Lisbon to Madrid

And so we leave Lisbon. Our visit here has been a great experience. Lisbon is easily navigated, and the people are quite friendly. Many citizens do not speak English, but with effort on our part to pick up some Portuguese phrases we were able to see and do anything we set out to accomplish. Being big fans of Vasco da Gama made this city so much more memorable, but it would appeal to anyone interested in Decorative Arts, Public Monuments, Maritime History, or European Architecture.So you don't think Lisbon was all history, there is plenty of wonderful modern engineering marvels to behold also, like this more modern bridge...

As we set out for Madrid, we decided to stop in a city named Merida, in Spain. It is about 150 miles west of Madrid. We had read about Roman ruins that were in this city, and we decided we would stop and take in the history (and have an espresso). This is one of the best decisions ever made by a Doebler! The espresso was good, but the Roman ruins were AWESOME. It was amazing to stand within these historical sites. There are remains of a Roman Amphitheater, and a Roman Coliseum, in addition to a circus, and other lesser ruins. It was incredible to touch a marble column and sit in the amphitheater and look down on the stage. Pictures can't convey the experience, but I have included a few...





And so we arrived in Madrid. It was dark when we arrived, and we had a little trouble navigating to our hotel, because we are again in the center of the historic district. That means few streets signs visible to a driver and a lot of one way streets. It went better than Barcelona though, so maybe we're getting the hang of this??? One block from our hotel was a delicious restaurant, where we had dinner, and another block further we found a beautiful park with some lovely fountains! So tomorrow, we will start a whole new city exploration...