This is the trip formally known as 'walking around a mountain'. We had intended to hike around Mt Blanc for 10 days with John and JoAnna but after a practice trip of hiking in CO, we decided to go to Portugal for two weeks instead!
We flew from Phoenix via Philly where we caught the same flight to Lisbon with John and Jo. We were not upgraded so of course, we did not sleep very well on the way over. But thankfully it was only a 7 hour flight - it was delayed by four hours so we arrived in Lisbon around 1pm on the Saturday. We got an email the next day from AA apologizing for the delay and they gave us each 5K points!
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| Street in Lisbon |
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| Castelo de Sao Gorge - Lisbon |
We mostly got apartments on Airbnb as it was cheaper.
Lisbon - We got a two bedroom apartment on Airbnb in the Bairro Alto neighborhood. While it was on a busy street and thus convenient to a lot of places and public transport, it was surprisingly quiet. The apartment was small (as they all are) but very clean and nice - the bathroom was quite large compared to the others that we rented. We thought we would use the kitchen more for breakfast but couldn't really find a grocery store nearby to stock up on things. The owner lived in the building and was very responsive and nice. Would recommend this place to others.
Portimao - We stayed at the Jupiter Algarve Hotel right across from Praia da Rocha which is a very wide beach and centrally located to restaurants and bars. The hotel was nice - we each got our own room with king bed. There was a pool where we hung out one day. Breakfast was included so we ate there every morning.
Central Coast - Obidos Area- We got a two bedroom apartment on Airbnb in Sao Martinho do Porto, a town about 20 minutes away from Obidos. The town is located on the water and the apartment was about a 10 minute walk to the water. The apartment was very clean and modern but it did not have a dryer (only a washer) so we had to lay out our clothes to dry. It also was not very well stocked on paper products. Good place to stay if you want to explore this part of the country but a car is definitely required which we had.
Porto - We got a two bedroom apartment on Airbnb, centrally located to sites and restaurants/bars. The apartment was on the top floor (floor 3) and was very clean and well decorated. We each got our own bathroom. The washer/drier was down on the first floor. The owner was also very nice and responsive. Would recommend this place to others.
Lisbon - Well, you can't get them all right! We got this two bedroom apartment on Airbnb for our last night in Lisbon and thankfully it was only for one night. It was very small, on the top floor of a very rundown building and very noisy at night - we were right next to a very large bar where the party went on until 4am. While the owner warned us of the noise, we didn't realize how noisy it could get - well we found out the hard way. The apartment itself was also not comfortable - the second bedroom and the only bathroom was up another flight of narrow stairs within the apartment and the AC was only in the second bedroom. Definitely not recommended!
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| Quinta da Regaleira - Sintra |
Lisbon
We spent four days in Lisbon exploring the city and the surrounding area. The city is beautiful with lots of hills (we definitely got our exercise in)! While we spent many afternoons and evenings grazing and drinking at different restaurants, we also managed to do the following activities and mastered the public transport (after walking around a few times to figure out where to buy tickets).
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| View of Lisbon from Castelo de Sao Gorge |
- Castelo de Sao Gorge - Moorish castle built in the 11th century on the hill in Alfama neighborhood. We walked around the grounds and walls of the fort - great views of the city.
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| Castelo de Sao Gorge |
- Torre de Belem - Stood in line for a long time to get tickets and to enter but it was worth it. The tower was built in the early 1500s and is in the water so you have to walk across a bridge to get to it. We walked up the 96 steps to the top so we can see the views of the area.
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| Torre de Belem |
- Jeronimos Monastery - Beautiful monastery and cloisters where Vasco de Gama is buried. The line outside was very long but a woman told us the trick which is to buy the ticket in the museum next door and then you can enter rather quickly! We walked around in the church and then around the cloisters which has beautiful stone carvings.
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| Jeronimos Monastery |
- Sintra - Took a train here - only 30 minutes from Lisbon. It was a bit wet this day but enabled all the places to be "shrouded in mist" which is Jo's way of making the rain a positive!
- Pena Palace - Fairytale like castle in Sintra with red and yellow walls, onion domes and lots of tile. Toured the inside. It unfortunately was misty so we could not see the views but the palace was worth seeing. The palace and many of the other sites are up on a steep hill so we took the 434 bus to most of the sites.
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| Pena Palace - Sintra |
- Moorish Castle - Very cool fort near the Pena Palace. We walked along the walls but again could not see the views due to the mist. We got a picture of Keith that was an exact duplicate staging of him that a colleague of his took four weeks prior of her husband.
