the stories that I'm telling.

Tag: family travel

  • Exploring DC – Day 1 of Adventures

    Exploring DC – Day 1 of Adventures

    We went to Washington, DC to watch my friend Komal’s documentary, Dream, Girl, at the White House, but we also took the opportunity to spend a few days on holidays in DC. My mom and I had been before, but Kevin and my dad had never seen any of the Washington, DC attractions, so we got to work quickly on our tourist experience.

    Morning Adventures

    We stayed at a hotel within walking distance to Capitol Hill, which also put us within a short distance of the Washington Mall.

    If you’re not familiar with Washington, DC, here’s how Wikipedia describes the National Mall:

    The National Mall is a national park in downtownWashington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The National Park Service (NPS) administers the National Mall, which is part of its National Mall and Memorial Parks unit.[2] The term National Mall commonly includes areas that are officially part of West Potomac Park and Constitution Gardensto the west, and often is taken to refer to the entire area between the Lincoln Memorial and the United States Capitol, with the Washington Monument dividing the area slightly west of its midpoint.[3] The National Mall receives approximately 24 million visitors each year.[4]

    Here’s a photo of the National Mall, and some notes on different landmarks, relative to our hotel.

    dcnationalmall

    We started early in the morning with a quick breakfast and a walk around the Capitol Building. The heat was pretty intense, so my parents opted for a relaxed, air-conditioned morning at the hotel while Kevin and I rented some Capital Bixi bikes, and biked down the Washington Mall to see the Lincoln Memorial.

    With Tony & Judy relaxing, Kevin and I bike in the sun along the Mall, past the Smithsonian museums. We stopped for a photo op at the Washington Monument, and then carried on to the WWII memorial. I’d seen all of this before, but it was great to see it again. The size and beauty of the National Mall is always impressive, and even Kevin agreed with that, so it was fun to see him enjoying himself so much.

    The WWII Memorial in particular includes such great attention to detail. Between the carvings, and the sounds of the fountains, it’s truly a work of art.

    The weather was nice and hot, but it was too early in the year for DC’s infamous humidity, so we enjoyed the sun as we biked along the reflecting pool and then climbed the steps to the Lincoln Memorial.

    Because we were in DC for Memorial Day weekend, it was an especially busy spot. At every memorial and landmark, we saw different veterans and veteran groups, which added a bit of extra meaning and context to all that we were seeing. As a Canadian, American politics can sometimes be a bit bewildering, so it was interesting to see Americans expressing their meaningful politics on this set of national landmarks.

    After the Lincoln Memorial we saw the Vietnam War Memorial. It’s one of my favourite things to see in DC because it’s so different from typical war memorials. Rather than celebrating achievements or supposedly high minded ideals, this memorial is a wall of stone, cut into a hill, with all the names of the American soldiers lost in Vietnam carved into it. Rather than celebrating the state, it recognizes the American soldiers who were lost in the war. It’s rather emotional to walk along, even more so when you’re walking behind and in front of Vietnam war veterans.

    On our way back to the other end of the mall, we stopped for a photo op near the White House, then headed to the Museum of Native American History for lunch (which was excellent).

    Afternoon Adventures

    After lunch we met up with my parents at the National Air and Space Museum. The Smithsonian has a really impressive collection of things in general, and this museum was no different. We saw exhibits covering the first attempts at flight, the first launches into space, and real pieces of modern spaces stations and technology. It was a great way to see and understand the progress of travel over the last few generations.

    Kevin was pretty bummed to not see Cape Canaveral when we went to Florida, so he was quite thrilled to see some spaces ships, rovers, etc at the Smithsonian.

    Next up we went to the National Gallery of Art. We only had time to see the basement floor, but we stumbled upon some Mark Rothko paintings, so we were quite excited. All in all, we had a great time on our first day exploring DC!

    Evening Adventures

    After the museums closed, we headed back to the hotel to shower off all the sweat and sunscreen of our day. After changing, I headed out with Kevin and my Dad. Unfortunately, my mom wasn’t feeling well so she stayed back in the room to sleep.

    Before going to dinner, we went to the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art. It was “Jazz in the Garden” night, which I thought meant that it would be full of stuffy rich people doing the polite golf clap while listening to jazz. I could not have been more wrong. By the time we got there, the garden was completely full. We found a line up, bought pitchers of beer and sangria, and stood in the garden to listen to the music and enjoy the energy of the crowd. It was a great crowd of people of all ages, gathering for what was clearly a very popular Friday night social event. It also helped that we were at the season debut. If you’re in DC on a Friday night, I highly suggest you check out this awesome free event!

