Lisbon

A masterpiece of human achievement

My Europe Tour 2025 – Blog #28 – Summary of my 44day Tour

The below blog can be more detailed in referring to Blog #1 by scrolling down beyond my 27 Europe blogs in my website of https://bhlifestyles.travel.blog for this amazing tour. My website has this recent Blog #28 first. My life mantra is to always make a positive difference/ improvement to whoever I meet & a slight twist to a Pericles quote (Died 429BC). “What you leave behind is not what is engraved on your headstone, but what is engraved into the minds & lives of others”

My initial passport was obtained in March 2016 at 60yrs old … yes, a late starter. Since then, in the last 10yrs I have been in 9 countries, such as, USA, Japan, Sth Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile & New Zealand whilst also travelling through my own country of Australia.

Europe is one region I thought was well beyond my means & capability, plus the currency killer however, it is time to be selfish & take time out from my ongoing extended family renovations & repairs assistance I’ve been providing over the years in my so-called retirement. LOL!! As I’ve aged, I had realised it is not the amount of moments that I breathe .. but the amount of moments my breath is taken away & that, as you will read on is how this Europe tour unfolded.

I am an ‘owner’ in Wyndham Resorts & through my credit level I can use their in-house Travel Club for assistance in compiling my tour proposal. I was blessed to have Nilli help me out where she organised my Sth America trip years prior & she remembered me too. I first compiled a list of my ex-backpacker friends I wanted to see over there in various countries & checked their availability for timing. Looks like 1st October 2025 to start my trip. From this list I was able to source the expected route & see what I can achieve to link up with everyone. This was quite a challenge to be practical & make it all work. Nili was impressed with my Excel spreadsheet & information provided & made her role much easier she said.

My friends live in Nuremberg, Munich, Amsterdam & Bristol UK. Drawing this out on a Europe map & checking the major places & sights I’d like to experience near to this route, plus keep my mum & youngest brother’s (both dec’d) wishes of places they never got to see. From this, I had to work out how many days I would need to use in each place of stay & to analyze what activities & tours to undertake to fully activate each day. Easy .. sarcasm. One could never do enough research, for there is so much to see & do.

From the above paragraph my tour now included Rome (1st stop), Nuremberg, Amsterdam, Paris, Amiens (brother for WW1 experience), Barcelona (my wish), Lisbon, Dublin, Bristol & London (mine & Mum’s wishes). These places were my most wished places to visit & the transport was relatively easy to address. I had to obtain entry requirements with the new ETA for England at £16 (2yr approval) & took 7mins to gain their approval, plus the upcoming 12th Oct 2025 new EES for the Schengen area entry.

With all this compiled information, Nilli set into action & also gained the best travel insurance which isn’t cheap at my age + still have the COVID part covered due to remaining world uncertainty. She made a few adjustments & upon my approval booked all the flights & most hotels stays & left me to do the train ticket purchases & a couple of accommodations where she couldn’t have access to. From my hometown to Europe & back will entail 44days in total, starting from Brisbane & leaving on 1st October 2025. If you review the calendar photo you can see most of my itinerary.

Europe, for me was always in the too-hard basket & when you throw all the current events we are fed on our media & travel alerts stemming from mass immigration to Germany, France & Italy to name a few then the anxiety steps in & for me I’ll be on my own even though I had done most of my travelling on my own over these past 10years.

My flight out from Brisbane entailed a 14hrs 50mins 1st leg to Doha & that is stretching my flight endurance limit & with a 3.5hr layover left a 5hr flight to Rome, arriving at 7.25am on 2nd Oct. I had obtained an eSIM with Saily within 30days of my departure & they had an excellent plan & with a set VPN too which activated the moment I landed in Rome, albeit my flight mode on my phone kept interacting after landing which knocked me out of internet until I had it sorted, via WiFi later in the day.  As you can see, I managed to do 28blogs for my Europe tour so keep scrolling down on my website to get the full itinerary tour & massive volume of photos to view.

From my blogs you will notice I never took a bus in cities to do the sightseeing like a Hop on Hop Off bus as it never suited me & I was watching my AUD to Euros (2 for 1) comparison, noting my pensioner status. Overall, I managed to travel 47,474klms through 8 countries, by 9 plane trips & 7 train trips using my Polarsteps App (you can follow my trips through this free app too). I highly recommend Polarsteps for travelling where people can trace where you are in real time plus you can write up your blogs & whatever photos you wish & when the trip is over you can get a deal to review & change your entries into a high-quality bound tour book at a set rate. In this 44day tour I walked 609,651 steps which was compiled by my Samsung Health in my phone that equals 475.23klms so that’s a lot of walking. I endeavoured to undertake a city walking tour wherever I can but sometimes the timing doesn’t work out so it’s back to my research & city walking. Hope you like this summary & please refer to my blogs for even more information, facts & statistics.

