Afonso de Albuquerque

Two soldiers in ceremonial uniforms stand guard in front of the Portuguese presidential palace in Lisbon. It was named after the first viceroy of India, Afonso de Albuquerque.

Portuguese maritime history

Inaugurated in 1960, the 180 foot hight "Monument to the Discoveries" celebrates 500 years of Portuguese maritime expansion. Located in Belém, a district of Lisbon on the bank of the River Tagus, it is designed in the shape of a caravel. It features Henry the Navigator at the prow and 32 other Portuguese maritime personas.

Ponte 25 de Abril

Completed in 1966, Ponte 25 de Abril or "25th of April Bridge" is an elegant suspension bridge over the Tagus River that connects the city of Lisbon to Almada.
While it resembles San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, Ponte 25 de Abril was built by the American Bridge Company, the one that constructed the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Wikipedia says, "Upon completion the bridge had the longest suspended span (1,012m) and the longest main span in Continental Europe, the world's longest continuous truss, and the world's deepest bridge foundation. It was the fifth largest suspension bridge in the world, the largest outside the USA. Today it is the 20th largest suspension bridge in the world."
Originally called Salazar Bridge, in 1974, the bridge was renamed following a coup, the "Carnation Revolution of April 1974" that ended decades of repressive and authoritarian rule under President António de Oliveira Salazar.

Arrival in Lisbon

Smooth flying on Royal Air Maroc from Marrakech -- with a transfer in Casablanca -- and we arrived this afternoon in Lisbon.
So we unpacked our stuff at our hotel, which is across the street from the Campo Pequeno bullfight square and shopping center, and headed out to explore. That's right, a shopping mall built below and around a traditional bull-fighting ring. It's a great arrangement-- keeping the functionality and facade of the old-school bull-fighting ring while adding a modern shopping mall.
Trying to make our weak dollar go further against a strong Euro (it's now at 1.46 or so), we wandered down to the "food court" and checked out the scene. We scored a delicious hamburger at H3 for a reasonable price. Check the link for more details; they make one very tasty burger. Later we took the metro down to old Lisbon, and I took some pictures with my iPhone camera. See the collage above. On the last day in Africa I dropped my Canon SD 1000 and it's not working anymore.

Berber carpet

Scott and I set out on a field trip with Achmed, our Moroccan friend. He's a Berber that we happened to meet in our first class compartment on the "Marrakesh Express" from Casablanca. An accountant for the Moroccan National railroad who lives in Marrakesh, Achmed took an interest in us and things developed from there.... We have bulit a wonderful friendship. He speaks good English, has a dog, drinks wine and laughs at my jokes so it's not exactly your typical Muslim that we've befriended.
So we got up early this morning, our new friend joined us, and we hired a car and driver to go to the weekly "Berber market" about 30 miles out of town. The main market day for this community, it is a Berber-only affair and we were the only over-sized white-tourists (indeed Scott was wearing a Hawaii print shirt) in the big market day crowd of 2-3 thousand seller and buyers. That was a total scene, including a special "donkey/burro parking lot" where you leave your beast of burden with an attendant while you shop.
I'll do my best to describe the traditional Berber market in more detail later, including how Scott and I escaped an encounter with a gang of 5 pickpockets. Scott has the best photos and descriptions and I'll link to them when he finally posts 'em to net. (I have a collage of some of the Berber market sights and scenes posted below).
Later, we drove up into the foothills of the High Atlas mountains and visited a traditional Berber home and have lunch with a view toward the 12,000 foot peaks, the highest in North Africa. On the way, we stopped at a artisan coop and I made my first-ever major carpet purchase. The photo (above) is my friendly Berber carpet salesman and some of his inventory.

Atlas mountains

After the market, we traveled through the foothills of the High Atlas mountains in search of lunch and Burber carpet.

Berber Market Day

Scenes from a traditional Berber market day about 40 km from the city. In the center of the collage, Scott and Achmed are in the "meat department. "