I think as I was packing up this morning and thinking about the Lisbon blogs, I didn't really explain the city very well. Of course the photos gave a nice look into what we saw, but overall the city is as all big cities are...big, with beautiful spots, not so beautiful spots, Cartier and Prada stores as well as gypsies selling scarves or playing music on the streets for money. I think a lot of the action in this city happens while we are asleep ;) but the restaurants we went to were excellent and the people are very friendly. There is a statue in every square (and there are lot of squares) and the architecture is all over the place with very modern buildings and more traditional type architecture that I think they try pretty hard to preserve at least the facades. There have been a couple of really big earthquakes here...1700s and 1800s that took out quite a bit of history, but the enormous original aqueduct still stands. The sidewalks and pedestrian areas were all made from these small squares of stone. Everywhere! The thought of all the years and years spent on making these lovely walks simply amazed us. We obviously only got an overview of the city, just catching a glimpse of Lisbon because it is so big, but I'd say if you were in Portugal, it is a must see. Don't drive into it if you don't have to and taxis are everywhere and we never paid more than 7 Euros to go anywhere, including our trip from the Sheraton to the airport. Be sure to have plenty of Euros on you because many places do not take credit cards. Shopping options are plentiful, but it is either malls, fancy side street stores or jip joints, but it seemed like good souvenir shopping was a bit more difficult and we didn't come across any markets on the entire trip!
The Sheraton was in a pretty good spot, but it was a taxi ride to most sites you'd want to see. The Sheraton was quite posh and ultra modern. Like I said before, the bathroom was totally glassed in and even tho that was cool, the walls and carpet were dark and the lighting was poor. Even the hallways were dark and poorly lit, however the doors going into the rooms were covered in brown leather and the number to your room was lit on a fancy piece of glass. But after 4 nights I found it to be a bit too dark and closed in for my taste. Again, everyone was friendly and the concierge taught us how to say "thank you" and spelled it out for us on a piece of paper. Most of the Portuguese in the city spoke English, so when you've been speaking in English to them, but thanked them with the word "obrigado" they kinda laughed. But we found the word to be beautiful and fun to say, so we used it often. :)
Our fight from Lisbon to Charlotte was on US Airways and it was a 3 seat and 3 seat 757. Guy kinda dreaded the flight home that he'd be sitting next to Chatty Cathy or even worse, Stinky Stanley, but as luck would have it, the flight only had 60 passengers and there were tons of empty seats. It has been years since we have been on an overseas flight that wasn't packed like sardines. The guy a couple of rows ahead of us was a US Airline pilot heading back to the US with his family, so that was just enough reassurance for me to sleep like a baby in my medically induced coma for the entire trip. Very nice indeed.
In Charlotte we grabbed a cheeseburger and fries at Chili's restaurant and are now waiting for our flight to STL. Our plane just pulled up so I think this is were the Spain/Portugal blog ends. What a great experience we've had and all the prayers for safe and healthy travels were appreciated more than you know. God has truly blessed us to be able to experience such wonderful places and we are truly, truly grateful.
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