Thursday 11th June 2009 We came back to the former site of Expo ‘98 this morning with the key aim of visiting the Oceanarium (the second largest in the world - the first being in Osaka Japan, so there’s a target!). We took the cable car ride from the car park to the oceanarium which was really lovely and great to get a different perspective on this vast site. ...
Wednesday 10th June 2009 This was it, the morning we planned to visit Lisbon. We parked in the underground car park under the Praca dos Restauradores, which put us right in the centre of old Lisbon, in the area known as Baixa. This has lots of cobbled streets in a grid system and is one of the busiest parts of the city. We took the Elevador de Santa Justa up to the top and were afforded some wonderful views of Lisbon’s main streets and the Castelo de Sao Jorge on the opposite hill. We walked past the ruined cathedral and into the Bairro Alto district, this apparently is Lisbon’s best-known night life area with countless small bars and restaurants among the buildings colourfully decorated with tiles. ...
Off to Portugal tomorrow. Staying at a friend’s apartment on the Westin CampoReal Golf Resort & Spa, which should be quite nice. It’s about 30 minutes north of Lisbon. [maptype=G_SATELLITE_MAP;gpxview=all] Not into golf at all, but it should still make a nice relaxing break, whilst only being a short drive from Lisbon, Sintra and the coast - all of which we’d like to spend some time in. Pretty much packed now, so nearly all set to go. ...