Portugal - Land of Seafood & Monuments!

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Hi again.

Well, we made it back from our trip safely, & not a moment too soon. While we enjoyed ourselves immensely, we also overdid it a bit, & feel like we need a holiday from our holiday this time. Portugal was great though - quite different from Greece (which is all we have to base it on at the moment). People didn't bug you every 5 seconds to eat at their restaurant or buy their market products, which made things much easier, but at the same time, hardly anyone spoke English, & none of the road signs or subway stations had an English equivalent on them to know where you were going, so it was much harder to navigate around. However, the transport systems were still effective & easily enough understood after living in a place the size of London, so we did OK between us.

Lisbon was a beautiful place with lots of colour - the houses were mostly in reds, pinks, oranges, & especially yellows, which was bright & refreshing. Many of the houses were also covered in tiles, which often had some type of pattern on them - it was odd to see tiling on the outside of a building when we are used to seeing them indoors - even the older, more derelict homes were impressive in their tiling. You could buy tiles with all kinds of hand painted pictures/patterns wherever you went, to take home with you as a souvenir as well. There were also lots of trees & parks, & it was really quite a pretty place. Nice & warm after London! There was a large emphasis on old-fashioned shipping & sailors in Lisbon, & also these purple trees that made the city smell so nice (better than the London smog). Sintra was the best spot to visit (near Lisbon), & we had some great meals too. Here's the lowdown:

Day One: Not too exciting as we landed in Lisbon quite late at night & then made it to the hotel by taxi. We stayed in a hotel near Marques de Pombal Square, which is more like a giant roundabout with a monument in the middle. Marques de Pombal is attributed with rebuilding much of Lisbon after a massive earthquake in 1755. We were going to go out for some dinner but we just watched TV instead as we had eaten on the plane. We didn't see anything of Lisbon that night apart from the journey from the airport by taxi, which was still quite nice with all the lights.

Day Two: Today we wanted to walk around the city area & see what was going on. As it was a Sunday, many of the stores were closed, which was actually kind of nice because there weren't many other people around. First we walked down the main street from Marques de Pombal, to the two main squares right in the town. The main street is a huge, pretty, tree-lined road called Avenida da Liberdade. It's almost like walking through a park that happens to have some cars driving up & down each side of it. Quite a nice stroll down there in fact.

We reached the first square (Restaradores) which has quite a few cafes & restaurants, as well as an information centre & a main entrance to the tube. Then we walked just a few more minutes & found ourselves in Rossio Square, which is much larger. It had a giant (old school) theatre at one end, with a large monument & fountain in the middle. It was also surrounded by cafes & restaurants but was a bit more open, with more things to see & do. From there we walked downtown up & down through the Baixa district, looking at all the tourist stuff in the market areas. There were so many cafes with outdoor eating areas - really nice to relax at in the sun. It was warm but not too warm - about 22ºC. Vaughan got a wee bit sunburned but I was fine.

After we spent some time getting an idea of the layout of the city & looking around in Baixa, we ventured up to Castelo Sao Jorge (St George's Castle). Lisbon is extremely hilly - only the main streets & squares are on the flat down the bottom, with the castle on a hill on one side, & the Bairro Alto district (expensive restaurants & nightclubs) on a hill on the other side. There are elevators & venaculars which take you up some of the hills & give a spectacular view. On the way to the castle we went up to Santa Justa Elevator & had a look around at a small square in Bairro Alto for a few minutes. From there we took a bus up to the castle & had a look around there for a while. The castle was quite impressive - you could walk right around all the walls at the top as well. We went to a show there called 'Camara Obscura', where we got to see a mirrored setup, attached to the top of the castle, projecting an image on a curved screen in a dark room which the show was held in. The mirrors could rotate & you could see a close-up 360º view of the city (you could even see people walking around & stuff), where the guides pointed out different interest spots in the city. This method was used in castles to view any enemies that might attack from any angle.

From there we went back down through the centre of town for another look on the way back through. I had been suffering through the day with a bad migraine, so we headed back to the hotel. Luckily, with the large breakfast provided by the hotel, plus the lunch we had had near the markets, we weren't hanging out for food so I had plenty of time to rest.

Day Three: It was quite hot today (26ºC), which we hadn't experienced for some time. We started off by walking over to the Botanical Gardens, but couldn't find the way in!! After a while we gave up (it was quite hilly walking around just looking for the entrance), so we made our way down to a bus stop that we wanted, so that we could travel over the '25th April Bridge', to have a look at the 'King Christ' Statue, which I think is also known as the 'Basilica in Mafra'. The King Christ Statue stands on the edge of a cliff, & you can see it from miles away - even in central Lisbon. Portugal is 99.9% Roman Catholic, & this statue was built in 1955 as a reward to the Portugese people for keeping out of the Second World War. It's so massive, & extremely impressive when viewed from the other side of the River Tagus (Rio Tejo) - you get to understand the true size of the monument. We walked right up to the statue, & the view back across to Lisbon was also impressive.

