manner, with long pedestrian thoroughfares, numerous plazas and squares, and pleasing consistency in its architecture.

The gateway to the city is a large plaza with a huge monument to the king who rebuilt it. In a freak of nature, no pigeons land on, or even crap on, the statue. Look close and see if you can figure out why.

Nothing??

Look closer:

See the snakes on the monument, surrounding the king’s feet?  Well the pigeons sure do … and thus old King Jose gets to live undefiled for eternity!

There are no “famous” landmarks in Lisbon, but it is without question the cleanest and most beautiful large city I’ve ever encountered. 

Even better, we learned Portugal is a country with great diversity of landscapes.   A  short 30-minute train ride along the shore of the Tagus took us to the charming, sun-bathed city of Cascais, situated right where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean.

And just another 30 minutes up the hill from Cascais is the town of Sintra – nestled in a pine forest.  Too bad we ran out of time to see it!

There is so much more to see in this country.  So much more food to eat, and so much more port to drink.  So as we enjoyed our final dinner of the trip, we were already making plans to return to Portugal – a highlight of our journey.

The next (and final) post will be a stack-ranking of every place we’ve visited.  Riveting, right?  Check back soon.