Arrived in Lisbon after a three hour train trip from Porto. Came to the station in what we considered plenty of time to get our tickets and find where to go but there was quite a line and only two windows open so finally made it to the right platform just as the train pulled in. A smooth trip with Internet access on the train so caught up with mails and looked up where to visit in Lisbon. Our hotel is right in the heart of the city with trams and trains a few s...

Barcelona diary Monday 22nd June around 30 Celsius Today we challenged ourselves and decided to try a cycling tour of Barcelona. The tour took us to some places we would not have discovered by ourselves little lane sways and squares as well as the main tourist areas. We were in a group of 20 and it was a little tricky trying to keep together especially when crossing a large road. Luckily most of the way was flat so it was an easy ride. We also rode down to ...

What a contrast to Barcelona. After a four hour delay waiting in Barcelona we took the light rail into Porto and then a taxi to our hotel Pestana Porto situated right at the bottom of a steep hill on Ribieria alongside the river. The cobblestone pathways wind along the river and there are narrow stairways up between the buildings leading up to the main part of the city. Further down on the river is a funicular to save walking up the hill. We arrived on a Feast D...

Montserrat 23/6 Hot and sunny around 30 Today we decided to head out of Barcelona to Montserrat up in the mountains. We caught the metro to Placa d'Espanya station and took quite a while to find the R5 train platform it was as tricky as we had read in the guide. The train goes out to Manresa and took about an hour, after that we boarded a cable car up the mountain to the monastery. The Caribbean Island Montserrat was named by Christopher Columbus after the mou...

Sunday 21st June Ready to start our adventures so we headed off to get our Metro ticket and then strolled along La Rambla which a central street in Barcelona. It is a tree lined mall that stretches for 1.2km from Placa Catalunya to the Columbus monument at Port Vell. Being Sunday there was a market as well as all the shops along the street and the open air restaurants on the mall. The Columbus monument is a 60 metres high column erected in 1888. It is located a...