Lisbon, Portugal

Well, we have made it to country #9 on our travels. We took a trip to Lisbon last weekend and spent 4 days on the road and there. We arrived in Lisbon on Saturday morning and after crossing the bridge and passing the giant statue of Jesus we were there!! Lisbon is a very pretty city, fairly "new" construction as there was an earthquake in 1755 which destroyed much of the city. There are many buildings which have tiles all the way up the outside of the building, all 3 floors. There is castle in Lisbon which gives you great views down on the city and is a fun place for the kids to run and climb, kind of nerve racking a as a parent as there are limited safety measures in place.

We took a ride on tram #28 which is suppose to be the thing to do in Lisbon, well, once the ride was over Paul and I looked at each other and thought "was that the exciting bit?"!! The tram took you up into the top part of Lisbon and the old town. It is a hilly city and the old town has narrow streets.

Our favorite part of the trip was at the Oceanarium where we saw an ocean sunfish, our new favorite fish. The Oceanarium is the largest one in Europe and it has about 25,000 fish, seabirds, and mammals in an enormous central tank that is the size of four Olympic-sized swimming pools.

We also took a trip to the western part of Lisbon to an area called Belem. There is a monastery there (Jeronimos Monistery) which was built by King Manuel I in 1502 on the site of a hermitage founded by Prince Henry the Navigator, where Vasco da Gama and his crew spent their last night in Portugal in prayer before leaving for India. It was built to commemorate Vasco Da Gama's voyage and to give thanks to the Virgin Mary for its success. Vasco da Gama's tomb was placed inside by the entrance. The trip was a good one the only regret was not standing in the 45minute line with 3 kids to see the inside of Jeronimos Monastery.

Other there than that it was a lot of fun and the kids had a great time. I am ready for country #10......