On to Evora, an ancient city with Roman ruins and the Chapel of Bones, a room within a cathedral made with human bones. Then to Lagos on the Algarve coast.  Here we discovered that a guy on the trip did not have his passport.  The hotel in Lisbon said it was not in his room, so it had to be reported as stolen to the police, which our tour leader took care of immediately, then it was found the next day since they were looking in the wrong room.  ?? But on the positive side, the 800 euros (about $1200) with it was also found.  In the meantime he has…

We did a walking tour of the old city of Lisbon, including the spectacular gate to the city built after the 1755 earthquake. I had seen a lot of the city the day before so took a bus to Sintra, a beautiful medieval town with a palace on top of a forested hill, when kings used to have their summer homes. On the way back to Lisbon, the bus stopped at Capo da Roca, the westermost point on the continent, on the Atlantic Ocean. Here the bus broke down so we waited a couple of hours in the sun for a new bus to come for us. We drove past…

I finally flew in to the most western capital in Europe.  It has a gorgeous setting, where the Tagus River meets the sea, on seven hills.    The taxi driver dropped me at the corner of a cobbled street, pointing out my hotel a couple of blocks down, and the scent of warm garbage wafted through the heat (garbage is everywhere).  The hotel’s location is perfect, there are outdoor restaurants for blocks on pedestrian walkways.  There was a wine tasting at my hotel (“white” or “red” were the choices) that I attended, then strolled along the cobblestones until I found a place with a television outdoors.  I had a shellfish and…