Familiar Ground

It's weird how not weird it feels to be in Portugal. We didn't have any of the strange otherworldly feelings we had on previous international trips as we worked our way through foreign airports. When we arrived in Lisbon, it was strange to have everything so familiar. The paths we had walked through the city two years ago are still fresh in our brains.

We spent our first day close to the apartment recovering from the flight, though I snuck out for a winding walk around the city while the kids rested. The following day we set out to Belém to see the 16th century  Monsteiro dos Jeronimos, the monastery at the site where great explorers like Vasco de Gama prayed before they set out on their journeys. The Manueline architecture never ceases to amaze me. The level of detail is stunning. The figures carved out of stone on the tombs of Vasco da Gama and the famous poet Camoés were so real the stone pillow looked soft and the leggings looked like real cloth. But I have written this all before and I don't want to be repetitive in trying to accurately describe its beauty. We then "hiked" (as Aaron said) the stairs up the Monument of the Discoveries for the big view of Lisbon and the Rio Tejo before heading back into Lisbon for a belated sixteenth wedding anniversary celebration dinner at, as is our tradition when we are in Lisbon for our anniversary, Sacramento.

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