Yesterday, we took the train to Sintra and looked around to see if there's a good place to live. We even looked at 2 properties, but one was too small and the other too big. We talked to a couple of American ladies who have lived in the area for many years, and they suggested a small town north of Sintra as a good place for horses.
We came back to our rooms in Lisboa, and today we traveled over lots of the city, especially the "Old Town" by tram. The streets are very narrow and steep, and the trams are old and slow and very noisy. After one ride, I was ready to swear off them forever, because the driver made it so jerky and unpleasant. Then we got one with another driver, a beautiful, young Oriental girl, and the ride was very nice. We saw street after street of old buildings, some in terrible disrepair, some nicely renovated, and everything in between. It seems there are 2 or 3 restaurants on every block. The trams were full of tourists, all speaking different languages. We saw several impressive churches, including one of the ugliest ones I have ever seen -- ugly mainly because it was so dirty. Everything except tile turns black, here. "Tire dust" is probably the main cause.
One difference between countries we noticed is the graffiti. In Germany, it's quite artistic and often attractive. We didn't see any in Austria, but we were in small towns. Italy had some, but Spain had none. Zero. The huge Barcelona subway system has no graffiti anywhere, and not even any advertising on the trains, inside or out. Portugal, on the other hand, has graffiti everywhere, the ugly kind. The subway here in Lisbon is very nice, not all that extensive, but most impressive, except for small stops with no escalator. The walls of the stations are all tile, so graffiti-proof, but it's there, inside the trains.
Yesterday, we took the train to Sintra and looked around to see if there's a good place to live. We even looked at 2 properties, but one was too small and the other too big. We talked to a couple of American ladies who have lived in the area for many years, and they suggested a small town north of Sintra as a good place for horses.
We came back to our rooms in Lisboa, and today we traveled over lots of the city, especially the "Old Town" by tram. The streets are very narrow and steep, and the trams are old and slow and very noisy. After one ride, I was ready to swear off them forever, because the driver made it so jerky and unpleasant. Then we got one with another driver, a beautiful, young Oriental girl, and the ride was very nice. We saw street after street of old buildings, some in terrible disrepair, some nicely renovated, and everything in between. It seems there are 2 or 3 restaurants on every block. The trams were full of tourists, all speaking different languages. We saw several impressive churches, including one of the ugliest ones I have ever seen -- ugly mainly because it was so dirty. Everything except tile turns black, here. "Tire dust" is probably the main cause.
One difference between countries we noticed is the graffiti. In Germany, it's quite artistic and often attractive. We didn't see any in Austria, but we were in small towns. Italy had some, but Spain had none. Zero. The huge Barcelona subway system has no graffiti anywhere, and not even any advertising on the trains, inside or out. Portugal, on the other hand, has graffiti everywhere, the ugly kind. The subway here in Lisbon is very nice, not all that extensive, but most impressive, except for small stops with no escalator. The walls of the stations are all tile, so graffiti-proof, but it's there, inside the trains.
2 comments:
The last few sets of photos, beautiful as the subjects are, look kind of odd -- over-sharpening or something. They look fine at the thumbnail size but not at full size.
Sounds like you are having a great trip, and we certainly appreciate hearing about it!
happy canadian thanksgiving day, columbus day and hollidays to you!
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