    Next up we headed to a wine bar for dinner. I did some heavy research on WikiTravel for this trip, as I’d been advised that good restaurants were hard to find in DC due to the high amount of touristy/business-y nonsense restaurants. Fortunately, I found a great list of places, and we didn’t have a single bad meal.

    On Friday night we ate at Proof. The food was excellent, and the wine was also great. The wine list wasn’t as varied as I’d been hoping, but everything we ate and drank was delicious. Unfortunately, the aesthetic of the restaurant includes lighting so lacking that you can’t even read the menu. I found this to be completely pointless, and annoying. Otherwise, it’s a top notch experience, but eating in the dark is just plain weird. That said, we ate some of the most delicious charcuterie of all time there, so it was worth going to. Still, it was the weak point of meals over our weekend, which likely says more about how well we ate in DC.

    Photos are below, in reverse order for some reason:

    Jazz in Sculpture Garden
    Jazz in the Sculpture Garden
    Me and my dad in the
    Mark Rothko!
    In front of the National Gallery of Art
    Biking up the street!
    Making use of DC’s bike lanes!
    White House!
    Kevin in front of the Federal Reserve
    Walking along the Vietnam War Memorial
    The Vietnam War Memorial
    the Lincoln Memorial
    Lincoln!
    Heyyyy!
    In front of the Lincoln Memorial and
    Biking past the Washington Monument
    Renting a Capital Bixi Bike
    Selfie time!
    A map of the National Mall!
    Good morning from Capitol Hill!
  • Roadtrip Day 2: Tomar and the Convent of Christ

    Roadtrip Day 2: Tomar and the Convent of Christ

    After our day of adventures in Sintra, we drove 2 hours to the city of Tomar.

    When planning this roadtrip, Kevin did quite a lot of research. All the places that we travelled to see made the list because of their unique history/beauty, making it almost impossibly to have a favourite site.

    The city of Tomar was originally founded in 1162 under an order of the Knights Templar, and it was actually the last Templar town to be commissioned for construction.

    Tomar then became the headquarters of the Order of the Knights Templar in Portugal. From this base, the Templars ruled a vast area of central Portugal, defending that territory from the Moors who ruled in the South. As the Catholic church became nervous of the power of the Templars, and then banned the order altogether, the Portuguese King negotiated to create a new “Order of Christ”, which took over the power and place of the Templar’s order. As such, Tomar is considered the last home of the Knights Templar in Portugal.

    This story got a bit more interesting when Henry the Navigator, the leader of Portuguese exploration, became the head of the Order of Christ (from Wikipedia):

    Henry the Navigator was made the Governor of the Order, and it is believed that he used the resources and knowledge of the Order to succeed in his enterprises in Africa and in the Atlantic. The cross of the Order of Christ that was painted in the sails of the caravels that crossed the seas, and the Catholic missions in the new lands were under the authority of the Tomar clerics until 1514. Henry, enriched by his overseas enterprises, was the first ruler to ameliorate the buildings of the Convento de Cristo since its construction by Gualdim Pais. He also ordered dams to be built to control the river Nabão and swamps to be drained. This allowed the burgeoning town to attract more settlers. Henry ordered the new streets to be designed in a rational, geometrical fashion, as they can still be seen today.

    Interestingly, this time in Portuguese history was also an important time in Jewish history:

    Just after 1492 with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, the town increased further with Jewish refugee artisans and traders. The very large Jewish minority dynamized the city with new trades and skills. Their experience was vital in the success of the new trade routes with Africa. The original synagogue still stands.

    In the reign of Manuel I of Portugal the convent took its final form within the Manueline renaissance style. With the growing importance of the town as master of Portugal’s overseas empire, the leadership of the Order was granted to the King by the Pope.

    However, under pressure from the Monarchs of Spain, the King soon proclaimed by Edict that all the Jews remaining within the territory of Portugal would be after a short period considered Christians, although simultaneously he forbade them to leave, fearing that the exodus of Jewish men of knowledge and capital would harm Portugal’s burgeoning commercial empire. Jews were largely undisturbed as nominal Christians for several decades, until the establishment of a Tribunal of the Portuguese Inquisition by the initiative of the Catholic Clergy in the town. Under persecution, wealthier Jews fled, most others were forced to convert. Hundreds of both Jews and New Christians were arrested, tortured and burned at the stake in autos da fé, in a frenzy of persecution that peaked around 1550. Many others were expropriated of their property. Jewish ascendancy, more than Jewish religion, together with personal wealth determined whom would be persecuted, since the expropriations reverted to the institution of the Inquisition itself. The town lost then with the persecution of its merchants and professionals most of its relevance as a trading centre.

