Happy Birthday Brydie Jane.
Off to Lisbon on the early train out of Faro. Both of us dozed on the way up – the previous night some of the street residents had been a bit loud. Made it to the motel easily and managed to talk to Brydie for her birthday (yey). As our room was not ready we dumped our bags and went for a walk to one of the highest spots of the city, the Amoreiras 360 ° Panorama. It is one top of a shopping centre. Then headed off on the metro to the “Se” which is the Igreja de Santa Maria Major, Lisbon’s main cathedral. It was beautiful on the outside but not as interesting on the inside – having been added to several times it was a mix of styles and not really anything I felt. However, it had a treasury that was amazing. Many of the churches old relics – gold, silver and jewels displayed in the top of the church was worth a look. From there we headed to Castelo Sao Jorge – the Castle of St George. It was amazing. Apart from the normal castle things like moats and towers (all able to be climbed – thinking of you Lyn!) and some great views as it was right at the top of the city, there were some ruins that we got the free tour around that dated back to the 18th century (earthquake), 12th century (Moors) and 5th century BC (Phoneticians). As well as the ruins they had a permanent display of the old relics found on site. It is hard to appreciate how old this sort of stuff is and how those people lived. Twilight has tricked us again so headed back for a quick dinner and to collapse.
