Portugal and Galicia Trip - Day 2

December 29th, 2015 - Lisbon

We were very fortunate that our first full day in Lisbon was sunny and warm, in fact it would be our only sunny day during our entire trip.  I booked a free walking tour in the morning through "Lisbon Chill-Out Free Tour".  I recently discovered the free walking tour when another ASB mom invited me to do a free tour of Barcelona in November through Sandemans New Europe Tours.  I thought I knew downtown Barcelona pretty well, but the tour was really interesting and I learned a lot about the history of the city and other fun facts.  I wished that I had done the tour when we first arrived in Barcelona so that I would have been more knowledgeable when taking our friends and family around.

Our free walking tour of Lisbon was also really interesting.  I realized that I didn't know much about the history of Portugal.  Our guide was probably too long-winded for our children, but I think that they all learned something and it was a great way to see the city without getting lost.  After 3 hours we decided that we should leave the tour as the kids were getting restless, but the rest of the tour kept going for another half hour.  In short, the free walking tour of Lisbon is a great deal.

After the walking tour, we needed to do something fun for the kids, so we headed over to the Lisbon Oceanarium.  The aquarium is located in Parque das Nações which was built for Expo '98.  It is the largest indoor aquarium in Europe.   The kids enjoyed the aquarium although they went through it very quickly.

We had to head back to the apartment as we were expecting Grandma and Grandpa Iwaasa to arrive from the airport around 5pm.   They had a few problems finding the apartment, but arrived safe and sound in their rental car.  We walked around our neighbourhood and found a Brazilian restaurant and had an excellent dinner.

Tour started at Plaza Luis de Camões

Church of Saint Roch

Here is our guide telling us the history of the church

Museu Arqueológico do Carmo is on the sight of the Carmo Church that was mostly destroyed in the 1755 earthquake

Praça do Comércio with the statue of King José

Casa dos Bicos looks over the Campo das Cebolas where new products entered Europe from the New World like onions

Entering the old Jewish quarters

The small building at the end of this street is apparently the oldest building in Lisbon

Really neat looking building along the Tagus River

The Lisbon Oceanarium

checking out the penguins

The penguins were quite active

A sunfish

With the Oceanarium mascot