Obrigada, Portugal!

This is post number 2!

We (Mom, Joey, Amy, Kari, and Diane) got into Lisbon on Thursday afternoon and got a little bit of a tour/some brief history from our driver on the way to our hotel. When we got there we waited for Kate to come meet up with us, before walking around the city. Lisbon is SO beautiful and so old...there were so many gorgeous sites and monuments to see.


We spent the whole day sight seeing and doing a little shopping before heading back to the hotel to clean up and get ready for dinner. We went to this great little italian restaurant which had amazing pasta and incredibly fresh sea food. It was great to relax and socialize and get to see Lisbon at night.Early Friday we met up with our tour guide to go see the nearby cities of Sintra and Cascais, both of which were amazing. In Sintra we toured two palaces and the remains of a castle. There was a LOT of walking involved, and the pictures from all of this can't even do it justice. The views from the castle were amazing, and I was so proud of the moms for even attempting to climb up the whole thing. The palaces were also beautiful and overlooked the whole city.



On the way to Cascais we stopped by to see some amazing cliffs and get some lunch. We also got to see the "Boca del Infierno" (the mouth of hell) which was pretty spectacular.Cascais is a small town right on the coast, and there were a ton of boats in the harbor. It's a cute town and we walked around for awhile, but at this point we were all pretty tired so we headed back to Lisbon.

Friday night we went out for dinner to a Fado restaurant, which was one of the most interesting things I've ever seen. It's a restaurant, but while your meal is going on these performers are telling stories and folklore through song. Even though I couldn't understand any of the Portuguese, it was still really beautiful.



Saturday was another busy day. We met up with a different tour guide to see all of Lisbon. He took us to the oldest part of the city, the Alfalma, where we walked through the streets seeing all the old buildings and churches. Next we drove down the coastline to see the Monestary and other monuments in the city.



We also visited an old (and famous!) bakery to have some delicious Portuguese pastries. After a stop by the water for some photo ops, we went to see the oceanarium, the second largest one in Europe! It was soo much fun- the sea otters and Nemo were definitely my favorites.

After the aquarium we made the mistake of agreeing to go to the large, new shopping mall for lunch. Needless to say it was all downhill after the meal...but it was decided by the group to strike the outing from the record! (lol)Our last night in Portugal we went to "las docas" (the docks) for dinner and drinks. The area is really cute and there are a ton of restaurants and bars. It was a really nice way to end our trip.

Everyone left on Sunday :( and Kate and I headed back to Madrid to greet her mom and sister who came here to spend a week at the beach with us!