Rome – Italy

Rome was beyond amazing & you could spend countless days there & still not see everything. I would return to Rome in a heartbeat. That is the major thing to overcome; to realise you can’t see everything. The next thing is to assign a good travel time. I fluked October, being into Autumn mode where it is far cooler at around 20°C, less people but still packed in certain sights whereas in Summer, June to August is really hot in Rome for the pavements are black basalt paving everywhere & the streets & lanes are slightly narrow with the added tourist numbers.  The Piazzas (plazas) offer open spaces but are packed with tourists, especially, The Pantheon & Trevi Fountain. Always best to see these in early morning or late afternoon including the Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palantine Hill due to potential crowd crush & high temps.

There is an underground train station adjacent to the Colosseum & that should be looked at, for it’s also an underground museum which I didn’t know at the time. Same for The Pantheon in having an underground museum. The original street level of Rome is some 7m below the current street levels.

The Vatican is always busy & don’t sit at a table for coffee along the streets getting there as you could be slugged the table fee of some €20 for the pleasure. Take notice of the local laws for some fines are hefty including any train trips to validate your ticket, etc & don’t get confused with economy or 1st class trains. I got stung with an economy ticket on a 1st class train & was conned by the platform lady guiding me to the 1st Class train. Felt like a planned tourist trap. This was the train from the airport to the CBD Termini Station. They have since installed a ticket verification system & with substantial fines so be very diligent.

I spent a full day (13hrs) undertaking a bus guide tour to Positano (Amalfi Coast) & Pompeii which was amazing & on Blog #4. Most of my activity & access tours were through Viator, City Wonders, Get Your Guide, & Crown Tours. To repeat, Rome I would go back in a heartbeat.

Nuremberg – Germany

I was staying for 6nights with a young friend, AJ (privacy) who I helped tour New Zealand back in 2017 when she was backpacking & her & her family were keen to spend time with me seeing I had looked after her so well. I flew into Munich, then caught a 1hr train to Nuremberg. AJ took me to Tegernsee (South of Munich, a perfect getaway resort area) via a quick tour of the Audi Production Factory prior. We spent half a day in Munich & more time in Nuremberg which is a city that is amazing & so much history. Later I spent a night at AJ’s parents’ home NW of Nuremberg in the wine region & it was fantastic to enjoy a loving family’s home & cooking (lots of it!!) & to see such great countryside & very cute villages. Thoroughly enjoyed this friend week & hope to see AJ again soon for she really looked after this old man.

Amsterdam – Netherlands

I was able to fly direct via Nuremberg airport which was a bonus & getting through a tiny airport for a change. Airport train from Schiphol Airport was a breeze to Centraal Station (correct spelling). This city takes a while to get your bearings seeing it is a canal city so be patient. Amsterdam has a very expensive City Tax to pay when you check in to your hotel. My 5night stay & value of hotel rate plus a coefficient in a formula calculates a €128 fee. OUCH!!

Amsterdam is a tram & bike city, so I booked a bike tour & while riding a bike is simple you have the added pressure of avoiding people, cyclists & above all, the dreaded tram lines. Trust me, I saved a woman from getting hit by a tram she didn’t hear or see & most likely saved her life. It was a good way of covering a good distance & to see sights relatively easily. You can hire bikes, but I chose the foot walking mode for flexibility & ultimately safety. This city of freedom is so relaxed & at times I was quite ‘happy’ returning to my hotel for I could not avoid the constant fumes of weed throughout the day where it is legal in public, taverns, etc. You can’t avoid it.

I was so blessed to have my dear friends; Ayla & Renske who could meet with me over 2 separate days. It was like yesterday to seeing them again. 2 lovely women I met back in my hometown when they were backpacking. They both have children now but of course they were all in school. Both these 2 days I never wished to end. Such a great time to see them again & both are so gorgeous & haven’t really changed at all. Amsterdam is so unique & well worth a visit in seeing a city built on top of a forest of trees (tree piles) with slanting houses & buildings. To see Ann Frank’s house, you must book well in advance & I challenge you to handle the maze of the Rembrandt Museum.

