I’ve been in Lisbon, Portugal for just about 24 hours and I’ve noticed several unique features about my trip so far. I was thrilled to arrive in the Lisbon Airport to find my friend, Jo Ann Condry, whom I met in Italy several years ago at the Historic Organ Study Tours, along with a new friend, Ann Williams, who had flown on the same flight.

The three of us were picked up in a 45-passenger bus where we were the only passengers (!) and taken to our hotel, the Turim Av Liberdade. It is the only hotel room I’ve been in where there is a glass wall between the bathroom and the bedroom, allowing one to see the bed while sitting on the toilet, and vice-versa! Thankfully there is a roll-up shade closing off the view!

Last night there was a welcome dinner for the 38 participants on this Trafalgar tour. It was a typical Portuguese menu, with cod as the main dish. The Portuguese word for “cod” is bacalhau, which is very similar to the Spanish word, bacalao, a codfish stew my son’s Mexican in-laws serve at Christmas. I see many similarities in the written Spanish and Portuguese languages.

We had a typical European breakfast buffet and I took a photo of how they served the papaya, which included the seeds, something I’ve never seen before! Me — I just throw the seeds away after scooping them out of the papaya.

This morning we visited two monuments, Belém Tower and Padrao dos Descobrimentos, then visited a monastery, Mosteiro Dos Jerónimos where of course I took a photo of a small tracker organ. As you can see by the outdoor photos, the weather here is perfect! However, we’ve been told that a hot spell is coming this weekend.

After visiting the monastery, our tour director brought a tray of Portuguese egg custard tarts, called “pastel de nata.” Pastel de nata were invented in the 18th century, right here by monks at the Jerónimos Monastery in Santa Maria de Belem. At the time, it was common practice to use egg whites to starch nuns’ habits — which, naturally, left the monks with a ton of leftover yolks.

We next drove to Cascais for lunch and afterwards Jo Ann and I walked to Our Lady of Assumption Church (NOSSA SENHORA DA ASSUNÇÃO). I learned that the church was originally built in 1500 but was damaged in an earthquake and reconstructed in the 18th century. I was most impressed by the tilework and the gilded woodwork.

It remains Cascais’ main church, and retains the original tile panels that were added from 1720 to 1748, depicting scenes of the life of the Virgin. Another example, illustrating the Apocalypse, is more recent, from 1908. The main altar is a fine example of Portuguese gilded woodwork, while up on the walls is a number of 17th-century paintings. Some of those were painted by Josefa d’Obidos, one of Portugal’s most prolific painters and one of the few female artists in the world at the time.

In the late afternoon we drove to Sintra where we visited the National Palace where we saw many examples of tilework and elaborately painted ceilings.

After one day, right now I’m on sensory overload!