Early Monday morning (around 2 a.m.) we got back from a wonderful vacation in Portugal. Portugal is beautiful! We left early Wednesday morning to take a train the Frankfurt Airport for our flight. We arrived in the Algarve a little before 9 a.m. and spent the first day checking into our beautiful hotel in Albuferia, a city in the Algarve, walking and eating in the old town and strolling along the beach. Our hotel was a beautiful four star hotel with a private beach and our room had a balcony. We used the balcony more than any other hotel we have stayed at. Since Caden goes to bed early (around 7:30-8pm), we took our dinner to the room 2 nights and ate it on the balcony. When we didn't have dinner we sat outside and talked while enjoying the beautiful weather.
Collin was finally able to speak Portuguese in a country that speaks Portuguese. He studied the language for several years and it was really neat seeing him communicate so well with the locals. Hardly anyone guessed we were from the U.S. They thought we were from the U.K., Germany, Brazil, or Canada. Apparently neither one of us has a "Texan" accent either because people were very surprised that we were from Texas. I enjoyed talking English with the many tourists from the U.K. as well as the Portuguese who spoke English. The Algarve is a popular tourist destination for Germans and the British so many Portuguese speak Portuguese, English, and German.
We took two bus tours on our trip. Thursday we took a tour of the historical Algarve where we visited 5 pretty towns in the Algarve: Lagos, Silves, Sagres, Cape Saint Vincent, and the Sagres Fortress. At Cape Saint Vincent we saw where people used to believe the end of the world was.
Friday we took a bus tour to Lisbon. Lisbon was a really neat big city with lots of history and culture. We saw the "Queen of the Tagus River," took the bus over the 25th of April suspension bridge where we saw the majestic statue of Christ the King. With great misunderstanding between us and our tour guide (who was unfortunately pretty terrible both in her rudeness and guidance), we were dropped off at a subway stop at the edge of town with another couple. There we took the subway to see the Belem Tower and the Monument of the Discoveries. After walking around admiring the great monuments and exploring the Belem Tower we took a taxi to the center of Lisbon and ate a nice lunch and walked around the city.
Saturday we spent the day at the beach, Caden got his feet wet in the Mediterranean Sea. This was his first trip to the beach and he loved putting his feet in the sand. He even went swimming for the first time in the hotel's heated indoor swimming pool. We had a great time. Caden is a great traveler and quite experienced as he has now traveled to 7 countries and is not quite 5 months old yet.
Sunday we took a tourist train around the city, ate lunch, packed, and came back to Germany. We road Tui Fly and the airline was awesome! I cannot say enough good things about this airline. We were served breakfast on the way and on the way back we were served dinner. Each person also gets a free bag to check and carry-on. They even provided a bassinet for Caden to sleep in and gave him a blow up Tui Fly beach ball. Hands down Tui Fly is superior to Ryan Air. We enjoyed our restful and wonderful vacation very much and look forward to traveling to Portugal again.
Collin was finally able to speak Portuguese in a country that speaks Portuguese. He studied the language for several years and it was really neat seeing him communicate so well with the locals. Hardly anyone guessed we were from the U.S. They thought we were from the U.K., Germany, Brazil, or Canada. Apparently neither one of us has a "Texan" accent either because people were very surprised that we were from Texas. I enjoyed talking English with the many tourists from the U.K. as well as the Portuguese who spoke English. The Algarve is a popular tourist destination for Germans and the British so many Portuguese speak Portuguese, English, and German.
We took two bus tours on our trip. Thursday we took a tour of the historical Algarve where we visited 5 pretty towns in the Algarve: Lagos, Silves, Sagres, Cape Saint Vincent, and the Sagres Fortress. At Cape Saint Vincent we saw where people used to believe the end of the world was.
Friday we took a bus tour to Lisbon. Lisbon was a really neat big city with lots of history and culture. We saw the "Queen of the Tagus River," took the bus over the 25th of April suspension bridge where we saw the majestic statue of Christ the King. With great misunderstanding between us and our tour guide (who was unfortunately pretty terrible both in her rudeness and guidance), we were dropped off at a subway stop at the edge of town with another couple. There we took the subway to see the Belem Tower and the Monument of the Discoveries. After walking around admiring the great monuments and exploring the Belem Tower we took a taxi to the center of Lisbon and ate a nice lunch and walked around the city.
Saturday we spent the day at the beach, Caden got his feet wet in the Mediterranean Sea. This was his first trip to the beach and he loved putting his feet in the sand. He even went swimming for the first time in the hotel's heated indoor swimming pool. We had a great time. Caden is a great traveler and quite experienced as he has now traveled to 7 countries and is not quite 5 months old yet.
Sunday we took a tourist train around the city, ate lunch, packed, and came back to Germany. We road Tui Fly and the airline was awesome! I cannot say enough good things about this airline. We were served breakfast on the way and on the way back we were served dinner. Each person also gets a free bag to check and carry-on. They even provided a bassinet for Caden to sleep in and gave him a blow up Tui Fly beach ball. Hands down Tui Fly is superior to Ryan Air. We enjoyed our restful and wonderful vacation very much and look forward to traveling to Portugal again.
Here are some of the pictures from our vacation.
Beach in Albuferia, Portugal
At the end of the world - Cape St. Vincent, Portugal
Belem Tower - Lisbon, Portugal
Behind us is the 25th of April Bridge and the Monument of the Discoveries 
Caden's first time to swim
Our hotel's private beach
Caden getting his feet wet in the Mediterranean
Caden's first time to put his feet in the sand
Marisa ate fish and chips every day!
Collin is more adventurous and ate foods such as sardines
Our hotel's private beach
Caden getting his feet wet in the Mediterranean
Caden's first time to put his feet in the sand
Marisa ate fish and chips every day!
Collin is more adventurous and ate foods such as sardines
3 comments:
Sounds like an awesome trip!
Looks like such a fun trip!!!
wow! that looks like a wonderful trip! i'm so glad you guys are able to travel around so much while you are living over seas! what memories you will make!
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