The title of this post refers to several things: one that we drove “down” from Porto to Lisbon and that we were feeling very “up” about all of the new countryside of Portugal we were seeing. We stopped at a medieval hill top town along the way, Óbidos, which was picturesque if not a bit touristy. It was Ryan’s birthday, another “up”, so it was special to be in a foreign country and making memories on a special day.

Approaching the fortified town of Óbidos.
Óbidos is famous for Ginjinha (or Ginja for short). This is a liqueur made from water, cinnamon, sugar, and the ginjinha berry (or more commonly known in English as the Morello cherry). Think of it as the cherry syrup surrounding cherries in a cherry pie. And in Óbidos, grabbing a shot of ginja is easy as pie! And we got our shots in a chocolate cup!
We continued to enjoy ginja throughout our trip. The top left photo is from Lisbon (more on that to come) as is the image at the right, which shows how the drink is often served with unpitted cherries in the glass. But the bottom left image shows Clint enjoying his SECOND shot of ginja in Óbidos. (And you thought you knew him!)
We didn’t just drink. We did explore this wonderful old fortified village.
Bright blue and crisp white prevailed in the color scheme in Óbidos, giving the village an almost Greek Mediterranean feel.
The narrow streets, shadow-play from the close buildings, cafes, and colorful collection of citrus and autumnal squashes around town were drawing our camera lens left and right.

Then, as we approached Lisbon we got a phone call from Ryan’s dad that took us way “down”. His mother had had a heart attack and was in the hospital waiting for surgery to put a catheter in her heart. She had some other issues as well and we would have to wait until the following morning (agony) to find out what had happened and what her condition was. Fortunately, she made it through all of that and is in stable condition (“up”). But, as you can imagine, there were plenty of sad emotions and concern about her and Ryan’s dad back home (“down”). You can’t control what happens to people, or when, and we needed to use it a lesson to try and let the universe carry out it grand plan and also appreciate what we have and what we were doing in this moment (“up”). Each day is time you never get back.

Knowing Ryan’s mom was doing so much better and that she had family with her and Ryan’s dad allowed us to feel lighter for our last two days in Lisbon and on this trip. We walked the city the next two days, the first of which was my birthday, and took in as much as we could. We enjoyed having an apartment to live in here as if we were locals. We brought food in for dinners and we played cribbage and drank wine on our narrow balcony overlooking the narrow, historic, street below and the tiled roof tops and imposing church above.

The apartment we rented is in an historic and charming section of the city called The Alfama.
Our apartment here had a wonderful view onto the medieval core of the city. It also had some incredible architectural detail, such as the ceiling ornamentation shown here.
Our balcony was the perfect spot for cribbage and evening wine.
Birthdays were celebrated in this fine city.
Lisbon is lively and full of people out on the streets, such as this pedestrian street full of shops and cafes.
The city is built on seven hills and, thus, there are plenty of stairs and steep streets to climb and descend.
Or you could take a cable car (which we did not).
Climbing those hills, you pass some interesting alleyways and narrow streets.
We took in views from many vantage points, which was a great reward after the climb. One day, our phones told us we climbed the equivalent of 40 stories.
Lisbon is such a visually interesting city.
And, as we’ve seen throughout Portugal, hand painted tiles play an important role facing homes and other structures. We had fun noticing all of the different tile styles and colors. As you see, blue is the predominant color.
Whenever we travel, we enjoy people watching as much as we do sightseeing. Lisbon residents and visitors provided ample opportunity for this.
In the previous image, the young woman on the left is wearing a black cape that freshmen in university here wear. It is called a praxe. In this image here you see a group of all-male freshmen dressed in suits and their praxe. They’re singing (wonderfully well) and playing instruments in a square in the city. You can read more about the practice here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praxe
Heres a video of some of the singing, dancing, and playing.
Lisbon isn’t all hustle and bustle. This lane is one we walked up quite awhile today and it was pretty peaceful and beautiful. (Notice the blue campaign signs on the lamp posts, which we saw all across Portugal. We were told this party is in the minority here, but still a bit surprising to see).
There are even areas like this that provide some terrific opportunities for contemplation.

As this trip ends, we’ve talked about how it was an extra special one for us. We shared times in a country we love, and feel so at home in (France), with a long time friend who is dear to us. We shared times in a country we’d never visited before (Portugal) on our own and with some of our favorite people from back home. Throughout it all, these were truly the good, solid, times of our lives, and the memories are ones we will always cherish.