    Despite its great importance during the growth and expansion of Portugal and Europe, Tomar is now a town of just 20,000 people, quietly tucked away in Portugal. If you’re interested in knowing more about Jewish history in Portugal, I recommend you check out this Wikipedia article, as well as this article that talks about the town of Belmonte (by the way, home to some pretty good kosher olive oil!).

    Anyways, so as we were driving to Tomar, I was reading out all of these Wikipedia articles to Kevin and Tyler, getting all pumped up about our trip. We arrived late at night, grabbed dinner at a Knights-Templar-themed restaurant, and headed off to bed. With big plans for the next day, we got up early, ate breakfast in our family-run Pensao, and then headed up the hill to the Convent of Christ.

    If Tomar itself has some deep history going on, the Convent of Christ is right at the centre of the action. Built over hundreds of years, the building boasts a great variety of architectural and design styles. The level of detail is impressive, and we spent SO much time in the church flipping about how cool it was to be in the church built by Templar Knights.

    To give you an idea of how the design of the church came to be, here’s a photo from Wikipedia:

    Screen Shot 2015-09-17 at 12.57.28 PM

    Similar to when I visited Canterbury earlier this year, it was really obvious that this place grew to become a great centre of activity in Tomar. What you see as blue in the above map is a truly massive set up, designed to house and feed those who lived and visited here. We entered in the oldest part of the building, shown above in green, and worked our way through to the chapter houses. We had only planned to spent 45 minutes here, but we ended up spending well over 2 hours exploring and taking photos.

    All in all, Tomar was a wonderful place to visit. We didn’t get to see all of the sites or explore all of the myths, but the Convent of Christ was itself worth the drive. We expected it to be cool, and still Tomar very much exceeded those high expectations. Enjoy our photos below, we had a lot of fun taking them!

    Dinner at the end of Day 1, at a Templar themed pub in Tomar
    dessert was a pumpkin/fig cake
    breakfast in the morning and then we’re off!
    At the top of the hill, we parked the truck & approached the Convent
    the oldest part of the facility, ruins where a king once lived
    someone is buried here!!
    This is inside the Knights Templars’ Convent of Christ
    The scale and detail are pretty out of this world
    at this point we’re getting into the Chapter House area
    this particular building is one of the greatest examples of Manueline Style
    see that details? *that’s* manuelin.
    exploring the halls – there were prayer room and halls and accomodations off these hallways
    spot me!
  • Roadtrip Day 1 (still!): Quinta da Regaleira

    Roadtrip Day 1 (still!): Quinta da Regaleira

    If you’ve ever read this blog, you know that we typically take our travel slowly. Even if that means we miss out on some possible sites, we always try to spend the maximum amount of time in our travel pursuits, in an attempt to really understand where it is that we’re visiting. Clearly we didn’t quite take that approach on our road trip, where we packed quite a bit of stuff in. I mean, we’re now 3 posts into Day 1 of our Sintra road trip, and yet we still drove another 2+ hours on this day!

    Our wonderful friend, Soledad, insisted that we visit “Quinta da Regaleira”. It roughly translates to being “Estate of Regaleira” (the land was once owned by the wealthy Regaleira family from Northern Portugal). Soledad told us that this was her favourite place in the world, and once we arrived we realized why. We also very much regretted not budgeting more time to be here. There was so much to see, and we certainly didn’t let the rain slow us down!

    The Quinta da Regaleira is essentially an estate that was once owned by a rich guy with big dreams of making something fancy. And this guy, António Carvalho Monteiro (actually nicknamed Moneybags Monteiro) sure achieved his goal. He was an eccentric guy who leveraged his family fortune to become a coffee tycoon in Brazil, then returned to Portugal study everything from law to bugs.

    After purchasing the land in 1892, he spent until 1910 creating a magical villa and gardens, a neo-Manueline extravaganza all dreamed up by Italian opera-set designer Luigi Manini (Lonely Planet).

