Lisbon - 14th & 15th July

After 32 hours travelling during which our new little grand-daughter Scout was born, we arrived in Lisbon, Portugal. 

It has been an eventful few days and our thoughts and prayers have constantly been with Rach, Will and precious little Scout.  However we have done some sightseeing and on Thursday afternoon joined the Tauk tour group consisting of 5 Australians (including us) 2 Brazilians and 33 Americans. We were taken on a city coach tour focussing on the main sights to do with Portugal's golden age of world discovery by explorers such as Vasco de Gama & Magellan.  In the evening we had a 'welcome' dinner and got to know some of our fellow guests. 

Today we travelled to the UNESCO World Heritage town of Sintra where we visited the 14th century Royal Palace. Portugal had a royal family for centuries until 1910. We then visited a seaside town called Cascais where many European Royal families stayed during WW11 as Portugal remained neutral. From   there (now on our own) after a pleasant lunch, we took the train back to Lisbon and went to the Gulbenkian Foundation Museum which has among many displays, some originals by Rembrandt, Manet, Monet, Degas, Turner and Sargent (hope you all know who they are!). 

Tomorrow we leave Lisbon for another UNESCO World Heritage Town - Evora - where we stay overnight in a 15th-century convent before moving on to Spain.

The Royal Palace at Sintra

The beach at Cascais 

The monument to the Age of Discovery

Vasco de Gama's tomb

Portrait of an old man by Rembrandt

Portrait of a lady by Bob