Author: Ella

The fast train to Porto was smooth and comfortable. Being eligible for those senior fares, for a couple extra Euros, we bumped ourselves into the first class car. A mere 3 hours and voila, here we are. And then there was the taxi. Grubb will fill you in on that.  For those of you who…

Here is what the inside of our Lisbon AirBnB looks like. I am guessing it is a typical layout for an apartment in Lisbon. It is old but spotlessly clean and well kept. You can see in the kitchen, the range is about half the height of a regular range. The microwave and washing machine…

The weather channel promised a rainy morning and why yes, we did have a 2 minute shower as we moseyed down to the bus stop. That’s it. Then followed yet another weather perfect day. We boarded the crowded 727 bus to the Belem district to visit two museums we missed when we visited the Tower…

Photos from the little oasis https://photos.app.goo.gl/L6o8jyi9ZWimFpSHA Museu do azulejo (Museum of Tile) https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ti1V8p2CKSR84Z9C7 Museu Nacional de Arte  Contemporânea do Chiado https://photos.app.goo.gl/gAQvFiGzyuY2CnFo6 Marionettes https://photos.app.goo.gl/7MfhtKt4P392SpAF7 A taste of Lisbon 4 https://photos.app.goo.gl/eTfAEjwKNKnfTnAf8

Grubb will be on board soon to take you through the Museu Nacional de Arte  Contemporânea do Chiado and the Museu do azulejo (Museum of Tile). In the meantime, I will just say it was another weather-perfect day and skip ahead to the food. The meal, because I know you want to know I had a…

We started with a morning walk through mist-like moisture. Not quite rain. Up (despite Google’s continued assurances that the route was “mostly flat”) to the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, which I’m leaving to Grubb to enthrall you with. Estufa Fria. Released from stodgy art…no I shouldn’t say that…there were some beautiful tiles, rugs, tapestries and fine…

Photos from the Torre de Belém (Tower of Belem)  https://photos.app.goo.gl/8NCdRCYzoJ7jpWaT8 Photos from the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (Monastery) https://photos.app.goo.gl/HMMC9oEBPanFmJ4q6

First up this morning…purchase a Viva Viagem card. This is the magic way to ride public transport in Lisbon.  One can ride the metro, trams and busses by waving one’s card at the fare reader. Only sold at metro stations.  There was a bit of a tussle between Me and the card-selling Machine. It politely declined…

Uploading photos to a blog post is painful so we limit to a select few. For those of you who like to see more photos, we will create google photo albums and post the link. Here is a selection of photos from today. lots of roof top views. https://photos.app.goo.gl/Qo29nN5Pavz52gju7

I dunno, I welcome all suggestions. That’s what we felt like this morning. Halfway back from zombification. We managed to clear the cobwebs and were ready to forage for some caloric and caffeine input by 10am. The coffee kiosk across the street was just opening. Our timing was spot on. But first, we walked at…

Zombified, we emerged from the Lisbon airport Passport control into a wonderfully bright, sunny morning and took the easiest option for getting to our Airbnb. We hailed a taxi, which zipped in and out of traffic, did complex turns through 6-way intersections and finally dropped us on Praça das Flores, a narrow single lane road…

A little dazed but here we are. Albuquerque to Denver to Newark to Lisbon.

(Ella) We are on a one day delay. Our flight out of ABQ was cancelled after a two hour delay while a mechanic tried to fix the hydraulics. Couldn’t be done. By then, we were toast for getting out of Albuquerque and getting somewhere that would lead us to Lisbon. We spent the next 4…

Grubb is 72 years old today. Happy birthday! Yay. Plus it’s our anniversary today (but not our 72nd). We decided we’d defer celebrations until we arrive in Portugal and then we will treat ourselves to a month’s vacation. It’s now 72 hours prior to departure. We are now allowed to get all the documents uploaded…

6 days to go. I am busily looking up the latest travel apps, keeping my eye on Covid stats in Portugal (looking very good – no sign of another surge yet), reading about the history of Portugal (well, Grubb is doing the reading but he tells me stuff), learning some Portuguese (I might learn some…