Lisbon - day 1

It was a very early start this morning - up at 4.30am to get the 7.15am flight to Lisbon. We had breakfast in the lounge at the airport and then had a very easy flight to Lisbon - there is no time difference and it is much warmer than at home!

We dropped our bags at the hotel as it was too early to check in, and then went off exploring the city, walking around Baixa and down to Praca de Comercio, the main square, with the Triumphal Arch and the statue of José I. It was impressive - so clean, such friendly people, and such beautiful buildings everywhere. I was totally charmed by the trams, the No. 28 is famous and so I got many photos of the trams on that route today. In the past five years the tuk tuk mode of transport has taken off in the city, and so after walking around for some time we decided to go on a tuk tuk tour. Our guide was very informative, a sweet young man who is a student and only guides at weekends. Lisbon is a very hilly city so it was nice to be able to rest in the back of a tuk tuk for an hour and a half. He stopped wherever we wanted to stop and told us so much about the history of the city. We visited the cathedral (whose arched doorway is symbolised on the 10 Euro note), saw the view over Alfama from the Miradoura de Santa Luzia view point, went up to the church and pantheon of Santa Engraçia (which took 300 years to build, the never ending building site!) and saw the Church of Sao Vincente de Fora where there were beautiful bougainvilleas in bloom in the courtyard. 

After our tour we went to a recommended seafood restaurant for lunch called Sea-me where we had a delicious lunch - scallops for me, oysters for Gavin and then we shared a whole grilled fish. It was delicious! We then walked back up the hill to visit the Castle of St George - the second extra was taken from there. By the time we got back to the hotel at the end of the day I had done just on 20,000 steps so was feeling a bit tired.

We have had whatsapps and photos throughout the day from the dog sitter and Xena seems fine so far - she had two fun walks and played with many other dogs. She seems to be very good with her so that is a relief.

We were too tired to go out for supper so had supper in our hotel which turned out to be outstanding. In fact I could happily eat there every night as the food was so good.

I have not had time to catch up on journals, I will try to do so tomorrow.