Paris – France

I caught a regional train from Centraal Station – Amsterdam to Gare du Nord (Northern station of Paris) 3.5hrs & not a bullet train. The train was good, but Gare du Nord is one of the worst & complicated stations in Europe & I really found that out. It is HUGE & has 5 Halls (Sections of platforms). You have to get a cab, bus or another suburban interstop train to get to the Eifel Tower & main city area. I eventually got a ticket (4 RER B Sud) for €6.30 to Saint -Michel- Notre Dame Station & then changed to Champ de Mars Station, being the closest to the Eifel Tower & my Mercure Hotel. The City Tax was far cheaper at €25.35.

I only wanted to see the Eifel Tower, The Louvre, Notre Dame, Champs Elysees & Arc de Triomphe. If you read my relevant blog on Paris, you will note I was at The Louvre the morning it was robbed so I missed out on that plus the associated Seine River cruise & with the thousands awaiting to see inside Notre Dame I missed that too, but I got my outside photos at least & a good blog & life story. I found Paris to be rather dirty & slightly unkept of appearance, lots of Somalian market vendors selling Eifel trinkets, etc & would only return to see those missed internal landmarks mentioned above, possibly an overnight stay. My blog of the Eifel Tower shows the incredible history & statistics for this wonder of construction.

Amiens – France

I took a dreaded taxi to Gare Du Nord for the early set train departure. I was totally ripped off by an extremely rude French driver. I left by stating we (Australia) saved you (France) twice in 2 world wars & this is the shit we receive. I should have dropped the fare into the gutter for him to pick up. I was thankful my train was in Hall 1 (Ground Floor upon entry).

Travelling to & staying at Amiens is firstly for the train runs through it, has more accommodation available & is a bigger city than the village of Villers-Bretonneux (closer to the war section I am preferring to see). For my accommodation I selected La Pléiade Dorée from my Booking.com provider at my Genius Level rate. Travelling to the war locations I wanted to see involves a bit of hardship + hiring a car is a bit risky for me & to firstly obtain one, so I booked the best war tour available through Tripadvisor for a full day. It wasn’t cheap but goes for 8hrs & includes a private vehicle with a guide.

My WW1 Tour is an extra special day thought about long ago. It is about a ‘promise’ I secretly made to myself to visit the war area surrounding Villers-Bretonneux & The General Sir John Monash War Memorial just out of town. The promise came about when I was trying to organise a trip in 2017 for the 2018 opening of the underground War Museum at The General Sir John Monash War Memorial with my youngest brother, Rod but I won’t go into why he couldn’t agree to go, but it wasn’t his decision not to. Not long after my first planning of this trip & discussing it with him Rod suddenly passed away (at only 54). Rod was an avid reader of books on WW1 & knew a lot more than I on the subject. After he passed away, I made that promise to myself to take him with me .. much like I’ve done on every trip since 2017.

Our greatest ever Australian, General Sir John Monash who landed on Day 1 at Gallipoli 25th April 1915 & through his efforts & strategies saved countless lives & later ensured the safest retreat from the bloodbath of Gallipoli & in 1918 took control of the whole alliance armed forces of countries (England, USA, Canada, NZ & other countries) in an orchestrated front to defeat the German army. He was the only one to ever achieve that chief honour of such a combined force. Only cruel politics & jealousy kept him from being rightly called Field Marshall, for he was born in Melbourne of German Jew parents & as he grew always called Australia his country despite his heritage. He designed & constructed several rail bridges & the electricity network & brought concrete to Australia. A very famous Australian & forever remembered.

I am forever grateful for having the full day with my guide, Bridgitt on a Tripadvisor 8hr tour – Australian Battlefields Tour. She totally looked after me & spoke wonderful English & had supreme knowledge of the war & more recent history of the region. Totally blessed. The tour was well worth the money plus I added a good tip of €s too for driving me all the way back to my apartment.

Barcelona – Spain

My timetable & the rail timetable had me forced to stay overnight in Paris, back at Garde du Nord & then onto a hotel (Tim Hotel) near my departure point of Garde de Lyon for an early 3.5hr bullet train to Barcelona.

Almost every day my breath has been taken away in seeing such amazing sights but to see the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia is beyond any senses & imagination. I was just in awe of its magnificence & to know just one genius Antoni Gaudi at 31yrs old of age designed & engineered this amazing structure before my eyes. Beyond words & comprehension. I bought a booklet in their museum to grasp the many details, etc in this basilica.

How can anyone design the engineering, physics & still get the construction right when it comes to geological construction. If this is not the paramount of human design/ construction on earth I don’t know what is (forget the pyramids, Great Wall of China, etc). I hope you can get a grasp of this basilica, inside & out. The stats are beyond comprehension; there will be 20 towers when completed & with the central tower (under construction will reach 172.5m high, named Tower of Jesus Christ) & the 2nd highest tower, St Mary’s Tower at 138.5m high. 12 of the towers will represent the 12 apostles. I was able to take the tower lift option located within St Mary’s Tower & that is high!!! For a great city viewing & you are welcomed to exit by taking the spiral stone staircase all the way down, to which I did gracefully & carefully. June 2026 this basilica will be completed, making it the tallest church in the world & an observation platform showing 360 for the public within the Tower of Jesus Cross, recently installed.

