Randy and I took this trip over my Spring Break. We had 9 full days in Spain and Portugal, which we split among the Algarve (3 days), Lisbon (4), and Madrid (2). As usually is the case for my trips, the weather was as close to perfect as possible; my beet-red nose makes compelling evidence!

ALGARVE

Our first three days were spent in the Algarve, the southernmost region of Portugal. A rapidly developing place, the Algarve is a huge summer beach destination. In late March though, it's a lot quieter and not as tacky as it probably becomes. Getting a 4-star hotel for $38 a night didn't hurt either!

A lot of our time was spent hiking around on the cliffs, the trademark of the Algarve. We stayed in the town of Lagos, which is around 30 km from the western end of Portugal; right outside our hotel are some of the Algarve's most impressive limestone cliffs, at least if you rank them in terms of frequency of postcard appearances. Here I am, perched along the cliffs. Here's a nice example of the secluded beaches, surrounded by the enormous cliffs. This photo of a man walking on the beach gives some perspective on just how big the cliffs are. A popular tourist activity is hiring a small boat to take you out among the offshore grottoes and cliff formations, which we did one sunny afternoon. Here you can see some of the locals waiting just offshore for the tourists to hire them. Here is one group of tourists, dwarfed by the formations, just offshore. This last cliff picture I took while aboard our tiny motorboat.

Also among our Algarve destinations was Sagres, "the end of the world" up to the 15th century, at the southwestern tip of Europe. This is where Prince Henry the Navigator founded his school of navigation; while much of the fortress has been reconstructed, a 500-year old compass still remains. We rented bikes out here (just so my hands could match the redness of my nose), to bike 7 km out to the true end of Europe, the Cabo de São Vicente. The lighthouse out here is the second- most powerful in the world, shining out some 90 km into the Atlantic. On the way back, we stopped at this brightly-decorated ceramic shop.

LISBON

The middle three days and our last day were spent in Lisbon. The weather here for the most part was beautiful, and warm for the season. So warm, in fact, that we seemed to offend the population by wearing shorts, something no one over there seems to do. Anyway, we spent most of our time just rambling around the city. Here's Randy on our hotel balcony shortly after our arrival.

The Castle of São Jorge, overlooking the castle, provides some excellent views of Lisbon, whether the Baixa (lower city) through an old window or the Alfama. The castle itself can be seen here, near dusk in the background of the Praça da Figueira, where we stayed two nights. The Santa Justa elevator, a turn of the century transportation device to carry people from the Baixa to the Bairro Alto (high city), provided one of the best vantage points for looking at the city. From there, among the sites are, again the castle, one of the many tiled streets, and one of Lisbon's grand plazas. One of the most beautiful plazas the Praça do Comércio, right alongside the river.

We also visited a lot of places in the vicinity of Lisbon. Right across the river Tagus is a statue of Christ modeled on the one over Rio de Janeiro, from which we overlooked the modern 25 de abril Bridge. Farther west, the Belém neighborhood of Lisbon had a lot to offer, including the several-century old Torre de Belém, and the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, built in 1960 in commemoration of 500 years of Portuguese discovery.

A day trip took us to Sintra, in the mountains an hour west of Lisbon. A fancy 19th century vacation destination, the town boasts two palaces and ruins of a castle. Moorish architecture is all around, including in what now seems to be just a bus stop. The ruins of a Moorish castle, dating from the 8th to 12th centuries, provide mysterious partial rooms, twists which resemble the Great Wall of China, and plenty of other places to get lost. The ostentatious Palácio Nacional de Pena, built in the 19th century, is a multi-pastel-colored work of art on the highest mountain above Sintra; its presence for us was made even eerier with the clouds that rolled in. Back down in town later, here I am, showing the way back to Lisbon.

Lastly, here I am, the Melanoma Poster Boy, awaiting our train to Madrid.

MADRID

While we enjoyed the time in Lisbon, due to it being Holy Week we couldn't get the train to Madrid on the day we wanted, and so pushing it back a day, our time in Spain was limited to two full days. We made the most of it though, by pounding the pavement all day long underneath the bright sun and temperatures in the 80s.

As with most of Europe, what impressed me most about Madrid was the architecture. Here, if you can believe it, is the main post office. The main commercial street, the Gran Vía, also had a lot of neat buildings. Spring was in bloom everywhere, as can be seen here, in the Plaza de Oriente. After rambling around the center of Madrid, including the places above, the Royal Palace, the Cathedral, and several plazas, including the assassination-scarred Puerta de Alcalá, we headed east of the center to walk around the main bullfighting ring, the Plaza de Toros. Later, we headed back to the Parque del Retiro, once a private retreat for the royals, but now the biggest and most popular park. We partook in the Madrid tradition of renting a rowboat, with me doing all the work. :)

As it was Good Friday in a Catholic country, there were numerous processions throughout central Madrid. (In case you're wondering, the KKK apparently modeled their outfits after these, not the other way around.) The processions went on all night, weaving up and down street after street, including the small side street on which our hotel was located.

The second day in Madrid we spent in a retread of our path, looking for anything open (it was Holy Saturday, after all). We spent the afternoon at the Prado Art Museum and the Royal Botanial Garden, before heading back to Lisbon on the overnight train. Our last experience in Madrid was of the Atocha Train Station, and the unique use to which an old terminal was put.