Days 0/1 - Lisbon
Day 2 - Lisbon
Day 3 - Lisbon
Day 4 - Madrid
Day 5 - Madrid
Day 6 - Madrid
Day 7 - Madrid
Day 8 - Barcelona
Day 9 - Andorra
Day 10 - Return
Europe 2013
Upon arrival in Newark from Houston, things promptly went to hell as it started snowing. At least we found that Newark Liberty International has a pretty good food court, and while sitting inside the airplane for 2 hours after boarding kind of sucks, the flight wasn't full and being inside an airplane that's being hosed with de-icing fluid is rather amusing.
Lisbon is a lot smaller than most capital cities, plus earthquakes in 1755 decimated much of it-- so while the the architecture is still old by American standards, by European standards it's fairly young, complete with a "modern" grid layout. And a bizarre fascination with elevators/funiculars thanks to all the hills, including the famous Santa Justa Lift. Throw in a bridge that looks very much like the Golden Gate Bridge (although more like the Bay Bridge in the details), and Lisbon and San Francisco could almost be twins.
Castelo de Sao Jorge overlooks historic Lisbon. On the plain side compared to many other castles, and unfortunately the royal palace inside was destroyed years ago.
Biggest discovery: the Portuguese do an amazing fish soup. Even random corner places... the bread and cheese are nice, but the fish soup is amazing. Potatoes are also very yellow here.