Europe
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Note 66 – Travel to Bucharest
Due to Dave’s frequent work travel to Aberdeen, Scotland, he racked up quite a few British Airways Avios (miles) points. Unfortunately, they are notoriously difficult to use, especially from Houston. We’ve been trying to optimize their usage on every trip we’ve taken to Europe the past few years, but either couldn’t find availability or the…
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Note 44 – Reviewing Our Travel Experiences in Portugal
Sadly, our time in Portugal came to an end. We used Welcome Pickups (they operate in many cities world-wide we learned) again for our transportation to the airport and were pleased with their service. Communication with the driver was easy through their app as our original driver was caught in traffic, so he sent another…
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Note 43 – Lisbon Day-Trip: Discovering the Magical UNESCO Heritage Site of Sintra and Coastal Delights
For our last full day in Lisbon, we decided to go out of town on a day-trip with our Tours By Locals guide Carla to the mountains and palaces of Sintra, the westernmost point in continental Europe, and the seaside town of Cascais. She picked us up at 8am at our apartment as we had…
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Note 42 – Discovering Lisbon’s Belém District
It is Sunday, May 5th, on our trip, and most of the museums and attractions in Lisbon are closed – except those in the Belém district to our west along the Tagus River. As we had researched this in advance, our itinerary for Lisbon activities was created around this fact. We also decided that Belém…
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Note 41 – Walking Old Town Lisbon
The apartment we rented in Lisbon was one block from Pink Street, near lots of restaurants and bars, but with the shutters closed we didn’t hear excessive noise while we slept. Its location is on the border of the Cais do Sodre (towards the Tagus River) and Chiado (up the hill) districts making it convenient…
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Note 39 – Exploring Coimbra, Nazaré, and Óbidos with an Experienced Guide (Porto to Lisbon)
While researching tour guides on Tours By Locals for our days in Lisbon, we found a professionally licensed guide with over 25 years of experience that we thought we’d like, Carla C. She also offered transportation and guide services from Porto to Lisbon, in addition to standard tours in Lisbon. She appeared to be available…
Notes By Nancy 