Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Milestones...

My beloved wife and I celebrated what I consider to be a milestone in our lives a few days back. We arrived on the shores of Portugal 20 years to the day from where we were married by a JOP on a cold, desolate beach on Nantucket, roughly 3200 miles across the cold north Atlantic.





We had no clearly defined plans, other than to enjoy each other, celebrate our union, eat some great food and to bounce around a bunch of fun places for a few days, playing it by ear. This is pretty much how we roll wherever we go, and as usual, our plan worked out great.

Mrs. KG has been to Lisbon before several times, so knows the city a bit and knows enough to be able to comfortably get us around with no issues.

I'll not bore you with many details, and will just post a bunch of pics that some may enjoy. A few observations: Lisboa/Lisbon is a beautiful, old world city. It has lovely and friendly people and a rich history. Modern Lisbon has every modern amenity one could ask for, if wanted, but we tend to lean toward a more old school type experience. Fancy isn't a priority. Having fun is.

Lisbon suffers from urban decay. The infrastructure leaves much to be desired, with grafitti everywhere, many buildings abandoned, potholes in streets and walkways everywhere. A fair number of homeless and of course, the immigrant population seems to represent a high percentage of the street vermin. There is said to be a fairly brisk trade in pickpocketing, but that said, at no time did we feel unsafe or threatened in any way, though I did ID a few of them looking to find an easy mark. Sorry, chum. Behave yourself and move along, there's a good lad...

Lisbon's people are super helpful and very friendly, and with English and some basic Spanish, zero language issues existed for us.

Lisbon is largely made up of steep hills with streets of cobblestones and sidewalks of sandstone/limestone tiles that are slippery when wet and decidedly uneven. I did not see a single woman wearing heels. To do so would 100% result in injury, even over the course of a single city block. The first day we walked over 9 miles, with most up and down steep hills. Over the course of four full days we walked just shy of 30 miles, and again, with precious little of it flat.

Within easy striking distance within city limits and beyond Lisbon are many wonderful places. We visited a few and enjoyed it all, and never felt rushed or like we weren't seeing things we should've been.

Lisbon is very affordable and has tons of things to do and see--and EAT. I feel like we just scratched the surface in the 4 nights we stayed, but given the fun factor that's a good thing and we'll be back for sure. Next time I'll rent a car and plan on taking in more of Portugal as well as driving into Spain.

With that out of the way, here we go. Hope some folks enjoy.