ADVENTURES, CHALLENGES, AND INSIGHTS OF A COUPLE IN EARLY RETIREMENT
After looking at the map of Portugal, we decided that visiting Coimbra, between Lisbon and Porto, would be a good idea. Coimbra, another UNESCO site, has the oldest public university in Portugal, dating back to 1290. The university, first established in Lisbon, went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537.
Sintra is a popular day trip from Lisbon because of the cute downtown, the five palaces nearby, the panoramic scenery, and the easy rail connections. Since we have a car, we decided to take the 30-minute drive to Sintra from Lisbon and pick up a tour from there.
Our roving retirement has finally taken us to Lisbon Portugal. The city is built on seven hills, so you can imagine that there really isn’t a flat spot to be found except very close to the river. This can present challenges for walking, parking, and just about anything else you want to do in the city but it also presents beautiful views.
In our roving retirement travels around the world, we try to not only see the historical sites and taste the food, but we also try to learn about the local culture. Nothing is more quintessentially Portuguese than Fado.
We finally made it to Portugal. We have seen TV shows and heard about The Algarve so we thought we had better have a look on our current roving retirement trip.
