Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, Lisbon

First day of our week in Lisbon, a free day before our 5-day Jin Shin Jyutsu class began. This was one of those times when it's been almost impossible to choose a picture to blip because I took so many interesting ones.

I thought this captured our day best - my friend Tamara, who travelled from Brussels with me, revelling in late afternoon sun in the cloister of the magnificent Mosteiro dos Jerónimos in Belem. We spent the day ambling around Baixa and Ciado, getting happily lost, drinking vinho branco in sunlit squares, gawping at beautiful tiled buildings from the vintage 28 Tram. In my case, it also involved running in and out of pastelarias (a pastry shop-tea room) to sample pasteis de nata, the fabulous Portuguese custard tarts I've been dreaming of for years. Hah!

So - a week drenched in sunshine and pasteis, without family duties or household chores, a week of intensive study, great food, exploring a new city, enjoying the sweet-sounding Portuguese language. Does spring get better than this?

Beautiful large.


~ a backblip