Portugal (part 1)

So, Mark and I decided to go to Portugal. (Alianna came too, but she wasn't in on the decision making process.) We had been thinking of going to Portugal or somewhere else in Europe since we are so close and we are moving out of the UK and have our tickets to leave so we figured they would let us back in with Alianna even though she doesn't have a visa. So, one day we were talking about it, and a few days later we were on the plane.

Alianna had a fever on the way there. It started the night before we left. We brought our thermometer on the plane and wiped her forehead down with cold water. She slept a lot. But when we arrived her fever had gone down and she was fine, up and ready to play.

Our first night in Portugal we went for a walk enjoying the warmer temperature (we left one of the coldest and snowiest winters in Scotland). And we saw this. It is the Santa Justa elevator (yes an elevator), built in 1902 by an apprentice to Eiffel (who built the Eiffel Tower). It was really cool. We planned on riding up it later in the week, but it never happened. Oh well. Instead we climbed the hill ourselves (the elevator links a lower part of the city with a higher part; Lisbon is very hilly like San Francisco).
This is a train station. We took a train from here later in the week.
This is the path the elevador da gloria takes. It is another elevator up the hill from the lower to higher parts of the city. This elevator looks more like a street car and is electric. Originally when it was built in 1885 it was powered by water!
After a major earthquake in 1755, Lisbon remade the city and designed all the sidewalks to be made out of tiles with cool designs. A lot of the designs are for good luck; flowers with 5 petals like the 5 fingers, waves that represent the earthquake and ocean... I'm not sure what this one means.
At the top of the hill we climbed was a plaza with the cool sidewalk and a great view of the castle and the city.
In Portugal a lot of the buildings have tiles on the fronts of them instead of wood shingles or plastic shingles or brick or whatever. Some buildings had beautiful painted tiles of people and animals. Others were plain and looked like the bottom of a pool (according to Mark). They keep out the heat and look nice. We happened to go into a shop where a lady had thousands of old tiles from 1000s of years old to younger ones. They were very expensive to buy, but a cheap museum just to look around!

After dragging Alianna around in the stroller we let her stretch her legs in the park. We visited quite a few parks for her entertainment. They were beautiful and relaxing for us as well.
It rained a lot when we were there. So, we decided to see a science museum. We walked there, went to the lobby and realized it was geared toward adults and older kids. Alianna would not have fun being held and not touching anything. So, we let her run around in the lobby while we planned what to do instead. She loved it!
The parliament builiding.
More cool tiled buildings.
Parliament again.
The golden gate bridge?
This archway was very close to our hotel. It was in a plaza (lots of plazas around) and was an entry to the city, maybe from the water. It was very near the water.
Going on holiday just after Christmas was really cool. All the Christmas lights were still up, and Lisbon put up a lot of lights. Almost every street had lights streamed over it like this one. There were big lit balls, and other designs. It looked really cool at night. Even the castle was outlined and said Boas Festas (happy holidays).
An old part of the aquaduct with cool tile paintings on the side. It's not used anymore, but looks cool. We walked by it on a really long walk after church up to a really nice museum with artwork from Renoir, Monet, Manet, Rembrandt and more famous and not so famous, yet cool artists, and a whole room devoted to art nouveau (one of my favorite design movements). Sorry no photos allowed.
This was still on our walk. We passed a park with escaped chickens. Mark was trying to herd them back under the fence.
A really cool huge Christmas tree lit up at night, but still cool during the day. We saw it again on our last day there when they were taking it down. It's made of scaffolding.
Ship on the lamppost!
Alianna loved playing in our room in the morning and when we came back. She really adopted it as our home away from home and was very comfortable.
The Se, or national cathedral. Beautiful inside.
At the entrance to the castle.
These next three are around the castle.


Alianna had a lot of fun with the toilet paper one night. I was too tired to stop her, but we had to put the toilet paper up high after that.
Another park--I think it was a botanic garden. There were trees and plants from all the colonies Portugal used to have.
This park in particular had a lot of birds. Alianna loved chasing the pigeons and this one unlucky duck. Sadly for Alianna, all the birds run faster than her, so she never got close.

There was a cool Chinese part of the park. Alianna was tired and the stroller couldn't get in very well, so we didn't get to explore it too much, although it looked really cool.
The coach museum. There were a lot of cool coaches used for journeys as well as parades around the city to show off royalty in the city and visiting the city, or another city.
This coach was sent to Rome with the ambassador to the Pope. There was another one like it. They wanted to really impress the pope to get him to help them out. It worked. There was so much talk about how cool the coaches were all around Europe, that the King of Portugal called the coaches back so he could admire them himself.
The President's house.
Our room had a lot of mirrors. Two walls and the bathroom door were all mirror. Alianna was confused at first, then loved seeing so much of herself. She kissed herself over and over and left little handprints everywhere.
A little outside the main part of the city is Belem. This is St. Jeronimos Cathedral. It was built just after (1450) Vasco da Gama sailed and discovered. It was built in thanks for the discoveries and to honor the greatness of Portugal and it's discoverers.
Alianna loved the Portuguese bread!
Torre de Belem finished in 1521. The tower used to be in the middle of the river, but the river has receded and changed course, so now it is quite close to land. It was built as part of a defense system.
The Monument to the Discoveries. This was built by Salazar, the Portuguese dictator in 1960 to show how great Portugal was and still is. On the side are many famous Portuguese discoverers, artists, poets, and religious men. It is a huge monument. In the front is Henry the Navigator. He gave a lot of money to the people who actually went out and discovered things.