Finishing Up in Portugal

It's taking me forever to get through the posts about our trip, but I'm motivated to document them here before we start to  forget some of the details of it.  This is the last of the posts on Portugal!

November 1-2, 2016 
(these pictures were taken at two different beaches--Praia Grande and some other I'm not sure the name of)

The weather was so warm and pleasant while we were there, that we decided to visit the beach!  

Although a lovely day, it was November and a tad too cold for full blown swimming, so the kids mostly played in the sand...

and just dipped their toes into the water.    We figured out that we were pretty close to directly across the Atlantic Ocean from home there on the beach in Portugal, so we made sure to wave to our friends across the way! 

Spence found some cool rocks to climb and believe me when I say that these were some very sharp rocks.    I won't lie and say that I didn't feel a tad nervous about him scaling to his precarious position  across the jagged rocks, but he made it up and down without incident, so all's well that ends well!

After exploring the beach for a while, we discovered a steep set of stairs that  beckoned for us to climb them!

We climbed and discovered along the way that there was some well preserved fossilized dinosaur footprints along the cliff wall. Apparently about 60 of them.   (Click here if you want to read more details) 

We admired those for a bit and pondered on how there were footprints on the side of a sheer vertical cliff, but really just couldn't wait to get to the top, so we could take advantage of these amazing views overlooking the beach!   

Wow, wow, wow!    

It was worth every step of the steep climb!

Hiking and exploring are two of my favorite things to do in any circumstance, but  doing them in a beautiful foreign land alongside people I love is pretty much what Lara dreams are made of!  

My only disappointment with it all....

was that I couldn't make my camera capture the full measure of the beauty we experienced there.  

That little hike was not all that strenuous, but it was like a salve to my soul.  I wanted to absorb that serene beauty right into my body and take it home with me.   

We'd loved so much of our time in Portugal and this day hiking and exploring at the beach, was a perfect capstone to a perfect  week!   This is exactly why I love to travel!

Eventually the time came to say goodbye to the beach and head back to the villa.  On our way home, we stopped in a cute little port town called, Cascais.

We didn't really have a plan while we were there, but enjoyed wandering around for a while....

and especially loved this little town square with its patterned cobblestone.

The next day, we just packed up our belongings...

practiced our braiding....

loved on baby Ben (even though he pickpocketed Spence earlier in the week)   😂...   

took a few more group pictures...

 

and got another picture with my Emma girl...

And then headed to the airport...

where Matt's family and Emma headed back to England  and Spence, Adam, Kristina, and I took off for Spain!    

Lisbon

The only reason why we ended up visiting Lisbon was that was where my brother and his family were for fall break.   Truth be told, Lisbon had never really been somewhere I'd thought of visiting before that.    That's why I was so surprised when I ended up falling in love with it.  

I was completely enamored with the architecture....

 the narrow cobblestoned streets and sidewalks....

the gorgeous tiled walls....

the striking red roofs....

the hilly landscape....

 and most importantly, the company we were keeping!

 Really, the tiled walls were quite stunning and I  wished I had more room in my luggage, so I could have brought a few decorative tiles home.

 I also had a special place in my heart for this Golden Gate-esque bridge that dominates the landscape as you come into town.    It's called the 25th of April Bridge, which as some of you may know, just so happens to be my birthday.    Apparently it is the date of a bloodless governmental coup that took place in the 1970's and a lot of things around Portugal (streets, this bridge, etc) are named after the 25th of April.

We took a tour bus around Lisbon one day and saw a whole lot of things.

My iPhone says that these pictures were taken at the Praça do Comércio   (Commerce Square)...

but unfortunately I don't remember much about them.  Wikipedia says that Praça do Comércio was mostly destroyed (along with most of Lisbon) in the great earthquake and ensuing tsunami and fires of 1755.   It was rebuilt as a center for commerce (go figure!) and was the site of the assassination of King Carlos I in 1908.

Lisbon is a very lovely city and we very much enjoyed our time there...

and I hope to get back here someday to explore it with Glen!

Stay tuned for one (or two) more Portugal post(s) and then onto the rest of our trip....