Gaudi was killed by a tram in 1926 after leaving the basilica where he spent most of his life on-site. His funeral was massive & is body buried next the main altar in The Crypt below the main floor. Through other architects, engineers & sculptors he commissioned & trained carried on his innovative project. The Tower of Jesus with its upper arm of the 56-ft-tall four-armed cross, installed in late March 2026, making it the tallest church in the world & providing a full 360° view of Barcelona city. The cross was built in Germany using white enameled ceramic tiles, stone interior and glass that were made in the Spanish region of Catalonia. It was then transported in parts back to Barcelona by ferry and trucks and finally assembled at the church with precision crane work.

The outside of the basilica is fully biblical, with statues, symbols, nature & about everything else whereas the internal of the basilica is dedicated to light & peace & the stone columns representing trees of life. The colours of life (blue, yellow & green, etc) occur through the glass windows every morning & then changes to red/ orange for the setting sun. Every night, since the Cross installation the basilica has an amazing light show.

Barcelona is a must-see city & there is a lot to see but the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia totally did it for me. Blogs 14 & 15.

Lisbon – Portugal

I had a short flight into Lisbon from Barcelona & took a city bus into the Restauradores (CBD of the historic area). Not a great deal to see in this city however taking a full day bus tour to Sintra, Pena, Regaleira, Cabo Roca Coast & Cascais plus the additional Full Pena Palace and Regaleira really made this stay worthwhile. I was really surprised of what this day uncovered & was well worth the expenditure. Blog #18

Dublin – Ireland

A 3hr flight from beautiful sunny & mild Autumn of Portugal to the usual Dublin windy, rainy 11°C was not fun. Best to get the Dublin Express bus that takes you into the city for 30mins trip at €10. I did a very average walking city tour the next morning for 2hrs, but I’m sure there must be better ones so do your research. The Guinness Brewery Tour for ($52AUD) was well worth the long afternoon tour. Once you find the entrance, the facility is a great experience venturing up to the 7th Floor Guinness Gravity Bar for your free Guinness pint & mingling with a hundred or so thirsty drinkers & a great view of the city of the weather is fine. The history & statistics will blow your mind. 4hrs of free roaming can be over in just ‘minutes’.

The next day was my Walking Pub Tour & I wished I had done this before the city walking tour. Kevin Adams was an amazing guide with so much knowledge & he also does food tours http://www.walkingfoodtours.ie. There are 798 pubs in Dublin alone. He told us The Brazen Head on Liffeyside Bridge St is Dublin’s oldest pub where it started beer moonshining in 1198 & now on the same site the pub was built in 1754. Smithwick’s (Irish Red Ale) is traced back to 1710 as the first official beer produced in Dublin by John Smithwick’s Brewery at St Francis Abbey (Kilkenny) adding on to the same beer produced by the then monks. Pls read my respective blog of this tour to learn some old sayings of drinking & how they came about. So funny & forever in my memory. Blogs 20 & 21.

Bristol – UK

Leaving Dublin was easy for me being close to the River Liffey where I walked over in the dark to the Custom House bus stop (800m) for the Dublin Express to Dublin T2 (€10, booked online for 4.05am) for 06.35am – 07.55 BA (British Airways) on Aer Lingus flight to Bristol Airport, UK (1.5hrs) to stay with my married friends my eldest son & I met doing the Machu Picchu 4day Trek in Peru in 2019. This is where my ETA came into play (new entry tax for Britain).

David picked me up at this small airport & for the next few days, saw lots of Bristol & Bath which were quite surprising & enjoyable & had lots of Roman buildings & infrastructure plus the famous Roman Baths. Sue really looked after me & David at times had soccer commitments. I finally got to inspect the last operational Concorde aircraft jet where my last opportunity was missed back in 1986. Despite staying with great friends my blogs had plenty of info & photos. Sue managed to get me to my train after a 4day stay for London too which was amazing & so thoughtful. Such treasured memories with great friends.

London – UK

The train trip was such a breeze from Bristol (1hr 40mins) to Paddington Station (a very busy station) & it was just a simple 15mins walk to my Thistle Hyde Park Kensington Hotel on Bayswater Rd aligned with Hyde Park. The walk had a mixture of shops, apartments, pubs & basically everything else of a busy suburb. A great location.

