Meeting Highschool Students in a Lisbon Shopping Mall & Cheering for them at Their Military School Anniversary Parade

The best part about travelling is learning about different cultures, traditions, trying out new food and meeting new people. One of the highlights of our vacation in Portugal took place in a food court inside a downtown shopping mall of Lisbon. Enjoying some take out meals ordered from one of the many eateries at the mall, my husband and I were recounting our new experience in Portugal. There were a group of Portuguese highschool students hanging near our table waiting to order their ice cream cones. They overheard our conversation and a couple of them came over and started speaking to us in English. These young people were very friendly, curious about the visitors to their country, as well as enthusiastic about practicing their English. We carried on a friendly conversation with them and some of their friends also came over and joined us. We chatted for over 20 minutes. We found out that these young people were from a military highschool which was celebrating an important anniversary of their school the next day. The school would be holding a parade in the Pompal square and all the students would be marching in their army unifomrs. Some of the young men would be riding in their cavalry unit. They looked forward to the event with great anticipation and were very excited talking about it. Finally, they invited us to go to the parade and to join them at the church and school after the event.

We were thrilled and accepted these young people’s invitation . We made sure we were at the Marquês de Pombal Square right at 10a.m the next morning when the school parade was starting. It looked like the entire student body was out for this special event. Dressed in their military uniforms, the students look every bit like young trained soldiers. They had formations and marched in unison with the youngest students marching ahead first, then followed by older students.

We were excited seeing the older students riding out on horses. But there were so many of them all dressed exactly the same, we couldn’t recognize the young men with whom we had a good conversation the evening before. The calvary unit rode on horseback and they were riding and passing us in a good controlled speed. We kept waving and cheering for them hoping that one of them might recognize us. But those good soldiers in training were focused on what they were supposed to do and followed the commands of their leaders. They were proud, disciplined with undivided attention on the part they were supposed to do in this parade.

We didn’t get to meet the nice group of young people again but we had a fun time taking part as a spectator in this very special celebration for them. We also enjoyed a nice coffee and party at one of the popular cafe in the neighbourhood.

We wish these high school students all their best in their studies and future pursuits. Thank you for being such excellent ambarssadors for Portugal!

RT, Lisbon, Portugal

Tasted the Best Pastry and Visited the Pena Palace, an UNESCO Site, in Sintra, Portugal

We continued our tour to the town of Sintra, Portugal. The bus driver dropped us off in the town centre. We were given sometime for lunch n to explore this quaint little town on our own.

Clustered around a very steep street , there were many restaurants.

Our tour guide gave us a lot of interesting stories and she highly recommended Piriquita, a very old fashioned pastry café. We were supposed to have a coffee break but all the pastries looked so sumptuous that we decided to indulge ourselves and haD a dessert lunch instead.

The highlight of our lunch was the delicious pastries offered by Piriquita Bakery Cafe on that nerrow steep street. We sampled the famous Portuguese pastry, Pastel de Nata, also known as Portuguese custard tart and some other ones.

After lunch, we went back to the tour bus and it climbed uphill for 15 minutes until it reached a large brightly coloured palace, Palace of Pena.

There are a few palaces in Sintra. "The Palace of Pena was like a sacred gem that crowns the hills of Sintra". Pena Palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995. It was a 16th century monastery. It was acquired, renovated and later with buildings added by King Ferdinand II, one of the most cultured men of the 19th cenutry, also known as the King Artist.

We toured the palace and saw many beautiful furnished rooms durng that period. Walking through these regal rooms, we felt as if we had gone through a time tunnel.

It was raining quite a bit therefore we couldn't enjoy the nice patio on top of the castle but we did enjoy some refreshments in the dining room.

It was an educational and informative one day tour and we enjoyed it tremendously. Highly recommend it to visitors to Lisbon!

RT, Sintra, Portugal 03032024

Cabo Da Roca, Portugal - Some Say You Can See the Coast of US From Here!