    Despite the rain, we spent most of our time exploring the extensive gardens. This place is a landscape architect’s dream, boasting arches, gazebos, grottos, aquariums, gardens, patios, paths, fountains, tunnels, bridges, and more. The highlight is almost certainly what’s known as the “Initiation Wells”. We spent at least 30 minutes trying to find them, and it was well worth the effort. Here’s some background info, courtesy of our friends at Ancient-Origins.net:

    The pair of wells, known as the ‘Initiation Wells’ or ‘Inverted Towers’, consist of ‘winding stair’ architecture, which carries symbolic meaning including the death/rebirth allegory common to many hermetic traditions.

    One of the wells contains nine platforms, which are said to be “reminiscent of the Divine Comedy by Dante and the nine circles of Hell, the nine sections of Purgatory and the nine skies which constitute Paradise.” A smaller well, called the “Unfinished Well,” contains a set of straight staircases, connecting the ring-shaped floors to one another. It is believed that the spacing of the landings, as well as the number of steps in between were dictated by Masonic principles.

    The two wells are connected to a series of underground tunnels and caves. Once we entered the primary initiation well, we descended deep underground.

    To our great delight, we ended up in passing through the other well and entering a grotto/lake/waterfall area. We were beyond thrilled at this turn of events. We’d been freaking out about the beauty of this site all day, but this discovery topped them all, and we immediately agreed that Soledad was right about this place.

    The inside of the mansion was pretty cool as well, but nothing close to the outdoor gardens and its secrets. If you plan to visit this site, give yourself at least 3 hours to see everything!

    Check out the photos to see all this beauty for yourself (some are a bit blurry due to the rain – we were completely soaked, as was the phone!):

     

    We began our adventure on the edge of the gardens
    This level of detail and beauty existed throughout
    soaking wet and trying to read our map as it falls apart
    From the top of the initation well!
    down, down, down…
    …down, down, down…
    at the bottom!
    as we make our way through the tunnels, we see the light!
    and hear we are!
    we then crossed the lake!
    we passed a fountain…
    …and made our way to the castle
    the view was stunning!
    This chapel was built in Italy and then transported to Portugal
    View of the chapel inside
    Again in the chapel
    Detail!
    the entry gate
    meow!
  • A Trip to the Algarve – Kevin’s backyard

    A Trip to the Algarve – Kevin’s backyard

    The moment I told Kevin I’d booked my flight, he went into trip planning mode. Two weeks was a lot of time to fill, but it got booked up fairly quickly. We considered and rejected visiting the North & Porto (too far), some additional castles (I rolled my ankle), another historical town (Heather got sick), and a winery (we slept in). But still we ended up seeing a lot. A couple days sightseeing in Lisbon, a few days on the road being steeped in history, and finally a full week exploring the Algarve.

    2015-04-17 21.07.10
    🎶 “…One is a genius, the other’s insane” 🎶

    As Heather has recapped some of the Lisbon tour and the road trip, I’ll share a couple of our day trips exploring the Algarve.

    Avo Olimpia & Exploring Town

    Because Heather works remotely and at night (Australia hours) we usually get a pretty late start our day. We typically didn’t wake up, shower, have breakfast (a Canadian tradition apparently) and a cafe [Editor’s note, we now refer to ‘coffee’ in Portuguese, hence ‘cafe’], and head out until at least noon. Avo Olimpia, on the other hand, is much busier in the morning. Everyday when I would wander downstairs to scrounge up some breakfast around 10am, she would be well into her day – a trip to the market complete, laundry washed-dried-folded, and soap-opera watched. I’d get a “bon dia, bread’s on the table” and she’d be off yet again, now to the cafe with friends. She’s always on the move, and we rarely knew where to.

    One day I got the grand tour of the town and Kevin’s childhood playground. We walked to the pool, fed ducks in the creek, and saw the old-old church, the new-old church and pointed out every coffee place in town (there were many). There were some really cool sights too! Other than the history (“so the Romans built those walls”, “this buidling pre-dates Canada” etc.) my favourite sight was the giant Portuguese flag overlooking the entire town. Apparently during a previous World Cup (soccer…er I mean, football) some kids had scaled a nearby hill and painted a Portugese flag to cheer on their nation. This act of fan-dalism has since remained, and honestly looks pretty great!

    I thought Grimsby (pop 20,000) was a small town where everyone knows everyone, but Alte puts it to shame. Throughout the week of exploring we rarely walked down the street without stopping to chat with a neighbour, old friend, or relative because everyone knows each other. Case in point: Alte, it turns out, is so small you can accidently run into family. On one of our urban tours we stumbled upon Avo. We chatted for a bit with her friends (all in Portuguese so have no idea what was said, but assume my height and fair skin were questioned) but she was too busy for us (going dancing?) and we each continued on our separate ways.

