Portugal!

View from Parque Eduardo VII

We absolutely loved Portugal! It was a fabulous place to spend spring break. Lisbon and Porto are definite must visit cities!

Upon arrival at our apartment our hosts met us with port and pasteis de nata and this set the tone for our trip. Yummy food and lovely wine and port. Pasteis de nata are a delicious Portuguese pastry and not to be missed. Most of you know that unless a dessert includes chocolate I will pass it up, but these are a worthy exception!

We spent our first day touring a bit of Lisbon on foot. It's an easily walkable city and very pretty. Of course our touring included a church, The Church of Sao Domingos. There was a lovely chapel to Our Lady of Fatima but the most interesting thing are the walls. They predate the 1755 earthquake and are still completely soot stained from the fires. One way to never forget!

Across from the shop was a Ginjinha shop. Ginjina is a portuguese liquor made form the ginja berry. All around Portugal are little shops selling shots.  People just walk in get their little plastic cup, drink it and are on their way.  There are ginja berries, which are sour cherries, in the bottom of the cup. We can all confirm that they are indeed sour!

As we walked through Rossio Square we headed towards the train station to see the statue of King Sebastian that is (was) over 120 years old. However, when we got there the spot was empty. We later found out that a selfie taking tourist had climbed up to take a photo with it and destroyed it! Glad it wasn't us.

We headed up to the Barrio Alto next, the higher part of Lisbon. We were going to take the Elevador da Gloria but we decided to walk and we were faster than the tram! We explored the area and enjoyed the views and then had dinner at Cervejara da Trindade, the oldest beer hall in Lisbon.

There is also some incredible street art in Lisbon.  Rachel liked this one.

The next day we took a We Hate Toursim tour. This tour showed us more of Lisbon as a whole and some of the more off the beaten track kind of sites. It also included more ginjinha and pasteis de natas! We went to the top of Parque Edurdo VII and stopped at a fountain overlooking the city.  Apparently the fountain's design symbolizes the spreading of the seeds of democracy, not all of the residents see it that way...

We saw some more incredible "street art". Although when it's the whole side of the building I think it needs a new name!

Also, we stopped for this view over the city and our tour guide timed it perfectly for this airplane shot.

Later in the day while the girls relaxed and Stefanie studied for her IB exams, Steve and I went to Belem. We explored around the Tower of Belem which was built both as the first defense into Lisbon and a ceremonial gateway.

Tower of Belem

Afterwards we went to the top of the Monument of Discoveries. This is a monument to the Age of Discoveries in Portugal during the 15th and 16th centuries.  The views from the top are beautiful, especially overlooking the Monastery of Jeronimos. 

Monument of Discoveries

Ponte 25 de Abril bridge in the background - it closely resembles the Golden Gate Bridge

Monastery of Jeronimos

The monastery of Jeronimos is quite beautiful, I wish we had a little more time to explore it and the cloisters. The style of architecture is called Manueline because it incorporates maritime elements and is influenced by the discoveries of Vasco da Gama and Pedro Álvares Cabel.

That evening we had dinner at Barrio do Avillez. I hesitate to ever recommend restaurants because people's tastes vary dramatically; however, this was one of the best meals we have ever had in a foreign city.

Our next day was another tour with We Hate Tourism, despite the above photo the girls also really enjoyed these tours. The guides are young, fun people and it's not dry or boring, their goal is to make it fun. This tour took us outside of Lisbon so we could see more of the coast. We began in Sintra where we explored the town. 

Then we visited Quinta da Regaleira. We walked the grounds.

Also, we climbed down through an inverted tower and visited a small castle. 

The grounds were absolutely stunning.

Afterwards we drove to a little roadside bodega for lunch. We had a little excitement here. Katrina, our guide, was grilling chorizo and as Steve was pouring wine she added more alcohol to the cooking and wooooosh Steve's arm, shorts and shirt were a bit on fire!!  The girls made fun of me for shouting Stop, Drop and Roll (Don't say I never listened in class) but luckily it wasn't that bad and it was able to just pat it out. He definitely has a little less hair on his arm!

Our next stop was Cabo da Roca the western most point of Europe.

