Rachael + Adam Welcome to Lisbon!

Shelena
Phil Scourfield
Sat 5 Sep 2015 11:59
38;40.6N 09;19.0W

Airports are places either for tears or smiles. And so it was that with
Rachael and Adam's arrival at Lisbon airport. Welcome to Portugal with large
smiles. A country that has constantly impressed us with its most friendly
people and where English is widely spoken and menus are nearly always
available in English too. Lisbon is a great city because it is compact and
its old town from its main square is well shaded from the hot sun. We
visited a museum about light. Yes, Lisbon prides itself as extra special
because of the rather soft light that is credited to its location beside the
large river Tejo makes the Thames appear rather diminutive. Lisbon's light
is what it is too, because of the influence of clean northerly winds that
predominate. Also, it was boldly asserted that Lisbon has more hours of sun
than Madrid and other places too. Quite how sun hours is measured is not
clear. When is it sunny? Does it mean no cloud whatever between observer and
sun? What about a thin cloud level? What about the sun that is clearly
visible a mile up the road but is obliterated to the observer? I imagine
these matters have been determined by now by the sun boffins and that is how
they conclude Lisbon enjoys better light quality than almost anywhere on
earth. In any event, we agree that the light is rather special in Lisbon. We
did not confine ourselves to just the light museum. We also wondered around
an elevated castle looking over the city roof line and river.

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