    All in all I enjoyed seeing this small town.

    Avo Maria, The Farm, and the old House

    While we spent the week with Avo Olimpia, one of our day trips included a visit to see Avo Maria and some of the family farm land. If it was nice having fruit trees in the yard for fresh juice, then visiting Avo Maria was a delight. She has fruit trees as far you can see – grapefruits, oranges, lemons, limes, whatever – just sitting there ready to be picked! I got a tour of the farm (included more Kevin stories “used to climb this tree”, “had a tire swing here”) and we loaded up on fruit, all while dodging chickens underfoot.

    The most hilarious part of this day trip was meeting Daisy. Daisy is Avo Maria’s older but still very much active dog. She followed us around for the whole tour, chasing chickens and keeping us entertained. As we got back to the house though, she surprised all of us by hunting down and catching a pigeon out of mid-air before scampering off to finish her treat!

    The Beach

    One of my favourite Algarve day trips included visiting a beach hidden from the mainroads and mostly known to locals. Here we got to walk the beach for a little while with the sand, sun, and ocean breeze all to ourselves. Kevin knows about the place because he used to visit with his grandfather and fish for clams in the summer. We got a full theatrical explanation of how he would walk in neck deep water (“it was up to here!”) trying to keep up with his grandfather while fighting the ocean (“current was trying to suck me out the whole time!”) so they could eat fresh seafood for dinner. It was a neat story which gave a beautiful pit-stop all the more meaning.

    As were leaving the beach we noticed it had rained earlier (sidenote – apparently it rained so much during my visit I’m not allowed back, bad luck) and the dirt parking lot was now filled with mud. So while Heather rolled her eyes Kevin and I hooked up the camera and drove circles through the mud having a blast! Check it out:

    Doesn’t get any better than that.

  • Exploring Lisbon with my little brother

    Exploring Lisbon with my little brother

    Having already spent some time in Lisbon, Kevin and I were fully prepared to show Tyler all the best sites and scenes.

    Obviously, this included copious amounts of eating and walking.

    Tyler arrived in Lisbon in the morning, and despite getting minimal sleep, he kept going with us all day. The next day, we were once again up bright and early, and we set off on all kinds of adventures. Rather than go into wild detail about every darn thing that we did, here’s a list of the places we saw and adventures we got into:

    • Exploring the streets and vistas of Lisbon: You’ll note that there are tons of pictures of us just walking around and looking at things. A worthwhile adventure, but not an easy one. Lisbon is a city built on 7 hills, which makes for great views and great exercise. Fortunately the city is small enough that you can cover most of it’s beautiful neighbourhoods on foot, and that’s just what we did.
    • Lunch at Sea Me: Tyler’s food game started off strong at this popular sea food restaurant in Lisbon. We had tuna steak, seaweed salad, fresh fish, tiger prawns, and of course, green wine.
    • Drinking Sangria at a kiosk just outside of the Convento do Carmo: This is Kevin’s favourite square in Lisbon. It’s quieter than most (though not that day, due to construction), tucked away just in front of the famous ruins of the Convento do Carmo. The convent, built in the 1400s, was mostly destroyed during the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. The ruins of the gothic church were left standing as a type of memorial.
    • Drinks & Pool at Pavilhao Chines: Kevin and I went to this wacky place for the first time a few weeks prior, and we decided to return with Tyler. He and Kevin played a game of pool in the back room, on what must been the worst pool table in existence. When even Kevin can’t make a shot, you know it’s more than just the player’s fault.
    • The most horrible dinner we’ve ever had, at a “fancy” burger place called Guilty. I won’t even go into details. But suffice to say that Kevin and I were quite disappointed.
    • Coffee! Cafe!: People make jokes about there being a Tim Hortons or Starbucks on every corner in Canada, but in Lisbon, you’re hard pressed to walk 5 minutes in any direction without passing some type of cafe. Every park has kiosks that serve espressos (and beer!), and every block has a small cafe that serves snacks, coffee (espressos), and beer. So throughout this entire trip, we drank insane amounts of espresso. Walked 5 blocks? Time for a cafe break.
    • Evening drinks at Pensao Amor: This is one of our favourite places in Lisbon. It’s a former brothel, now decorated as a vintage burlesque bar. It’s a great setting, always lively, with good music and drinks.
    • Lunch at the Nun’s Canteen: This was probably the most interesting place that we ate while in Lisbon. Looking for a unique lunch spot, I came across this Guardian UK article about best lunch spots in Lisbon. It mentioned a canteen/cafeteria run by nuns where one can grab a cheap lunch with a great view. I marked the spot on the map, and the 3 of us set off on an adventure. 5 minutes in a cab, and we were in Lisbon’s Chiado neighbourhood. We went up a set of stairs to a house in an alleyway. The door was open, and we headed up the third floor. Once there, we found exactly what we’d been promised. A well-priced traditional Portuguese lunch, which we enjoyed on their back patio, overlooking the Tagus River and the Chiado neighbourhood below us. It’s a spot frequented by locals on lunch hour, but we did our best not to stand out as tourists in this authentically Lisbon experience.
    • Belem: Next, we headed to Lisbon’s Belem neighbourhood, where we enjoyed the following: Pasteis de Natas (which were apparently invented at the Pasteis de Belem cafe, and certainly they make the tastiest version); The Church at the Monastery of Jeronimos; Padrao dos Descombrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries); and the Torre de Belem, an ancient fortification.
    • Dinner (and later, drinks) with our friend Soledad: We went to Mercado da Ribeira, which is basically a high-end food court, featuring small outposts of all the top restaurants in the city.