From there we caught the tube down to a spot near the waterfront where we caught another bus out to Belem, which is also on the riverfront, slightly out of Lisbon. Much of it is dedicated to Portugese sailors & there are many monuments & buildings centred around this theme - Maritime Library, Maritime Museum, & Padrao dos Descobrimentos (pictured), among many things. On the way to the maritime area we stopped to look at Mosteiro dos Jeronimos (monastery), although we knew it was closed on Mondays. We just took some photos & then went to look at the Padrao dos Descobrimentos monument. It was really sunny & getting quite hot by this time - we made it up to Torre de Belem but then had to sit in the shade for a while, as we had been walking for quite a few hours. We returned to the centre of Belem & got something quick to eat, but decided to eat in the shade, inside one of the many parks in Belem - they were really green & luscious. There were heaps of people out & it was really nice, even though it was hot. We jumped on a tram & then the tube when we got back to Lisbon, & headed up to the Oceanarium (aquarium) which was a bit north out of town at an old Expo Centre. The whole complex was huge & had a giant mall attached to it. The Oceanarium was excellent & I knew Vaughan would really like it. It took several hours to look around the aquarium but we saw some cool things, like the furry sea otters & some penguins, as well as all the fish. From there we went back to the hotel as it was quite late & we had only stopped for 15 minutes at lunchtime as our longest break. We had been walking & travelling around for over 11 hours & we were both shattered. At the hotel we couldn't be bothered to go back into town for dinner, so we just ate at a restaurant attached to the hotel, which wasn't bad at all. I had seafood, which is a big thing in Portugal.

Day Four: Today we were still tired from the day before & our feet were so sore. We decided that we would go to Sintra, about an hour from Lisbon on the train, & then come back earlier & have a break at the hotel before dinner. We managed to get on the train without too much trouble (although we went to the wrong train station first). We arrived just before lunchtime & had a quick walk around the town, which was so pretty. It was kind of in the bush on a very steep hillside. Walking from the train station to the historic town centre was awesome - really peaceful & sunny, (although tree-lined & shady), with sandstone sculptures every 10 metres, around a winding road to the little markets stores & cafes, as well as the National Palace (pictured). We just mucked around for a while & I bought a few trinkets. It was really pleasant - kind of like being in Nafplion, in Greece. Towering above the township was Palacio da Pena, as well as a castle & a monastery (not sure of their names as we only went to the palace). The palace was right up the top & it was spectacular. It was painted in several different colours, as well as having other colourings due to tiling. Inside you weren't allowed to take photos but it was really interesting. The palace was very tall & open, with plenty of room for wind to roll through to cool everything down in Summer. It was probably the most impressive building I have seen so far on my travels, & really looked like something out of a fairy tale. Awesome! On the way back down (we caught a scenic bus up & down the hill), we stopped off in the town for a coffee & then headed back to Lisbon. At dinner time (which is quite late in Portugal), we went & sat at an outdoor cafe for a few drinks & then crossed the road to a restaurant for dinner, which was excellent! We just headed home after that as it was quite late by the time we finished.

Day Five: Our last day in Portugal & we had planned to go to the zoo as well as on all the funiculars (like cable cars) up to the Bairro Alto district, but it was raining. By the time we got down into the town centre it was pouring down, & as very few places in hot environments have overhangs on their buildings, there was nowhere to shelter. We ran into the Hard Rock Cafe & then made a break for it & managed to get up to two of the funiculars & then came back down. We were saturated so we sat in the information centre for a while & then decided on what to do. We went on the tube & headed back out to the huge mall by the Expo Centre, that we had been in two days previously. After hanging around there for an hour it was time to go back - we had planned to go up the big elevator to a small restaurant we had seen at the top, which specialised in curries (of course) & Italian food. We both ended up going for Italian food - Vaughan had gourmet pizza & I had seafood fettuccine - & it was excellent. The calibre of food that we had eaten in the last 24 hours made the trip worth it alone. Really, really excellent. It was pouring with rain again by the time we wanted to leave, so we hurried back to the hotel, drenched, but ready to grab our gear & get to the airport. An excellent trip.

So that's it - I have rambled for ages. I really thought Sintra was excellent, along with the King Christ statue, & the local food. Although we both came back exhausted, it was well worth it. We move house in two days so will feel more settled after that. Hope you have all been taking care. Look forward to hearing from some of you soon!

Love Toni & Vaughan xxxx

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Comments

[Marianne]

Thoroughly enjoyed my trip around Portugal,sounds like aplace to be taken at a more leisurely pace. You two really do manage to see and do a lot. The food sounds yummy, don't know how Bill and I owuld get on with the lack of english, but guess it's zoK to muddle along, Love Marianne

[rashmi]

nice place yaar...........................