Lisbon: First Impressions

I had never been to Lisbon before, until now. As my parents and I flew into Lisbon from Madrid (Saturday, May 29) to meet the rest of the group, I made several observations about the country and city from birds-eye view:

(1) It’s much greener than Castile (this winter was much wetter than others and the Portuguese say that it is also greener than ever; however, due to the heavy rains, agriculture and farmers are suffering);

(2) The Tagus River is huge.

(3) It is less populated than Spain;

(4) Lisbon is situated on a bay with a bridge like the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco;

(5) Lisbon is a coastal city;

(6) The city has several large parks;

(7) Most of the houses are white with terracotta roofs;

(8) There are also blue, yellow, pink and baby blue houses.

(9) Like the statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro, there is a similar one in Lisbon modeled after the one in Brazil;

(10) Lisbon is not as huge as Madrid, but it is still a big city (2 million people). The airport in Lisbon is much smaller and a lot less modern than Barrajas in Madrid.