Portugal and Morocco Through Our Eyes

Our Sahara time has been a plan in the making for the past few years. It was amazing to us that this plan was actually becoming reality, and we both felt eager anticipation to meet Brahim, our guide, Mohamed, our driver, and M’barek, our cook. When we met, we immediately connected with everyone. We parked our rental car where it would be safe while we were away and headed out in a 4x4 toward the desert. Our first stop was just as we were leaving Zagora to see the marker for the iconic start of the old camel trade route between Zagora and Timbuktu.

Arriving In Lisbon

Fran drove us to the airport which made for a lovely departure for our journey!

As we were walking in the Alfama area, we came upon a street performance in one of the open areas that was incredibly colourful and intriguing. We never did really figure out what in fact was the purpose of the performance, but clearly it had meaning to the people who were performing, either by playing instruments or by dancing. It is such a joy to happen into these events and just be able to hang out and take in the experience. The group was called the Columbina Clandestina. They are pictured below.

After planning for more than a year, we arrived safely on January 27th and made our way to our first Guesthouse via the Metro. Amazingly, the Metro station was very close to where we were staying at the Chalet D’Avila. It was the perfect way to start our time here. We felt very cared for. We visited the oldest area of Lisbon called Alfama with its narrow winding cobbled streets, colourful houses and buildings with red tiled roofs. Very picturesque as it is located on the hillside.

A view of the Alfama area

The Columbian Clandestinas

Enjoying Our Fish Soup!

We would have liked to have included more about our time in Lisbon, but creating a blog on this platform is a REAL learning curve! The formatting is confounding to say the least. I will include a few more photos with descriptions so you have a fuller sense of our time there. Our next stay will be in Sintra for a few days — it is just a 30 minute train ride west of Lisbon.

This outdoor escalator was quite unusual but very welcome as it meant that our climb up to the castle wasn’t quite as strenuous. Can’t imagine how this works in the rain!

We were touched by this mural.

A typical Alfama street

When we left the Columbina Clandestina, we were ready for lunch and after looking in the alleys for some time we came across a Taverna, with a very friendly Bangladeshi cook, and had a fantastic fish soup which we will remember for a long time. We hope we will be able to find it again, but the alleys are so numerous and confusing for us. Maybe we will be lucky and find it again!