The last week in September Brian came to Lisbon (Portugal, not Iowa) for a conference. Marcio and I decided to take the opportunity to go check out the city! And see Brian, I guess...
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| Lisboa Arrival! |
Take another look at that picture! Do you see the MOOSE! Moholt left me at the end of July, but he's BACK!!! He's a little bigger now, since he grew older and more mature over the course of his Spirit Quest. I believe this is natural.
Lisbon is a cool city, and we stayed from Wednesday to Sunday. We arrived and met Brian for dinner Wednesday then wandered the town Thursday. Lisbon is a really cool city, since it's a big, urban capital, but it's split into semi-autonomous neighborhoods, giving it the feel of a set of smaller cities clustered together. We started in Belem (the west part of the city) and saw St Jeronimo Monastery (where Vasco da Gama is burried!), the Monument of Discovery, the Tower of Belem (at the entrance to the port), and Pasteis do Belem (bakery where they created - or at least perfected - pasteis do natas - see picture below; I ate 3...). From there we headed into the main city and saw the castle, the old convent, the pantheon, and all the squares along the main drag of Lisbon.
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| Moholt with Pastéis de Nata |
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| Monumento do Descobrimento |
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Moholt at the Tower of Belem. It used to be
out in the river, but it´s sedimented in now... |
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| Vasco da Gama! |
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| Alex & Moholt in a castle overlooking...the Golden Gate? |
Friday we went to Sintra, a city in the forested hills just north of Lisbon where the nobility would spend their summers, with all the Berkeley folk from the conference. It's full of palaces, estates, and an old Moorish castle. We visited the palace on the highest hill (Palacio Pena) and the Moorish castle and tried Travisoras do Sintra (it means "pillows", but they're actually pastries!) before heading back to Lisbon for the night.
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| Moholt fears Triton's Portal |
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| Palacio Pena |
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| The Crew in the Moorish Castle |
Saturday we went to Sintra again, but this time we skipped the touristy palaces and hiked about 20 km through the forest to Cabo de Roca, the western-most point in continental Europe (Ireland beats it by just a little. And Iceland, but that doesn't count... And I guess Greenland is officially part of Denmark, but everyone knows that's a joke... whatever). The view from the cliffs was great, and it was neat to see real swell again (on an Ocean! not just a silly Sea.)
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| The Crew at Cabo de Roca (looking west) |
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| Alex & Brian at Cabo de Roca |
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| Moholt making sure he's at the REAL western-most point |
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| Beautiful rocky coast |
------------------ BACK TO BARCELONA ------------------
Sunday Marcio and I flew back to Barcelona so we could make it to Monday class, but Brian stayed one more day in Lisbon before coming to Barcelona to visit! We went to Park Guell (Gaudi's work) Monday afternoon and climbed the hill behind it, from which you can see a lot of Barcelona.
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| Park Guell - find the moose! |
Tuesday we walked all over the city. We circled from Montjuic through Gothic/Ramblas then the beach and finally back up to the house through Eixample. Long walk. Wednesday we went to Ciutadel Park then up to Tibidabo, and you can REALLY see all of Barcelona from there! On the way up we passed Av. Tibidabo 32, of Shadow of the Wind fame. :)
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| Fountain at Ciutadel Park |
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| Brian 1, Pig 0 |
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| Brian is in Apostolic Thinking Position |
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| Moholt and Christ the Redeemer (on Tibidabo) |
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View from Tibidabo (you can see Park Guell, the Bullet,
the Sagrada Familia, and pretty much the rest of Bcn. |
On Thursday Brian packed up and left for Lisbon, whence he'll catch a plane to SFO. Adios, Mr. Brian! And now I have to start my thesis for real....
