Our family vacation started today, and has already been a busy, eventful day of travel. The drive through the countryside was beautiful: olive trees, orange and lemon orchards, and fields of grazing cows, sheep and horses. Danny enjoyed looking for livestock, I enjoyed watching the hills and mountains, Sophie enjoyed reading a book most of the time, and Alex just sat there and smiled at me in his big boy car seat! Probably one of our best car rides ever! Except for the tolls: first surprise of the vacation was the 35 euro total in tolls to get here. second surprise: 50 euro got us half a tank of gas! On base we can fill it for $70, so apparently it is twice as much out here.
When we got to Lisbon, it was much bigger-and hillier-than we expected. Dan did amazingly navigating the congested and steep roads. We met up pretty easily with our apartment host, and she helped us unload our stuff and then get to a nearby parking garage. Next surprise: parking is 20 euro per day. Our vacation budget is clearly going to need an update! But once all those challenges were aside, it was time to feed our hungry family some Portuguese dinner. A small wine bar/ restaurant at the bottom of our street provided good wine, hearty bread, tasty fish, and even some good pasta for the kids. I was impressed that Sophie popped the heads right off her shrimp and knew just what to do with them! The owner and waiters were super friendly to the kids, which seems to be popular here.
Then it was home to our beds, and some time enjoying our gorgeous night view of the city (and the church bells that go off every 15 minutes.) A good first day, and lots to look forward to this week!
The drive to Lisbon from Rota is 35 euros each way? That's pretty steep! We've been wanting to do that for a while.
ReplyDelete