Lisbon!

Lisbon is located on hills that slope down to the Rio Tejo. This photo is from the top of Park Eduardo VII that commemorates the visit of Edward VII of England in the early 1900's.

At the bottom of the park, and across the road from our hotel is a "big screen" where we watched the World Cup final and 3rd/4th match with partisan but well natured crowds.

 

 

This photo is of the cloisters of Jeronimos' Monastery at Belem (Portugese for Bethlehem). The Monastery is an architectural wonder.

Belem is down stream from Lisbon and from here many of Portugal's great explorers left in the 15/16th centuries to chart the world and establish the large Portugese empire. The Portugese clergy followed closely and together they brought back great wealth. Belem has a number of monuments to the explorers; Vasco da Garma is buried in the Monastery Cathedral.

Next to the monastery is the bakery that invented the Portugese Tart; appropriately sampled. (Yum!)

 

Traditional trams serve the old town areas, winding thru the narrow, hilly streets.

Perched high on granite over Sintra is this intreging royal summer palace. It was originally a monastery until the King "secularised the assets" and started to update "the asset".

It appeared to us that his German architect tried to incorporate ideas from every known architectural style into this palace. As you would expect they had some great stuff inside; art, room finishes and furniture et al.

 

Cape da Roca is the most westerly point of mainland Europe; it is just to the north of Lisbon.

As you get closer to Lisbon, the coast becomes less rocky, and the area around Cascais has (and is) the place of villas belonging to European royalty and mega rich; and Europe's largest casino.