Portugal is located on the extreme occidental part of Europe, in the Iberian Peninsula.
It has the approximate shape of a rectangle, 561 Km long and 218 Km wide, a small but proud country :-)
At this moment, Portugal is part of the E.E.C., going full speed into the future but keeping in mind all the glorious past that made us one of the most historically important european countries.
The capital of Portugal is the city of Lisboa, located near the center of the country, by the Atlantic Ocean and bathing on the river Tejo (Tagus).
Portugal was formed in 1147, in the now called city of Guimarães, thanks to the rebel spirit of D. Afonso Henriques, our first king, who fought his own mother for our independence :-)
That independence was hard to keep, with Spain always looking for a chance to win back this little garden by the sea. Batalha is a memory of those hard times :-)
One of Portugal's oldest cities is Braga, in the green northern part of the country.
The southern most part of the country, Algarve, is golden, with its wheat fields and sand at the beach :-)
