#pitstop #portugal

We've been away from home for about a month now. We spent three weeks in the U.S. visiting beloved friends and family, and now we are slowly making our way back to Amsterdam with a detour in Portugal.

I have much to catch up from our U.S. visits, BUT, if only so I can feel "in the moment" on this blog for the first time in a while, I'm going to jump to our to trip to "European California."**

After a difficult set of flights and lots of re-routing, we finally landed in Lisbon for a couple of days, before then heading south to the Algarve region for some quiet beach time.  It's been just the right prescription to ease our way back into the routine of school and work.

We finally left out of Dulles, even though we were supposed to depart from National Reagan (you can imagine the nightmare of being rerouted to another city airport after being checked in and at the gate for four hours!).  But the rainbow shined, and we felt confident we were on our way.

Goodbye family and friends in USA!!!

Finally, after a small layover in Paris, we landed in Lisbon.  Along with our new giant stuffed dog (who joined us in SEATTLE).

We really dug Lisbon.  It felt like a mix of Brazil, Cuba and Europe, tho' take that for what's it worth, since I've never been to Brazil or Cuba.

 Old funiculars and trams still dominate public transportation.

 São Jorge Castle:

Mom forgot the sunglasses today. Except for hers. AGAIN!

 Moorish alleyways in the Alfalma district:

Central shopping district:

 Historic Belem:

In the 1400's, King Manuel I ushered in a golden age for Portugal, which was a tiny country on the edge of Europe, the most far-flung country of western Christendom.

Manuel sent out Vasco da Gama on his journey to discover a sea route to India and became the envy of European monarchs.  He promised to build the insanely opulent Jeronimos Monastery, shown in the many photos below, if Vasco da Gama made it back alive.  The style of architecture is very unique to Portugal, and aptly names Manueline architecture.

Clearly, da Gama made it back!

The building is loaded with nautical details and themes of exploration:

The one-and-only place to get your pasteis de nata in all of Portugal. Um, seriously. 

Check out the line!

Serious monument to Portuguese explorers and navigators, with Vasco de Gama at the helm.  Many of them took off from this exact point  in Belem to discover new worlds.

The bridge in the background looks just like the Golden Gate Bridge.  No surprise . . . same engineer!
 

 **Portugal is often referred to as the European California because of its amazing year-round surfing.  Some agree, some don't.  Something about cold water and too many crowds.  Not sure if they mean CA or Portugal. :-)