Hyde Park is a fantastic green space & HUGE!!!! Kensington is a great suburb & rather close to most of Westminster CBD landmarks & then onto London CBD. Quite a few blogs on this major world city & our birthplace of Australia. Lots of photos & of course I was aligned to not seeing everything. No use writing more as you need to read my blogs. London was brilliant but had to watch the British Pounds against my poor AUD. So much history & architecture.

Home – Australia

I took an iconic taxicab to Paddington Station. The driver was a pleasant surprise to experience a real taxi driver & cab. Without a hassle I caught the 4.30am direct train to Heathrow Airport T2/ T3 platform. At this terminal stop I must disembark but stay on this platform as per the platform announcement & digital signage for the next train in 5mins that took me to my required Terminal 4. So easy.

After my 5day stay in London I was back onto the long-haul flights back to Brisbane & then more travelling to my birthplace of Grafton, then to my new home of Yamba (40mins bus). All in all, my travelling time getting home was in total (allowing for layovers, hotel stay & waiting times) at 44hrs 20mins. 37hrs directly associated with travel & all of a sudden, it hit me … I had just completed Europe Stage 1 & saw so many things I thought were out of my reach in life. At some point I’ll be focussing on doing Europe Stage 2 asap. I quickly reviewed my Polarsteps App of all my Europe blogs & ordered 2 large volumes of my blogs & photos (high volume of writing & photos) & they arrived quickly & are such a blessing to review them to prove I did this tour.

I’ll finish this summary blog now, so please stay safe, happy & healthy & my usual quote I used to put at my endings follows.

Eckart Tolle – “If I am not the hero in my life .. who the hell could it be”? Ciao for now. Stay safe, happy & healthy.

My Europe Tour 2025 – Blog #18 – Lisbon A  27 & 28/10/25 

27/10/25 A HUGE FULL DAY!!!! 7.30am – Of course I’m early for my tour start, but I was hoping to get some breakfast in but not a store or bakery was open. Apparently, Lisbon doesn’t awake till 8am. LOL. I sacrificed myself to a nearby Starbucks … but only to get juice. I’m saved!! What a great day planned some months prior. Odyssey Tours for a regional bus tour of nearby towns & landmarks of Sintra, Pena, Regaleira, Cabo Roca Coast & Cascais plus the additional Full Pena Palace and Regaleira sights included & our bus arrived right on schedule, but we had to wait till the exact time for our guide, Mario, an early 40s & of great humour to welcome us. It was a full bus indeed, not a spare seat. Now get ready for lots of photos & details for this is a packed tour of almost everything. Stand by for 44photos of truly amazing landmarks & scenery.

The bus meandered around to the outskirts of Lisbon & then battled the freeway & about an hour out (traffic) we entered a regional town of Sintra, but prior to this Mario points out several sights along the way, like the super impressive Roman type water viaduct (aqueduct) that was used for centuries, right up to the 1970s for the water supply to several parts of Lisbon. This viaduct is quite some distance in the air, around 50-70m in parts & its general length is 18klms but with its added canal system it reaches 58klms & building started in 1713 & finished in 1748. From my seat I couldn’t get a photo & same for the other sight of significance being the 25 de Abril Bridge in the distance, built to a smaller scale of the Golden Gate Bridge by the same designer, but still impressive. This bridge links the city of Lisbon to Almada on the Sth bank of The Tagus River, spanning 1,013m & was inaugurated on 6th August 1966 & was named Salazar Bridge after the Portuguese dictator. It was renamed after the successful Carnation Revolution, 25th April 1974.

Sintra (Photos below) was once the summer escape for Portugal Royalty but as more elites visited, the village changed. The Palace National da Pena is the main attraction in this region & the one road in & out is a nightmare of literally inch-by-inch traffic & ultra tight bends. Our driver, Phillip had the judgement of a maestro using every inch available & I mean inch. So close sometimes & will we ever get there, but we must do our first stop of 3 where we are shown the city square where the National Palace of Sintra is sited on the side of it & from there you can take in some of the village views. Walking about 100m up the road incline we stop to look at the first vision of a mansion described below, but first Mario shows us this quaint little building, called Lavrences Hotel (translated to Lawrence) where it has been serving beer, etc non-stop since 1764. The longest server of beer in Europe. Lord Byron even stayed here (middle right photo of apricot building).

