The first stop on our trip was to the lovely Portugal. It was my first time to Portugal and I hope not my last. It was most definitely one of my favorite stops on the trip. Portugal is gorgeous and green, full of history (think castles and palaces everywhere), tile fronted buildings, the best bakeries, and the most reasonable priced of any of the places we visited.
My first photo in Portugal at the Lisbon Airport after a million hours of flying:
In the background of this photo below you will see the famous bridge, Ponte 25 de Abril which bares a striking resemblance to the Golden Gate bridge, but was actually designed by the same people who built the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. The name of the bridge is the "25th of April" which was the day of the "Carnation" revolution in Portugal when almost no shots were fired and when the people took to the streets to celebrate the end of the dictatorship and war in the colonies, carnations were put into the muzzles of rifles and on the uniforms of the army men. The day is now a celebrated holiday known as "Freedom Day". My sister, Lara was particularly interested in this holiday, since it coincides with her birthday!
| Me, Matt, and Lara |
| Emma, Me, Karey, Lincoln, Matt, Ben, Adam, Jack, and Lara |
View from one of the windows of Sao Jorge castle:
Here's one of the many buildings with a beautiful tile façade:
This is the lovely Villa we stayed in as a family in the countryside near the town of Sintra. It was an awesome place!
This is our "cool" pool that only 2 of us were brave enough to go in! The weather was great, but definitely not swimming weather.
The living room:
Emma and I sporting matching braids!
The kids loved the hammock!
| Lincoln, Ben, Adam, and Jack |
Matt, Lara, Karey, Me
Jack, Adam, Lincoln, Ben, and Emma
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