Then we drove along the coast back to Lisbon, stopping at pretty beaches and then in Cascais, a sweet little beach town, also known for the Santini ice cream parlour, in business since 1949. Did we have ice cream, of course we did!!

Our last stop was a mausoleum filled cemetary in Lisbon. Like New Orleans it was really quite beautiful. 

Our last day in Lisbon we did a a little bit of everything. We let the girls sleep in while we went to the Feira do Lladro flea market. This is something Steve loves but I tend to view as other people's junk but since we do pretty much everything that I want to do, to flea markets I go! We did find some pretty handicrafts and Steve accomplished his goal of an authentic Portuguese knife.  Plus we had a lovely breakfast overlooking the water.

We spent the afternoon exploring a little more of Lisbon. First the church of Sao Rocque that we had already been to twice but hadn't been able to enter because it was closed.  Inside is the altar of St John the Baptist that is beautiful and was transported piece by piece from Rome.

Stefanie and I also had some fun on the square with a photo "booth" that you could then post the photo you took to facebook. We took one with Rachel and Steve too but forgot to save it!

After a lunch of Bifana sandwiches Steve had to take a call for work so the girls and I explored the Conveto de Carmo right by our apartment. This mostly just a shell of a building as it no long has a roof with a small garden inside and a museum attached to it. The girls were fascinated by the mummies int he museum.

The Santa Justa Elevator is right next to the convent near the entrance is a restaurant and beautiful views overlooking the city.  The Santa Justa Elevator is one way to get from the lower part of the city upper part. It was designed by the same architect as the Eiffel Tower. 

After Steve finished his call we went to Castle Sao Jorge. We took a TukTuk up to the top. Basically a bigger version of a golf cart. 

We walked through the castle grounds and then worked our way back to the restaurant with the amazing views of the city. 

We had hoped to have dinner there but it was drinks and nachos only because the service was nearly non existent. No worries, we found a delicious steak restaurant to end our time in Lisbon!

The next morning we took an easy train journey to Porto. The girls were disappointed we weren't going to the beach until we got there but then we all found Porto to be a fun place to visit and explore. 

We started out on the river with snacks and drinks then across the Ponte Luis I bridge to the Port Winery Side. We walked through a charming market and checked out a few wineries ending up at Sandemans for drinks and a light dinner. Their speciality was port cocktails. We were not disappointed.

The next day was spent touring the Duoro valley where Port wine is made. Not only did we learn so much about the port wine making process, we had a fabulous time with our guide Alex and our tour mates Norman and Catherine!  

Our first stop was Mr Fernando's estate, Quinta das Escomoeiras. He showed us around his beautiful vineyards and explained how he had restored the whole area. In the Duoro Valley the old railroad tracks have been turned into bike trails, Mr Fernando has bikes at his estate that his guests can use to explore. It would be a beautiful place to stay. 

We had an amazing tasting afterwards. It was a less a tasting and more a lunch with three lovely glasses of wine.

Next we had a traditional Portuguese lunch in the town of Amirante which was of course delicious. We walked through the town and the Church of San Giacaulo.

Our last stop was a second estate in the Duoro Valley. We learned a lot about how the port wine is made. The most amazing fact is that the grapes are still crushed by foot. Groups line up in the giant vats and walk back and forth across the grapes.  Afterwards we had another wonderful tasting.

One of our tastings was directly poured from here!

It was a long and busy day but absolutely wonderful. And we weren't sad to be carrying wine back with us to Germany!

Our last day was all about the port. Steve and I started out early with breakfast at the famous Cafe Majestic. It really is quite pretty inside

Next we walked up to Grahams. Their English tour wasn't until much later so we opted for tasting and a snack on their patio. The view is beautiful over the river and Porto and we loved the port. Six Grapes was my favorite.

We worked out way back down to the riverfront where we met the girls for lunch. We ate in the rooftopgarden of Porto Curz.  Another great spot with fabulous views.

Afterwards we did a tour through the Taylor winery which was perfect. It was a self guided audio tour which allowed us to really enjoy what we wanted. We ended of course with a tasting in their garden. We also had a little show as their peacock and chicken were busy fighting over something.

It was a fabulous trip - we would easily return!