Lisbon Thanksgiving

We have a lot of pictures from our first full day in Lisbon so this post is the first batch.  At this rate we'll be able to drag our trip out for weeks.  I'm sure Fletch will be happy to see another country for a while.

First I want to show you some of the common rooms of our hotel.

This is where I sat to blog this morning with my tea.

 This is the breakfast room.  They put out a nice buffet of meat, cheese, fruit, bread, cereal and more.

After breakfast we hit the streets.  The heart of the city is full of narrow winding streets and steep staircases up the hills.  The woman at the hotel explained that much of Lisbon was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami in 1755 except for the Alfama neighborhood so that area retained the historic lay out and architecture.  The buildings are somewhat dilapidated on the outside - most are covered in multicolored graffiti but then you go inside and it's completely clean and modernized.

One little neighborhood in the Alfama district had this sign and the walls had sepia toned photographs of old people lining the street.  I loved these photographs.  Maybe I need to bring this idea to Atwood Street when we go home.  We could have pictures of Laura and Barbara and me on the outside of our houses.

Bill and graffiti.

 A door behind a wall.

 Lisbon laundry.

We climbed up to get to view of the city.  Our hotel recommended this spot for a drink.

 By the time we got to the spot, though, we were too hungry to just sit for a drink.  We needed to find our lunch spot.  A little ways back down the hill we found a tapas restaurant with an open table outside.

I was going to end the post there…but I decided to add a few more pictures of the streets and stairs.

So far, we love Lisbon.  Except the rain - - we battled downpours to get to dinner tonight.  Bill's golf tomorrow is under threat.  Here's hoping for dry weather ahead.

**Added note from Jen:  I'm posting this Friday morning while Bill is out on the course.  So far no rain but there are plenty of clouds. Fingers crossed we get through the day without a soaking.