After our visit to the delightful little town of Cascais, Portugal, we countinued with our one day bus tour trip towards Sintra. Before we reached our intended destination for the day, our bus passed by and stopped at Cabo De Roca, 40 km from Lisbon, the westernmost point of continental Europe. It is supposed to be the closest point between Europe and USA. On a good clear day, some claim that you could even see the coast of USA over the horizon

The view of the cliffs and the Atlantic Ocean was manificent! Too bad we were given not too much time here. We saw the mounment with a cross on it, which celebrated the end of mainland Europe and the beginning of the Atlantic Ocean. Though it was the beginninng of March the day we were on this bus tour, the weather was chilly and windy. We didn't venture too far from the stone mounment as it was just too windy.

After visiting the edge of land in Europe, the bus tour continued and we passed by another pictureque spot with cliffs along the ocean. Our guide was excellent as she told us some interesting stories about the customs and life of Portuguese in a humours way in both English and Portuguese, not an easy feat at all. RT, Cabo Da Roca, Portugal 03022024

Cascais, Portugal - Where 007, James Bond Was Born!

I am a little behind my blog posts as my computer was not working while we were travelling at the time. Therefore I am trying to catch up on my travel posts.

We visited Lisbon, Portugal at the end of February, 2024. It was an excellent time to visit as the weather was mild and there was not a huge number of visitors since the tourist season hasn't started yet. Most of our one week holdiay, we stayed in Lisbon but for a couple of days, we did take a bus tour outside of the city.

On our one day tour, we gathered at the bus station located just opposite the Marques De Pombal Plaza. The bus departed shortly after 8 a.m. and it took us to our first stop, Cascais - a seaside resort town in Portugal.

If you are not on a bus tour, you can easily visit this little town by taking the public transit such as the train which takes about 30 minutes from Lisbon. Cascais, is well known for its sandy beaches and surfing condition. Due to the Portuguese monarchy's preference for this town as their summer escape in the 19th and 20th century, it has elevated this humble village to a glormorus resort town frequented by the rich and famous.

We learned a great deal about Cascais from our tour guide's narrative. Portugal, being neutral in World War II, was not involved in the battle.

However, it was rumoured that there were a few spy meetings and espionage activities conducted in this quiet town. Hence, Ian Flemming got his inspirations from Cascais and created the famous spy character - 007, James Bond! Cascais - the birthplace of James Bond! Glad we visited Cascais, Portugal where the famous spy 007 was born! RT, Cascais, Portugal 03022024

Enjoying a Fado Dinner with Our German Exchanged Student in Lisbon , Portugal

We are used to travelling on our own in foreign countries. With google search and information readily available on the internet, we could pretty well get most of the information we want about the courtry to where we will be visiting.

However, meeting up with a friend in a foreigh country is exciting and a lot of fun during our travel. We were excited because we would meet with one of the students we befriended in Canada. N. was an exchanged student to the University of Waterloo and we got to know her during her short stay in Canada. When she knew that we were travelling to Portugal, we made arrangement to meet in Lisbon.

We met up with N. at a downtown McDonald's restaurant opposite from the Marquês de Pombal Square. Knowing that N.as a vegetarian, we moved to a restaurant with vegetarian options. Over lunch and lattes, we exchanged information and caught up with one another. We were delighted at seeing each other again. Good to know that N. was working on an internship in another town in Portugal and doing well. We had much to talk about and share. A strong advocate for non waste and recycling, N. always bought her clothing at thrift stores when she was in Canada. I asked her to take us to one such store in Portugal, she did. We went to Humana, a vintage store in Lisbon. The store was in a much smaller scale but it was quite busy.

