A Travel Blog
One of my more vivid memories of my short visit to Lisbon in 2003 was the Convento do Carmo, a convent and church constructed in the late 1390’s and then destroyed in the earthquake of 1755.
The arches of the convent can be glimpsed from the viewing platform of the nearby Elevador de Santa Justa.
After admiring the Castelo de São Jorge from many different angles since we arrived, we finally made a proper visit yesterday evening a little before sunset.
The Romans had created fortifications here by 48 BC, but most of the castle was built by the Moors in the 11th century. It was in ruins by the early 1900’s, then heavily reconstructed in the 1930’s and 1940’s, which is probably when most of the walls we see now were actually erected.
Here’s a short video of our ride up on the Elevador De Santa Justa from Baixa to Chiado.
The lift opened in 1902 and was designed by an apprentice to Gustave Eiffel, who designed the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
One benefit of an incredibly hilly city is that the tops of those hills provide great views. In Lisbon they call these viewpoints miradouros, and every person and guidebook recommends a different one.
But the Miradouro da Graça seems to be popular with everyone. We climbed up on Monday evening, a little before sunset, hoping for perfect views. Although things were a little hazier than we expected given the blinding sunshine of the day, we were not disappointed.
One of the nicest features of the little house we rented in Lisbon is the patio balcony, which opens directly from the bedroom. I went out of my way to find a place with a bit of outdoor space since we don’t have that at home.
So even it though it was a few degrees cooler this morning than I would have liked, I still made sure to drink my coffee on the balcony. But my coffee ended up forgotten as I became distracted and began taking photos of all the interesting details I noticed.
The streets of New York were hot in late July, and the subway stations were even worse — humid and stifling air that made it hard to breathe. This is the steamy view across the tracks from the platform at the Spring Street station. Once on board, however, the trains were nicely air-conditioned.
Our visit to NYC coincided with the blooming of this rare Corpse Flower at the NY Botanical Garden. These flowers bloom only every 7 to 10 years, and the bloom period only lasts about 48 hours.
This particular plant had been in their conservatory since 2007 without blooming, and it was the first Corpse Flower to bloom in New York since 1939. We adjusted our plans to make a visit to see the flower on Saturday, July 30, the only full day during which the bloom was visible.
On our first night we ducked into Copper & Oak, a tiny nook of a bar on Allen St in the Lower East Side that specializes in brown liquors including whiskys, bourbons, scotches and brandys.
The staff are very knowledgeable and retrieve bottles from high on the shelves using movable ladders. Here I’m receiving some recommendations.
Our time in London was suddenly running short, but conveniently many of the remaining essential London sites we wanted to see were quite close together.
Our first stop on the Westminster side of the river was Downing Street. Due to understandable security concerns, the street is gated from Whitehall and heavily guarded. The Prime Minister’s residence at 10 Downing is barely visible through the bars.
Nearby, we saw some democracy in action, in the form of a loud protest on Whitehall.
May 20, 2016 is our 10th wedding anniversary. Josie had always wanted to see Oxford, having read many books and watched many dramas set in that town. This seemed like a perfect reason to take a train and get out of London for the day.
The trip from Paddington Station to Oxford took 56 minutes and cost us £25 (about $50 CAD) each, return. We enjoyed random views of the lush English countryside from the window of our train.
A number of unique glass towers have sprung up in London over the past decade. Conveniently, the Brits have given them appropriate nicknames based on their shapes: the Shard, the Gherkin, and the Walkie-Talkie.
At the top of the Walkie-Talkie (formally known as 20 Fenchurch) there is an impressive viewing area called the Sky Garden. It contains multiple levels of tropical gardens that wrap all the way around the building, providing great views of London from the 35th floor.
Though visiting is free, we were required to book timed tickets three weeks in advance and pass through airport-style security to get into the elevators.
Since we only had two full days in Iceland on our layover, we made the most of it by booking a six-hour bus tour of the Golden Circle with Reykjavik Excursions. A bus driver and friendly guide took us efficiently around the loop to see the most popular natural sites within a few hours of Reykjavik.
The first stop on the tour was Gullfoss. It’s hard to express the vast scale of these falls in photos, but the size of the tiny people walking on the path on the left helps.
We started with high, distant vantages and then walked all the way around until we were being soaked by the spray. Gullfoss is the “golden waterfall” and it lived up to that name and made good on our guidebook’s promise of frequent rainbows.