Vila Nova Hotel Ponta delgada

... into this dessert a few minutes ago.

With all this talk of food and pastries, you'd think we'd both be busting our britches but truth be known -- my jeans are fitting a bit looser and we both feel justified with the tremendous amount of distance and strenuous walking we have been doing -- up and down steep streets while gripping the cobblestone surfaces.

We haven't yet made our plans for tomorrow. The Fado Museum ...

... In Lisbon, this translates to a beautiful walking surface. They have all their sidewalks and pedestrian areas laid with small, glossy stones--sometimes they make a pattern, sometimes they're just all white. That was really cool and different from any other place I've been.

So, as I was saying, I discovered all this about the feel of Lisbon on our way to the area called Belen. For a large portion of our walk, we were walking ...

... And I was Chief Wiki Wiki, a polynesian prince trying to get some nookie nookie from Leilani, a hula dancer who was engaged to... well I'm not going to go into everything here. Suffice to say, neither one of us was the murderer, but I did figure out who done it. A good time was had by all. Tomorrow is another day at sea before we reach Lisbon, Portugal on Saturday. I'll have another posting for you then.

... to the water to look at the Monument to the Discoveries, an impressive structure that you are actually able to climb and view the city and the river from. There were also a couple of exhibitions on display so we paid the 2.50 euro entry fee each (the children were free) and went up. It's a very narrow space near the top but the view is excellent. One of the exhibitions had photos of people of the world. The photography was great, capturing the diversity that abounds in human nature ...

... a cigar and read while I was out taking photos. We then made our way across to the Monument to the Discoveries and the 170 foot concrete structure honoring Price Henry the Navigator. (1394-1460) I thought the monument was beautiful when we saw it last April - but that was from our cruise ship as we entered the Tejo River - I was very happy to be able to see it up close and personal. I took many photos - (Actually you will see I had a hard time deciding what to include in ...

... Gabriel), a math major (Geoffrey), a couple visual art people and some who are just interested in the arts I guess (Sascha, Vanessa, Heather, and Ashley). That doesn't make 11. That only makes 9. Well either I can't remember the other two or there aren't really 11 of us. Whatever. You know it's been a long couple days when you can't keep track of 11 people. Anyway we spent the first half of the day at the University of Lisbon, which compared to the schools at home was not ...

... and decided to head to a place called Sintra. It was about a 40min train ride away. Sintra is a very pretty place, i think they call it a micro climate, it is like being in a rain forest with the thick foliage and huge trees, very different compared to the very dry area we just came from. Sintra is set a mountain so we caught a bus up to the very top to see the palace that was built there. Palacio de pena was fantastic, built and ...

... Luckily it was last year - 2006 - that it was on this date. The cheap house wine is better than the bottle stuff! 1e for a glass. Get a day ticket on the transport system for Lisbon - it is much cheaper. You only need to do 3 trips and you have paid for it. (Barcelona it was 4+ trips, the T10 was better there). Soup is cheap and filling! The vegetable soup is thick like pumpkin/squash soup and has green ...

Wow Lisbon! Quite alot to see here.... Castles, palaces, monuments... Found a nice hotel at a very good price. Did some walking around to get familiar w/the city and jumped on the blue line hop-on/hop-off bus tour. I will write something up on the train tonight and update this later. City giude; http://www.golisbon.com/

... a little, but figured as long as I keep walking up rather than down, I was in good shape. Finally got to the top and paid the €1.50 entrance fee. So cheap, as Edinburgh is 10 pounds! Pretty good here for sights. The castle was more like a social meeting point rather than an historical sight. People sitting in a huge square on benches, looking out over the city, having food, reading books. It was so pretty under the canopy of these huge trees. Oh ...