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| Moorish Castle - Sintra |
- Quinta da Regaleira - The highlight of our day in Sintra. The house itself is not that interesting inside (although the outside looks like it would be in a Dracula movie) but the grounds are totally worth it. We went straight to the inception well and walked down the circular stairs to the bottom (the well is quite deep). At the bottom, we walked around a network of caves ending up by grottos and a mossy lake where we stepped on stones to cross - very neat!
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| Quinta da Regaleira - Sintra |
- Secret Food Walking Tour - Did a three hour food tour with Marta around the Alfama and Mouraria neighborhoods which was a lot of fun. We saw the oldest and second to oldest houses in Lisbon which survived the earthquake. Met a girl who is an ENT in Birmingham and Charlie happens to be her consultant - small world! We WhatsApp videoed Charlie to say hello. On the tour we tasted the following dishes:
- Port from Duoro valley by the house that was first started by a woman - at a wine store
- Bifanas (pork sandwiches) with beer - in a tiny little restaurant that was standing room only - very tasty!
- Duck sausage and grilled cod with potatoes and red wine - at Ze dos Cornos - also very tasty!
- Cheese, ham, wine, bean tempura, octopus salad, and cod cakes - at Chiminea de Palacio - also good but started to get full at this point!
- Strawberries and ginjinha (cherry liquor) - from a fruit stand
- Custard tarts - at Fabrica de Nata - very good. Better than the ones in Belem.
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| Pastel de Nata (Custard Tarts) |
We spent four days on the Algarve Coast, staying in Portimao. We originally thought we would spend more time on the beach but the weather was not cooperating so we did some site seeing instead. The coast is very rugged and beautiful with nice alcove beaches surrounded by cliffs.
- Drove to Sagres to see the most southwestern part of Europe at Cabo de Sao Vicente. This is also the location of the second brightest lighthouse in Europe. We walked around and took in the views.
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| View from Cabo de Sao Vicente |
- Walked along the boardwalk in Portimao and out to the pier/light house and back - nice walk.
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| Beach near Sagres |
- Hung out at the pool one day when it was warm enough to do so. The boys caught up on their sleep since they were the first to get a cold.
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| Beach in Portimao |
- Boat tour of the Bengali caves with Alvor. The tour took two hours and we saw the coast as well as the famous caves, going inside most of the caves in the boat. Scenery was beautiful.
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| Bengali Caves |
- International Sand Sculpture Festival - the largest in the world. It was much larger than we expected with sand sculptures of writers, TV/movies stars, singers and politicians.
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| International Sand Sculpture Festival |
- Hiked for about 45 minutes along the Seven Hanging Valleys trail - great views of the coast.
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| View from Seven Hanging Valleys Trail |
We stayed here for two days to explore the castles of the area and to break up the trip to Porto. This area is great for historical site seeing. While here, we did the following:
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| Obidos |
- Obidos - Walked around the walls (the entire town is surrounded by medieval walls) and the town itself which is very cute! The castle is now a hotel so you can't go inside but the walls and town are worth exploring.
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| Obidos |
- Tomar Castle and Convent of Christ - John called this the biggest bang for our buck site to visit. We walked around the walls and then explored inside the church and monastery which was originally formed by the Knights of Templar in the 12th century. The church and castle/walls were very cool.
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| Tomar Castle and Convent of Christ |
- Almoural Castle - Cool castle located on an island in the river about 20 minutes south of Tomar. We took a short boat ride over and the explored the castle and walls for about 45 minutes.
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| Almoural Castle |
- Alcobaca Monastery - A very large Gothic style monastery with a cool, understated church with large columns.
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| Alcobaca Monastery |
- Nazare - Famous for its gigantic waves and surfing - we went to see the waves but at this time of the year, the waves are quite tame.
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| Nazare |
We fell in love with this city - beautiful colorful houses and buildings built steep on a hill along the river.
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| Porto |
- Walking Tour with Porto Walkers - really good free tour (where you tip the guide) of the older part of the city. Our guide was very interesting and funny. Saw the following on the tour:
- City hall that was built in front of a church to block it because the church would not allow the city to knock down the church to build an avenue.
- Sao Bento train station considered one of the top 10 most beautiful train stations - colorful tiles inside telling the story of the history of Portugal that took 10 years to complete.
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| Sao Bento Train Station |
- St Claire Church - smaller church under renovation with wood carvings painted in gold. The nuns at the time were not allowed to interact with the public so there were hallways built for them to walk around the church without being seen. Also learned that they would sell the pastries through a window.
- Vila Nova de Gaia - town across the river where all of the port wine warehouses and bottling facilities are. While the grapes are grown and harvested in the Douro valley, they are all brought here to bottle, store and ship.
- Cathedral of Porto - oldest building that you can visit in the city.
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| Cathedral of Porto |
- Stairs of Truth - where one of the bishops fled the city before they were invaded and did not warn the citizens.