A little further up the road (Stop 3) we venture through the big wrought iron gates to view the grounds of this estate called The Quinta da Regaleira estate of 4 hectares of forests, jotted sculptured work, fountains & walls, etc built by an eccentric freemason, António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro who built an enormous gothic mansion on it as well, but the most famous feature is the mysterious Initiation Well, built 1904 – 11. This well is an inverted tower with a spiral staircase, some 27m deep. It is based upon death & a rebirth theme & has a myriad of tunnels running off it. It’s unclear the meaning of the tunnels & what they were actually for. There’s even an underground lake that feeds off a small waterfall. The base of this tower has the Templar symbol tiled into the floor, so again, the mystery continues in regard to the Templar Knights Order. Again, the mansion shows some incredible architecture, finishes & furniture.

Next, we venture to the Palace National da Pena but it’s a painful journey winding your way up the elevation in crawling traffic. No-one yet has come up with an idea to limit the traffic & get people up there. This road is a nightmare. I would suggest a large carriage module SkyRail (Cable car) as my best first choice & then make it a one-way loop road. Such a narrow winding elevated road that is beyond in catering for the traffic of sightseers. Once we were dropped off there is limited time to do so & our bus driver, Phillip has to keep moving & do this entire loop again to retrieve us as there is no car or bus parking at the entrance. Surely a torture for him. That doubles the traffic volume .. der!!! Hopefully, the newly elected Mayor may fix this crap .. but Mario doubts it based on past experiences.

This Palace National da Pena is a 19th century of pure romanticism & fanciful architecture by King Ferdinand 11 with colours abound internally & externally. Ferdinand had a pre-arranged marriage with the Portugal Queen Maria π & had 11 children, but she died at 34 giving birth. He was King from 1837 – 1853. With Ferdinand being new to the Portugal people he used his own wealth to construct/ renovate this castle from a previous monastery as a ‘thank you gift’ to the people of Portugal for accepting him & not use the country’s money. In 1995 it was declared an UNESCO World Heritage site.

He used almost every type of architecture occurring in the then known world to bring it all into one place. He was his own architect too with other architects seconded. The ceilings & floors, plus the room’s designs are beyond amazing. The state rooms are presented as they were in 1910 when the royals vacated. The cabinetry & furniture is of an amazing high standard. Enjoy the photos but it doesn’t bring it justice. This palace is enormous & so are the grounds .. you would need more than a day just to see the grounds. The walk up the hill really sorts out the visitors. It takes a while & is steep enough. With the crowds it is such a struggle to get through the single line of viewing inside the palace but at least you get a chance to venture outside in the courtyards at various points. We spent an hour just going through the palace. I took lots more photos of this amazing place & cannot upload all of them into this blog.

Next, we head to the coast to the very ritzy Cascais where we pull over next to an old fortress, now converted into a luxury restaurant overlooking the ocean. This area has a weekly problem with the high winds here & the enormous sand dunes where the roads can be made impassable withing an hour. They have the required engineering plant permanently sited here. We can see it is a very popular surfing beach too, but the waves aren’t good today.

Moving forward we head into the centre of Cascais (Historico sector) where we have 2hours of free time. I walked to the bay, then around the Citadel, passed through the large expensive yacht marina, then the Old Quarter & back again (long walk & I believe the only one from the bus that did it). Mario was really impressed. Most of the bus went for a late lunch & sat for the entire 2hrs. On my walk I saw the famous single house, next to the marina & shown frequently on Instagram & Pinterest (Casa De Sao Bernardo) where, they have their own private beach (middle right photo below) & a parked Aston Martin coupe in the yard (super expensive house). Also, I saw in the adjacent marina carpark with Bentley’s & Rolls Royce cars. Whew!!

When the 2hrs were up we headed back towards Lisbon (getting late), but we pass through another exclusive beach area called Estoril where the world-famous soccer player, Cristiano Ronaldo is currently building his huge home there. This is when Mario provides a great story from WW2. Portugal was a neutral country during WW2 & that gave sanctuary to thousands of refugees & also an in-depth spy network of opposing sides. The famous hotel, Palacio Estoril Hotel, still a current hotel was a vibrant non-stop lively establishment where the upper class resided or visited frequently. The place to be seen. Ian Fleming (author & creator of James Bond) was himself a spy there & befriended a Russian spy nicknamed ‘Tricycle’ due to the concept he may have been working for 3 networks (USA, UK & Russia). He based this Russian as his James Bond after the war. Estoril had a great port & was a superb location to still be connected to the world, neutrally of course. After the war, the hotel did some renovations to bring it up to their required high standard. Flooring & walls were replaced or relocated, etc only to find a myriad of cables travelling through certain sections of the hotel with no-one knowing who, why or how they were done without anyone knowing. It remains a mystery today but obviously; the spy networks were working overtime. LOL!!

