Portugal Photo Gallery by bkgee at pbase.com

Portugal

Bom dia / Hola!
Portugal is an interesting country. We were surprised by the 'flora' - gum trees and silver dollar trees and found it strange not to hear kookaburras or galahs! Mixed with pine trees and many of the plants we have along our coastlines in N.Z. it almost felt home-like!

That is until you experience Portugal's roads! (and drivers!) The Lonely Planet actually warns that Portugal has one of the highest accident records in Europe. While in San Sebastian we were also warned by a Dutch couple that the drivers were legendary, and they themselves had witnessed three accidents in one day! We thought this was a bit over the top until we were driving between Porto and Lisbon and saw two accidents and one very near miss!

Highlights: Northern Portugal's port vineyard countryside is stunning, while Porto has the benefit of both coastline and river.
Staying just south of Lisbon for a few days in a small 'fishing village' (with highrise hotels!) – this was one place we splashed out and went out for dinner – stone bass in a cream sauce – yum!
Lagos, in The Algarve, where we had temperatures around 32 degrees (in the morning!), brilliant blue skies and not a single cloud! Sounds nice huh?

	Our first view of Portugal - parked outside the local Lidl store!	Peso da Regua – absolutely beautiful scenery . . .	. . . hilled country all terraced with rows and rows of grapevines for Port	Stopped to take a photo of the church on an outcrop and got to hear the bells chiming through the valley . . .
. . . a tuneful melody, rather than just a tolling of bells! Gorgeous!	Looking out over the city of Oporto from Torre dos Cierigos
	The Body Shop - here??!		Porto Riverside	Braga's Escadariado Bom Jesus, a lovely Neo-classical church . . .
. . . with a great scene of Calvary – almost thought Mel Gibson had been there researching for The Passion!			Viana do Castelo from Santa Luzia hill	The Templo do Sagradio Coracio de Jesus (Sacred Heart of Jesus) . . .
. . . the church was modeled on the Sacre Coeur in Paris . . .	. . . late 19th century, in a Byzantine style	A great view out over the river Lima which met the sea	Buccaco, a monastic retreat
			Our campsite at Seisembra	Seisembra bay
Sintra				Oceanario de Lisboa - the second largest aquarium in the World!
The little guy	Laid back!		Lagos, in the Algarve
			Burgau - a quaint fishing village
	Sagres . . .	. . . and its 15th century fort	Cape St. Vincent . . .	. . . and it's lighthouse, the most south-western tip of Europe
Praia da Luz	with some of the Algarves beautiful houses . . .	. . . and gardens

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