We had so much to talk about that we didn't want to end our time together too soon. We moved on and planned to have dinner together in a well known fado club located in Alfama, Lisbon, the oldest neighborhood with cobbled lanes and narrow alleys. It's the birthplace of fado. The Fado club was recommended on a Google review site and it was reported as one of the best clubs offering Fado music – some people describe it as comparable to Blues music. To get to this club, we climbed up a steep narrow alleyway from a busy downtown street. When we got up to the top of the alleyway, an entire different area opened up in front of us. Here we saw more narrow alleyways lined with traditional restaurants and eateries on both sides. Obviously, this is supposed to be the night life district, busy with people looking for a nice place to eat or for some drinks and entertainment. Though it was pouring rain when we arrived at the restaurant, there was already a long lineup and we were about half an hour before show time. We waited in queue outside the restaurant in pouring rain for a few long minutes. Finally, we decided going to another club nearby that was not as busy. We were served right away. Shortly after we ordered our meal, a gentleman appeared and started singing. He acted as the warm up for the main performaer of the evening. The restaurant was filling up fast. The singers demanded respect from us, the diners. We were not supposed to be eating when they were performing. Though we didn't understand a word of Portuguese save for N., we enjoyed an evening of nice conversation, good food and Portuguese's famous fado music. 'the iconic musical style that embodies the essence of Lisbon and Portugal, brimming with saudade, a wistful longing for the homeland.' It was a great evening for us all! RT Lisbon, Portugal 03012024

Castelo de S.Jorge, Lisbon, a Great Place to Visit in Portugal

Lisbon, Portugal has many beautiful historical buildings. For the first couple days of our vacation here, we explored these buildings on foot within the downtown area.

Sitting high on top of the hill, Castelo de Sao Jorge, captured our attention. Saint George Castle is located in the Alfama district, Europe's oldest neighborhood. Instead of going with a bus package tour to the castle which could cost up to 200 Eruos per person, we called a taxi taking us there.

The taxi ride was fun as we could had a relaxing tour of this historic area filled with cobbled lanes, narrow alleys, medieval churches, and breathtaking viewpoints along its hilly streets.The taxi ride was another experience as the alleyways were quite narrow in this part of the city therefore drivers need to drive carefully to negotiate their way to avoid any accidents.

Declared as a national monument in the Royal Decree of 1910 , Castelo de S. Jorge consisted of a castle, ruins of the former royal palace and part of the neighborhood for the elite.

The castle has beautiful courtyards where wild flowers grew and peacocks roamed free, unafraid of the presence of people.

We saw a few of peacocks strolling about and strutting their long feathers. Lucky for us, there was a peacock who proudly opened his feathers and displayed them confidently for all to see.

< The castle has been around since the mid 11th century and the fortification was built by the Moors.

It was good exercise walking up the stairs to the top of the castle where we were rewarded with an excellent birds eyeview of Lisbon. The castle and ruins were rediscovered and major restoration was done from 1938-40.

Some ancient buildings were resuced, resotred and later open to the public. .

People were enjoying the place and the atmosphere. We sat down on some steps and listened to a street musician playing on her violin. After such a nice relaxing time, we came upon a church right outside the castle and pay a visit there.

Nowadays, outside of the castle, the area has become a vibrant neighbourhood with many cafes and restaurants. We would have loved to spend a whole afternoon walking down the alleyways and enjoying some food and drink in this castle community. We had a terrific time of visiting the castle and learned a lot about the life and people at the time. Castelo de S. Jorge is a must see on my list of places to visit in Lisbon, Portugal! RT, Castelo de S. Jorge Lisbon, Portugal

A Hop on Hop Off Bus Tour of Lisbon

Recently, my sister and our friends travelled to Lisbon, Portugal and they had so many positive things to say about it that we decided to come and visit too! We went in the last week of February and the weather was mild compared to the winter in Canada.

We loved the hotel where we were staying as we could walk to a lot of the attractions downtown. There were lots to see, therefore, hoping to learn more about the history, cultures and some interesting facts about Lisbon, we decided to take the Hop on Hop off city bus tour of Lisbon.

The Hop-On Hop-Off bus was good as it took us through a few of the neighbourhoods in Lisbon where we passed by many manificent churches and ancient buildings. There were bridges, beautiful gardens and many famous sites.

Unfortunately, the narratives were few and brief coming from the sound system of the tour bus. Most of the time, it only played music instead of explaining to us the various significant history or stories of the area or buildings our bus was passing by.

We did see a fair amount of the city of Lisbon, but we were disappointed that we didn't learn much about it even after the bus tour. However, we did enjoy a nice local dinner at one of the mom and pop restaurants downtown. We like Portugal food and the many cafes and eateries throughout the city.

Looking forward to trying out more Portugal food and learning more about this beautiful country in our week long vacation here! RT, Lisbon, Portugal 02272024