Lisbon is now only 30mins away, so it was a good-bye to all especially Phillip & Mario once we reached our set meeting point again. Some of us gave these wonderful gentlemen a generous tip which gave them much surprise & smiles. An American lady, Christine was really the only one I managed to have time & conversations with. Some people just won’t communicate or give you the time of day, but I push it as their loss. With that I found a small restaurant for a good meal, a beer & headed up to my quaint little unit ready for a free day in Lisbon.

28/10/25 – My Lisbon Free Day

With a great sleep in & no set plans today I found a great little brekky place at my corner block where I was treated to a warm welcome & a table outside on the street platform (deck). Once I sat down people started to stream in & next it was full. Such is the power of me. Lol!! Also, the pricing wasn’t bad here too.

I saw a bit of the bay area the other day, so I headed up the main avenue linking the old quarter to the new area. This is called Av. Da Liberdade however, the locals call this Liberty Avenue, which I think resembles Paris Av. Des Champs – Elysees with its extra-wide tree lined street, nature strips & multi-walkway pavements & service roads. This renaming came around when the Portuguese Army with the help of tens of thousands of citizens peacefully revolted against the governing dictator (Salazar) on 25th April 1974. The citizens used carnations & placed them into the rifle barrels of the soldiers to maintain their peace action. It was all successful by the end of the day. Portugal changed for the better. Liberty Avenue is high end shopping & is so wide that between the building fronts it would be 120m distance (photo shows the medium strip between the roadways). At the northern junction of this avenue is a major roundabout where centrally is the magnificent Marques De Pombal Monument of a powerful leader in the 1700s. An impressive monument. From my hotel, this is a 2klm walk.

With nothing around this area to view out of the ordinary I headed back towards the bay area to seek out more sights & find a layback area to watch the Lisbon day life. Passing down the other side of this expansive avenue I came across another brilliant statue depicting an angel praising the brave soldier & with the help of 2 strong male humans supporting the soldier in his efforts. Well, that’s my interpretation. What is yours? Down at the bay area I embraced the culture straight away of peace & harmony with the Arco da Rua Augusta like it’s Lisbon’s Arc de Triomphe & another monument in the Placa do Comercio.

After a while I came across Espressolab Baixa which was a brilliant café & with good pricing & such a great ambience. I sat there for quite a while until I thought best to move on. I wanted to get better toothpaste than what I had & out of the blue I found this supermarket that had been hidden the whole time I was here. Not shown on Google Maps & nothing like it around my unit area. I was also able to get my protein bars & drinks for later today & tomorrow before my flight. The toothpaste was also a lot cheaper than the pharmacy store stock. You have to be so aware of the pricing especially when the Australian dollar is doing so poorly.

Coming out of the store, I walked straight into the deluge of teeming rain & with hardly any overhead covering around but a few of us ‘huddled’ together under a very small canopy. I should have looked at the forecast more closely. Didn’t pack my raingear. Der!! The slightest easing forced me to move on & surprisingly I thought I would have been soaked more by the time I got back to my unit. It was a lot of rain in that time. Thankfully, I knew the underground train station & subway connection to both sides of my street & close to my hotel. Now to get my clothes air dried before I start packing for my flight tomorrow to Dublin. I started to write this blog & do my flight check-in with TAP Airlines. Such a breeze. The trick is, to do my train connections well tomorrow to get me to the airport. It’s a bit tricky here in downtown Lisbon at first glance, but I’ll work it out.

I’ll end my Blog #18 here. Many thanks for reading my blogs. My next blog will be my journey to Dublin. Please stay safe, happy & healthy. Cheers.

My Europe Tour 2025 – Blog #17 – Lisbon 26/10/25

 It was my last night in Barcelona, so I strode out for one last look & enjoy the restaurant night life and a great pasta meal in Placa de Reial. Eventually I returned to my Hotel Espana to repack my bags for my later flight to Lisbon Portugal set at 12.35pm. This later timing gave me the chance to be first at brekky (7.30am) & then walk the 12mins up to Placa Catalunya where I was able to step straight onto the Aerobus for Airport Terminal 1 (€4.30 – one way = 20min trip). The bus let us off at the end of the terminal building & as I walked through the doors the enormous indicator board had my bag drop off at the counter #1 & there wasn’t much of a line up either. What a win!! Some passengers even got to the counter & didn’t even have their passports ready. Really? The joys of travelling.

