The Draw of Lisbon

People love Lisbon. I’ve had so many people tell me they love it here, and I can see why. Lisbon is easy. It’s a great place for wandering, munching, drinking, and just being. It was mostly destroyed in the earthquake of 1755, so it feels relatively young. Transportation is simple, and the town itself is […]

A Perfect Day in Portugal

The guidebook suggested I take a bus, or maybe even a taxi if I wanted to visit some of the sites peppering the mountains surrounding Sintra, but the sign as I walked into town indicated the Moorish Castle was a little over 1,000 meters away. The sun was bright, the clouds were wispy, and the […]

When It Rains In Lisbon

The “coffee” machine in the hotel breakfast room doesn’t really make cappuccino. They call it that, but that’s not what it is. To be honest, I’m not entirely certain what it is, but I suspect hot chocolate, or maybe mocha. None of this keeps me from having some, but I’m at least honest about what […]

Racing the Weather

I took my lunch just outside the Castle of Sao Jorge. When I’d walked into the site, I had spotted four food trucks, and I was immediately taken with the crepe truck. Who wouldn’t want a sausage crepe? For the record, the sausage was a thin sliced hot dog, and the entire thing was a […]

The Driver and I Spoke Italian

The pilot gave us notice that the approach to Lisbon would be circuitous. We were running late, but had made up some time, and now a few minutes would be sacrificed again. However, we were informed, the longer approach would take us out to the Atlantic and a view of the city below. And the […]

The Magical Thinking We Do

A trip left unfulfilled leaves an emptiness in its place: a vacuum. And an uncontrolled vacuum is a force of destruction. Look around you at the world today. Look at COVID, which has cost so many lives. Two years ago this week, I was supposed to be in Portugal but there was a great deal […]