Trial post

 Heading to Madrid and Portugal on Friday. 


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Day 14th Oct 27th. Day 2 Lisbon

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 A day of walking! Today we were on our own to continue exploring Lisbon. We decided to go up one of the 7 hills to the St. George Castle. Upon our concierge's suggestion we found a trolley to take us up. However when we were almost to the top, there was a car parked on the trolley tracks and we weren't going anywhere. So we hopped off and made it to the castle. What a view! The castle in the distance is where we trekked to today The first fortification was built in the first century BC by the phoenicians. Then the roman's, moors and the portugese in 1147. It served as a royal palace and military barracks. Excavations continue.  It has a beautiful garden and a magnificent view of the city and bay. The perimeter was 17700 feet, that's more than 3 miles. Afterward we meandered down and down to the plaza level for lunch. We needed to get in some more steps so we headed up to the ruins of the Carmo convent. It was founded in 1389, with construction started in 1393. Unfortun...
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 Sorry about thus late post. We couldn't get Dennis' pictures to download, but we have now succeeded. After another wonderful breakfast buffet at our hotel, we were off for a tour of the area around Funchal (foo-shall). We headed up one of the "hills" to the town of Monta (elev. 1800 ft) and rode down in wicker toboggans (basket sleds). These were originally used to bring the produce and wine barrels down into town. Then to a fruit and flower market.  The last of the tour was our final wine tasting. This time of Madiera wine.  As we started our stroll back to our hotel we stopped in the cathedral. A lunch along the plaza and a stroll through a beautiful garden to return to our hotel.          This flower is called angel's trumpet. And yes this "that" Christopher Columbus Once back at our hotel, we decided to try one of the 3 swimming pools. After going down 3 different elevators we were at sea level. Dennis took a dip in the ocean and I decided to...
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