With being 2.5hrs early (3hrs required) my flight has some 30 before it, so no gate set as yet. With 30mins before boarding time the board & my notified email says the plane is running 40mins late. It seemed longer but finally Gate B40 comes up (long way down to that gate) but we can’t board yet again. An Airbus A320 arrives & it has to go through a clean & sanitize plus services delivery of food, refueling & baggage storage, etc before we can board. Going to Lisbon gains us an hour, so nothing to get upset about. We are split into 3 zones as per our passes. When I get my seat there is confusion all around with carry on hand baggage storage & then so many people were found to be in the wrong seats. How simple can it be, not just seats wrong, but rows? Arghh!!! Finally, taxiing starts at 1.22pm (1 hour late).

A beautiful landing in Lisbon (2hr flight) so understandably no inflight refreshments provided. With the ultimate stop at the terminal there was a rush to stand & retrieve their carry ons. Why? There’s always an accepted timeframe for departing the aircraft. I’m sitting still in my seat watching the frustrations of passengers & trying to not blurt out in laughter. It seemed an eternity till there was positive movement to the exit. One of the worst delays I’ve ever experienced. Strolling through the airport looking for the Baggage Claim signs that were minimal to say the least, but I kept walking with the stream of passengers & eventually Baggage & Exit appeared & we are on carousel 5 & my bag was one of the first to come out. Another win!!

One of the things that has helped me over some years of my travelling is to plan sufficient time to peruse the airport terminal you arrived in to see the set out, signage, etc & in this case Terminal 1 where I will be using in a few days. As you can see in the photo the Lisbon airport entrance is fantastic with a huge indicator board in your first viewing then clearly Terminal 1 & 2 are identified. This ensures confidence when returning to catch your next flight without the confusion anxiety attacks.

Now for the bus or train to the Historical Quarter … With much confusion I found the bus stop for the 722 buses so that will do. However, the driver & the machine won’t accept my VISA Debit Card. The driver wanted to depart immediately & stated cash but said fix him up later & drove quickly. I kept an eye on Google Maps when I could to see if I’m on the right track. After 20mins, the bus pulls up, apparently end of trip (terminates) … I went to pay but driver said, “now free”. “Gracious” with me now speaking Spanish .. LOL!!! Another win! I found out later the train involved 2 stops, so the bus was the right guess. Looking at my phone, the bus stop was on the opposite side of the road to my hotel, Inn-Chiado Restauradores. Now comes the fun part in finding the entrance. After checking a few times (confusing), it kept me at this souvenir shop (photo). Ultimately, I walked into this ultra-tiny souvenir shop & the owner sees my suitcase & points to a large door at the rear of the shop (Welcome Door). Here I press a button & the door unlocks. There is a staircase immediately in front of me. Yikes! With my 19.6klg bag & now 6.5kg day pack.

A deep breath & up we go to a door with the hotel name on it on the 2nd level with a doorbell. A welcoming young man opens & happily shows me to my room #2, facing the street. I sign the small form, get keys & WiFi & then that’s it. Bonus! My ‘hotel’ is basically an apartment & the bedroom is my unit. Go figure!! I quickly dropped my bags, locked my room & headed out for the remaining sunshine & to see what’s around in the vicinity of my ‘hotel’ in this historical quarter. With this main street of Av. da Liberdade (my hotel street) there were lots of people & many sights to see, plus it was obvious to wander down to the ocean via the street R. Aurea to Placa do Comercio (plaza with an 18th century notable arch & statue called Arco da Rua Augusta), seeing great landmarks, some quite unique to a clear ocean (bay – like) & painted stone castles & people enjoying the serenity. In the centre of this plaza is a very large equestrian statue of King Jose’ l which is quite impressive & in detail. I enjoyed seeing the cute trams & some restructured engineering structures converted to elite restaurants up high (Elevador de Santa Justa) as per the photo below. The Arco da Rua Augusta was built to commemorate the great 1755 Lisbon earthquake. I then returned for a large beer & later a great chicken thigh meal with bean rice & flat chips (Nacho-like) in a small street near my hotel. Yummo.

Returning back to my room I noticed 2 separate underground train stations, one on each side of my street Av. da Liberdade (Restauradores & Rossio) plus an underground walkway linking them. These I will need to check out to see if my return to the airport might suit in a few days. Eventually, back into my room to unwind & get things ready for my full day bus tour along the coast with Odyssey Tours (Lisbon board to Sintra, Pena, Regaleira, Cabo Roca Coast & Cascais plus the additional Full Pena Palace and Regaleira sights included), so should be a great full-on day. The meeting point is just 50m away from my hotel .. another win!! Something doesn’t feel right .. too many wins … LOL!!

I’ll end my Blog #17 here. Many thanks for reading my blogs. My next blog will be my full day bus tour of regions outside of Lisbon with lots of amazing locations & photos as mentioned above with lots of photos. Please stay safe, happy & healthy. Cheers.