    After all that adventuring, we headed home to get some sleep before starting our roadtrip in the morning! Lots of photos below, with descriptions to properly explain all the things we saw. Check ’em out:

    view of Lisbon from above – we took the famous streetcar from one end of the city to the other. This was the final view!
    siblings at the top of the city
    getting fancy with panoramic views
    at the gates to Lisbon, right at the waterfront. Not behaving
    And then, behaving. Kevin made us take a nice one for our parents.
    at a central cable car junction, on our way to lunch
    lunch appetizers at Sea Me!
    At the top of another Lisbon hill
    Tyler capturing the beauty of Lisbon 😉
    the view of the street from our AirBnB
    get to the gym, Tyler! (PS: my wardrobe change took place when we took Tyler back to the AirBnB and I unpackaged the Lululemon clothes I made him pick up in Canada for me)
    just another beautiful Lisbon streeet
    sibings and hills and streetcar tracks.
    Tyler really couldn’t get enough of the beautiful streets (I was the same when I first came to Europe)
    Praying pre-Sangria outside the Convento do Carmo
    world’s sketchiest pool table. May very well have been 50+ years old, sans maintenance
    Enjoying a cafe kiosk, 30 steps from our apartment
    Just another gorgeous building we spotted on the way to lunch
    view from the Nun’s canteen!
    inside at the canteen
    the welcoming door
    Info about lunch, for those interested
    with a cable car in the background. Same style that we took a ride on the day before
    siblings in Lisbon
    just a random beautiful street, no big deal
    seriously! a random sidewalk!
    siblings taking in the squares of Lisbon
    Kevin really put his photo skills to work on this trip. Always wanting to capture good shots for the family!
    Enjoying the view at the shores of the Tagus river. At least one of us is paying attention to the view.
    our cab to Belem was a shark! Also was driven by a woman who MADE us put on our seatbelts.
    Tyler getting artistic at Pasteis de Belem
    our Pasteis de Nata
    where/how they’re made
    SO many pasteis de nata!
    Outside of the Monastery of Jeronimos
    this building is bananas
    Inside the church – gotta keep quiet!
    Upstairs at the church. Couldn’t figure out how to get there and also couldn’t deal with not talking, so we left.
    A massive fountain in Belem. First time seeing it active!
    Tyler in front of the 25 of April Bridge. Just like his trip to San Francisco a few weeks prior!
    The massive Monument to the Discoveries. Built to commemorate Portuguese exploration.
    It. is. so. big.
    We went to the top of the Monument and caught a pretty stellar view.
    That’s the Torre de Belem in the distance
    It’s too damn hot and sunny up here!
    view of the Monastery of Jeronimos
    Overhead view of the rose compass, donated to Portugal by South Africa. The map in the centre shows all the places that Portuguese explorers went.
    oh hey coolio!
    There was an exhibit in the basement of the monument, where we saw some cool posters
    Was feeling the heat, but Kevin solved that with water and gelato.
    siblings at the Torre de Belem
    Nice bag!
    #selfie at the torre de belem
    and again
    wtf?
    having dessert with Soledad!
    look at these kids!
    having fun?