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We flew from Barsalona, where we had ended our cruise, to Madrid. After checking into our hotel we had the afternoon and evening free. While sitting in a park people watching we met another American couple that had been staying in Madrid on vacation.
DAY 1 : The next morning we met our tour group. There was 13 of us from the USA, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia, and Argentina. Our tour guide was a woman named Mardalina (Marda). Today we would be traveling by bus to Lisbon (Lisboa), Spain. The country side is beautiful....rolling hills, white houses with red tiled roofs. Very neat and clean. We saw a lot of olive trees, also corks trees and vineyards. I was surprised to see Shell, Total, and Esso gas stations. We arrived in Lisbon that afternoon. Lisbon is built on 7 hills and is on the Tagus River. The name Lisboa means "delightful little port." The river is 2 miles wide at it's shortest point and 10 miles wide at the widest point. The port is 15 miles long and the water is 120ft. deep. Most people that work in Lisbon, live across the river where the rent is cheaper. The bridge that goes over the river is a suspention bridge that is the 3rd largest in Europe. Same builder that built the Golden Gate Bridge. Part of the city is much higher than the other part of the city......there is a trolley car that can take you up the hill. The city was destoyed years ago by an earthquake and then a Sunami wave and had to be rebuilt. There is a lot of contruction with big tower cranes. I noticed that there were cars, vans, buses, but there weren't any scooters and no pickup trucks. It is a very clean city with while mosaic sidewalks. People are very well dressed. We eat supper in Lisbon that night. They bring you bread, cheese, cured meats before the meal that are not included in the price of the meal. We went to the pool at the hotel. The pool was 2 1/2 ft. deep. We didn't have to pay to use the pool but to use the exercise room, whirlpool and sauna you cost you about $5.00 for each.
DAY 2 : Lisbon's Tower of Belen. In the afternoon we took a trip to the coast to visit Sintra, Estoril, and Cascais.
DAY 3: We traveled from Lisbon to Fatima. Fatima is the site where 3 children claimed they saw a vision of the Virgin Mary. While we were there we went to a big store that I thought was all religious items for sale but they had other things as well.
DO YOU KNOW?
The McDonald's that we went to in Lisbon serves beer.
You have to pay for the ice in the hotel.
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