We just arrived in London (obviously we are a little late in getting this posted) after spending a wonderful few days in Portugal. What a delightful country. It must be Europe’s hidden gem. To make the stay even more enjoyable, we were able to spend some time visiting with our friends, Robb and Anna and their kids and hear more about their ministries with the Christian school in Cascais, Young Life, and MOPS. It’s always exciting to hear how God is using willing hearts to further his kingdom. We knew that we were in a western country when we noticed that baksheesh was missing from the daily run of life, the people drove with some semblance of order, although equally fast, and the streets were clean (not that all western streets are clean . . . just cleaner). Oh, and the euro.
While in Portugal, we were able to see and explore centuries-old castles, cathedrals and palaces; walk the cobblestone streets (As an aside, every country that we have visited on this trip has decorative sidewalks . . . no plain cement slabs for these folks. It’s amazing that everyone doesn’t end up with broken bones but I guess that they are used to walking on them.) of Lisbon and Sintra, a charming, though touristy, small town in the mountains near Cascais; eat our share of “pastries de belem”, yummy sweet custard tarts that you can find everywhere; enjoy beautiful vistas from various points in Lisbon and Sintra; became pretty adept at taking buses, trains, trams, the metro and even an elevator (not what we would think of an elevator to be) to wherever we wanted to go and eat some popular salted cod dishes, a staple in their diet (sorry Portugal, but we vote for Jamaican salted cod dishes, like ackee and salt fish and callaloo and salt fish . . .yummy); witness a major traffic jam in the narrow, hilly streets of Lisbon due to a protest by workers. We’ve enjoyed it all. With such a short time there, we might just have to make a return trip to see all the sights that we missed.
Now to explore London . . .
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