Portugal - July 10-17, 2017
Our holiday time saw us for one glorious and fascinating week in Portugal. We stayed mostly in the capital city of Lisbon, but did go on day trips to surrounding areas. I have been to Lisbon before, but this time around I got so experience so much more.
We took an incredible number of pictures, so curation and captioning might take a while. So, instead, I am uploading a video slideshow (below).
Of the places we visited outside of Lisbon, this includes Sintra (twice), Evora, Cabo da Roca, Praia do Magoita, Caiscais, and Estoril. There was so much to see and do. We visited several churches, a royal coach museum, beaches, and admired all the lovely Manueline architecture while treating ourselves to great food and meeting great people
We took an incredible number of pictures, so curation and captioning might take a while. So, instead, I am uploading a video slideshow (below).
Of the places we visited outside of Lisbon, this includes Sintra (twice), Evora, Cabo da Roca, Praia do Magoita, Caiscais, and Estoril. There was so much to see and do. We visited several churches, a royal coach museum, beaches, and admired all the lovely Manueline architecture while treating ourselves to great food and meeting great people
DAY 1
We boarded an overnight direct flight from Toronto near midnight and did manage to catch a few winks on the plane. By the time we landed, factoring in time zone difference, it was close to noon Portugal time. Our itinerary said we had the first day to wander around on our own, so we checked into our hotel and immediately filled up our reloadable Metro cards, and went downtown. This would be Deb's first entree to the magnificence of Lisbon's downtown sector. We got off at Baixa-Chiado and I took Deb on a whole day walking tour. Much of the downtown was rebuilt in 1755 after a major 9.5 Richter scale earthquake and tsunami that obliterated the place.
DAY 2: EVORA
Among the three guided tours we took, the first was a full day trip to Evora (about 140 km from Lisbon). Evora is known as the walled town, with a history that goes back to the 12th century. It is also known for its cork trees, which we saw in abundance. Cork is harvested by removing the bark from the tree every nine years, and is used to make a wide range of products from (of course) wine corks, shoes, bags, and trivets. We toured one of the oldest universities in Portugal, a renovated Franciscan church, a massive cathedral, the famous "Chapel of the Bones" and saw some Roman ruins that initially were pegged as being a temple to the goddess of the hunt, Diana, but was actually erected as part of the cult of Augustus in the 1st century AD.
The Chapel of the Bones contains the remains of over 5,000 people who were disinterred from the local cemetery to make room for a lot of "new admissions" due to a virulent plague. The bones were consecrated, and it became a place for monks to reflect on mortality. The carved portal message roughly translates to "here our bones lay, and we await yours."
We crossed two bridges - one on the way there called the April 25th bridge modelled after San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, and one on the way back called the Vasco da Gama Bridge - named after Portugal's most famous explorer who charted a route to India in 1498. It is the longest bridge in Europe, spanning 12 km over a wide point over the River Tagus.
DAY 3: LISBON SITESEEING TOUR
On the third day, we spent the morning at the Oceanarium with its enormous multi-storey tanks and themed enclosures containing birds and marine life from each of the main oceans. The area in which it is situated, Oriente, is all new and was built up for Expo 98. We then joined our tour group for an afternoon seeing the Jeronimos Monastery, the Royal Coach Museum, and a walk through the historic Alfama District where we sampled some old port wine.
DAY 4: SINTRA AND REGION HALF DAY TRIP
In the afternoon, we were bused out to the lovely town of Sintra to visit the National Palace - a palace that has been refurbished a few times since the days of the Moorish reign. It has an enormous kitchen that is really just two vast conical fireplace smokestacks. We then went to Cabo da Roca, the westernmost part of mainland Europe. It was very windy with the cold and turbulent Atlantic Ocean. And then it was a pass through Estoril and a brief stop in the luxurious beach town of Caiscais.
DAY 5: SINTRA AGAIN
A half day in Sintra is not nearly enough time, and we like the freedom of not being rushed by a tour that has to keep to a tight schedule. We took the train out to Sintra for the morning so that we could climb one of the tallest mountain peaks in Portugal to see the 10th century fortification of Castelos dos Mouros (Castle of the Moors). After a light lunch, it was back to the train station, and then on a bus to the little-known (by tourists) Magoita Beach with its impressive Cretaceous-age cliffs, pounding surf, and a world heritage monument of fossilized sand dunes.
DAY 6 and 7: LISBON
We spent our last days touring Lisbon. You can't walk more than ten feet without encountering another lovely little patio, restaurant, eatery, bar, or cafe. On the last day, we got some of our souvenir shopping done, but also climbed to the top of Lisbon to take in the views from the Castelos do Sao Jorge (the Castle of St. George).
In all, a trip to Portugal is a walking, cultural experience. There are a lot of steep hills in Lisbon, and we probably cleared over 100 km with the aid of good footwear. Everything is steeped in detailed architecture, tiled streets, and no end of wonderful things to eat, see, and do. Even the most gritty alley has beauty to it.
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THE FOOD: The Portuguese are a sea-faring people, and they have a lot of seafood. They have over 365(!) ways of preparing cod, for instance. Other traditional dishes include chorizo (sausage), pastels de nata (a custard made of egg, flour, and sugar invented by nuns who needed to use up yolks as they used the egg whites to starch their habits), and plenty of meat dishes that usually involve a fried egg on top. They are not so great on veggies and salads. I did get to have some delicious octopus salad, though. Apart from sampling local wines, port, and beers, I also had ginjinha - a traditional liqueur made with cherries and sometimes served in a chocolate cup.
THE PEOPLE: ...are quite lovely and very hospitable. In terms of language, most people speak English, except for older people with whom I had to communicate using a bit of my broken Portuguese.
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Below is a slideshow video. Given the number of photos we took, it would take far too much time to caption them all. Running time is about 63 minutes. Music by Kiasmos. Please note that not all the images are in proper sequence as it includes photos both from my iPad and Deb's camera, both of which seemed to be recording a difference of about five hours.