- Barredo neighborhood - old medieval neighborhood along the river front.
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| Barredo Neighborhood |
- Cozinha Doce - a bakery that does not sell to individuals but could sell to us since we were on the tour - we tried all three desserts - the chocolate cake, the chocolate mousse (which was our favorite) and a local dessert made out of whipped cream.
- Douro Valley Wine Tour with Cooltour Oporto - This was more of a tour of the valley than wine tasting. Our guide was nice but not very engaging and the places they stopped were small family run places.
- Our first stop was D'Origem where they make olive oil and produce their own wine under the label Velha Geracao. We did a quick tour to learn about the olive oil and wine making process and then tasted their olive oil and wine. The olive oil was pretty good but we did not care for the wine.
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| D'Origem |
- We then did a 45 minute boat ride on the river from Pinhao. The scenery was beautiful but it was chilly and drizzling. There was no oration on the boat to tell us what we were looking at.
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| Boat Ride on River in Pinhao |
- We had lunch at Sabores do Douro which is a restaurant on top of the police station. When we pulled up, we were a little suspicious of the quality of the food but the food ended up being fairly good. They served us platters of fried cod and piri piri chicken with vegetables.
- Our last stop was to taste port at Quinta de Santa Eufemia. We tried the white, ruby, tawny and two of their limited bottle vintages. We liked a few of them.
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| View from Quinta de Santa Eufemia |
- Six Bridges River Cruise with Bridges Cruise Cenarios do Douro - We were told this company was the cheapest but that they all do the same trip. The ride was about 45 minutes and went up and down the river to see the six bridges and the riverside of Porto. It was cool to see the city from the water. Of course, it drizzled while we were on the boat and John said it was very important to document that we stuck it out in the rain without seeking cover on the boat!
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| Six Bridges River Cruise |
- Taylor's - Did the one hour audio tour which was well done and quite informative on the port making process and then tasted two of the ports - Chip Dry and 2013 LBV - we preferred the LBV.
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| Taylor's |
- Aveiro - About 45 minutes outside of Porto - supposed to be the Venice of Porto (while it was cute this claim is a stretch). We stopped here on the way back to Lisbon and did a canal tour with Casa da Ria.
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| Aveiro |
We drove back to Lisbon to spend our final night there and to celebrate Shawna's birthday before flying out. On our way, we stopped in Coimbra for lunch but didn't get to explore the city as it was pouring rain. After we checked into our apartment in Lisbon (which was an adventure in itself - see above), we had drinks on one of the lookout points (Miradouro de Sao Pedro de Alcantara) where they had several stalls of food and drinks. We then went to dinner and went to one more bar in the neighborhood before retiring back to the apartment to attempt to sleep.
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| Drinks at Miradouro de Sao Pedro de Alcantara |
Restaurants/Bars:
Lisbon
We had randomly selected a few of the restaurants but found out quickly that we should do more research as some of them were not great!
O Bar Da Odete - Had a bottle of rose, cheese and carved ham from a pig's leg! The ham and the rose were very good. We learned a lot about curing of ham and the process to carve - they train for 6 months to become an expert carver!
Babete - Had dinner hear - small café located on a side street where we ate outside. We shared the risotto. Food was not great.
Gelatiamo Lisboa - Around the corner from our apartment. Really good gelato.
Pasteis de Belem - The first place to open a custard tart shop. There are long lines but they go quickly. We got a six pack and ate them back in Lisbon. They were very good but we had better ones on our food walking tour.
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| Pasteis de Belem |
Museu da Cerveja - Thought this would be a beer museum but turned out to be a café that served beer. So we had a couple of beers here as well and tried the codfish cake which we did not like.
Peixaria Do Rossio - Another café on a side street where we ate outside. We shared a board of cheese and sausage followed by pork loin. Food was OK.
Duque Brewpub - Had one beer hear but the beer was warm. Met a singing group from Germany.
Bacalhau Na Vila - Had lunch here in Sintra, located in the historic part of town. Best meal of the trip thus far. They mainly serve cod dishes in small plates and neither JoAnna nor Shawna like cod - however, these dishes were amazing. The waiter recommended several plates which we all shared with a great bottle of white wine - cod in a pastry, salad with crispy cod, fried cod, cod with sautéed spinach and potatoes, cod with rice and leeks with rice and curry flavoring. Really great food and cute restaurant (voted #1 on Trip Advisor) so definitely recommend it!
Limoncello - Decided to take a break from Portuguese food. Had dinner here - Italian - shared a mixed salad of carpaccio and caprese and the pasta arrabiata. Drank four bottles of wine (the food took a while to serve) and shared the flan and chocolate mousse for dessert. Food was very good!
