As we get closer to Lisbon we racked up five highlight stops in just a couple of days. The first was in Batalha where we stopped to view the intricate architecture and beautiful stained-glass windows of UNESCO World Heritage-listed Batalha Monastery- a Gothic masterpiece. The convent was built to thank the Virgin Mary for the Portuguese victory over the Castilians in the battle of Aljubarrota. It served as the burial church of the 15th-Century Aviz dynasty of Por...

Apparently there's a saying in Portugal that suggests that 'Lisbon plays, Porto works, and Coimbra learns’ (not exactly the catchy simplicity of "where’s the beef" but it’s supposed to be an accurate portrayal of each cities character?). DH is always looking for opportunities to fire up her cerebral cortex’s, so the centre of higher learning, Coimbra, was the first designated stop on our cross-Portugal adventure. To call Coimbra a...

With the success of our London Brazilian Embassy venture we were left with the question of how to get to Brazil from Europe? I'm sure there's quite a few options but it seemed to make sense to head for the Portuguese colonial capital of Lisbon which still has a good number of flights heading to its' former South American property. And just to be consistent, there was no point in taking the direct route to Lisbon so we booked a flight to Porto for no o...

After picking up some replacement underwear emblazoned with the Union Jack, DH decided that she will continue describing our visit to London as she was concerned that I might say something to disparage her 'peeps'. One viewing of Coronation Street probably does more damage than I could do but I’m happy to leave the pen with London’s biggest fan:Given that our primary purpose for being in London was to secure our Brazilian visas, the second wee...

After getting lost in my enthusiasm for the idea of scantily clad Brazilian women dancing inhibition-free at Carnival, and then booking non-refundable hotels and a big cruise out of Rio (also non-refundable), I had to break the the news to a substantially less enthusiastic DH that a Brazilian visa was one of the hardest ones to get... putting our hard-earned cash at risk. The mandatory on-line application form was strangely complicated and required a followup app...