The Corner Irish Pub - Had a beer here but ended up getting it to go as there were several people smoking in the bar and instead we wondered around the streets.
Mezcal Bar Mexican - Tiny hole in the wall bar with four stools. Had a few beers here while we spoke with the owner who is Portuguese but happens to love Mexican and southwestern things.
Bairro do Avillez Taberna - Had dinner here. Avillez is a famous Portuguese chef - we opted to go to the tavern where the meal would be cheaper. We shared the tomato salad, beef sandwich, twice cooked veal and the grilled pork. We all liked the food, in particular the sandwiches - very tasty. We also shared the olive oil and honey cake and the salted caramel ice cream with mousse for dessert.
Cantina Peruana - Had dinner here our very last night in Portugal - also the night of Shawna's birthday. It's another restaurant by Alvillez - this one serving Peruvian food which was very good. We shared a bunch of dishes (all small plates) - ceviche, chicken and pork.
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| Cantina Peruana |
Nortada Restaurant and Beach Bar - Had lunch here. Located outside of Sagres on a beautiful beach. We sat outside on the porch and shared a grilled fish (red snapper) with vegetables. We got to pick which fish we wanted from a plate of fresh fish. The food was very simple but also very tasty and the view was amazing with the beach to our side.
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| View from Nortada Restaurant and Beach Bar |
Haagen Dazs - Had yummy salted caramel ice cream.
Senhora da Rocha - Had lunch here on the boardwalk with views of the ocean. Shared the tomato salad and chicken kebab. Food was OK.
Dos Santos - Beautiful brewery known for lagers about 15 minutes outside of town with great views of hills and vineyards. We had dinner here one night, sharing the melted cheese, mushrooms, lamb, steak and sweet potato fries. The food, beer, and location were all great!
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| Dos Santos |
Irish Rover - Had a few beers with nice views of the ocean.
Curry House - Had dinner here one night to appease our need for spicy food. Shared papadam, samosas, chicken curry and lamb vindaloo - all very good!
Croke Irish Bar - Had a few beers and listened to live music / live karaoke. Interesting crowd watching.
Boneca Bar - Had lunch here. Located right on the coast nestled between the rocks with nice views. We shared a salad and the chicken piri piri. Food was tasty but best for the location.
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| Boneca Bar |
Central Coast - Obidos Areas
Restaurante Bar Pretensioso - Located in Obidos off the main street. We had lunch here and shared the shrimp curry which was quite good.
Cervajeria Noite e Sol - Had lunch here in Tomar. Ranked #1 cheap eats on Trip Advisor. Shared the bifana and friginada (which is a spicy meat dish). Food was very tasty.
Cantinho do Amigo - Had dinner here a few blocks from our apartment. A family owned restaurant that was frequented by many locals. We shared the grilled sea bass with vegetables which was very tasty.
Bar da Adega - A bar located on the waterfront in Nazare. Had a beer here.
Pizzeria Prediletta - Had lunch here in Nazare, sharing a salad and a pizza - food was good.
Porto
Porto Chips - Stopped in during the rain and shared french fries and drank a few beers. Reminded us of a similar place we went to in Iceland.
Yours Bistro - Went to dinner here. Nice restaurant. Shared onion soup and shrimp curry. Food was nothing special.
Cervejaria Gazela - Small 'hole in the wall' kind of place with stools around a counter that probably seats 15 people but was our best 'cheap eats' meal. Anthony Bourdain visited this place a year ago when he filmed his Portugal episode. They are famous for their 'hot dogs' (cachorro) which is chopped sautéed sausage served on a baguette with lots of butter and cheese and then grilled panini side and served with hot sauce. Incredibly tasty! We also tried the pica pau which is a mixed meat dish served with cheese and hot sauce. We had a few beers and chatted with the cooks who gave us fries for free.
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| Cachorro at Cervejaria Gazela |
Bierhaus Porto - Had a few beers here before dinner. They had a nice selection of beer!
Tasco - Had dinner here upon a recommendation from our walking tour guide. Great tapas place and not expensive. We shared the codfish with chickpeas, sliced pork, cubes of port, sliced steak and tomato rice.
Pregar - Had lunch here. Shared a steak sandwich which was too raw for Shawna.
Gin House - Had a drink here before going to dinner. Gin drink was very good.
Tapas na Boca - Had dinner here - very good. Shared the chorizo and ham, mushrooms, octopus vinaigrette, peppers and steak. Also shared the creme brûlée and egg cake for dessert.
Coimbra
A Toca Do Gato - Stopped here for lunch on the way back to Lisbon. Another cheap eats place. We ordered the lamb which was very tasty. Unfortunately it started to pour raining right at the end of the meal so we had to run back to the car and skip walking around town.
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| Porto |
