Blogs from Lisbon & Tagus Valley, Portugal, Europe - page 9

Up early as today we are off to the town of Sintra. Sintra is a picturesque Portuguese town that is set amidst the pine-covered hills of the Serra de Sintra. This hilly and slightly cooler climate enticed the nobility and elite of Portugal, who constructed exquisite palaces, extravagant residences and decorative gardens. We boarded a train for the 45 minute journey. Once in Sintra town we caught a bus to our first destination, Quinta da Regaleira palace, which is a decorative stately home but for us the main attraction was the elaborate grounds. The gardens are filled with mystic symbolism and hidden features which include secret tunnels, Gothic towers and stone fortified walls. Our first objective was to get to the Initiation Well before it got to busy with other tourists. The well is 27 metres ... read more

Up early to drop off our home exchange vehicle, which had a scheduled appointment, before arriving at the train station by a car service. We enjoyed a coffee before boarding the train for our 3 1/2 hour trip to Lisbon. Upon our arrival at the Lisbon train station we then wandered up fairly steep cobbled stone streets to our VRBO apartment. Our apartment was on the second floor and had a great view of the famous tram 28 that passes directly below it. The building actually rattles as the tram rumbles by! It is a nice apartment with patio area and we are right in the heart of the historical area of Alfama. After unloading our stuff we headed out to have some lunch. Once lunch was over we were off to the metro station as ... read more

Bom Dia, I left Evora in the early morning, which was really pleasant because it was not too warm yet, and i was able to get a beutiful view of the stars as there is very little light pollution on the Alentejo. I arrived in Lisbon during rush hour, which was not ideal, but after watching three metro trains pass by full, I managed to squeeze into one and get to my hostel. After meeting Joao and Jorge, two of the incredibly friendly and helpful staff, I dropped off my stuff and then ran off to the beautiful Rossio train station as I was racing off to Sintra to meet up with Daniella and Sandro, two friends I had made in Porto. After the 45 minute train ride west towards the coast, I hopped in a ... read more

24 August 2016, Wednesday. Lisbon to Santa Iria Day 1 23.73 km In a prior blog entry I believe I mentioned that we arranged the Camino Portugal through Follow the Camino. Our lodging in Lisbon was arranged separately through Airbnb. But follow the Camino had contracted our luggage transfer. We were ready for them at 8 a.m. but no one arrived. At 9 o'clock I called the contact number in Ireland and asked who was to pick up our luggage? After a time I receive the driver's name and phone number. Our great landlady, Felicidade, called and asked him to contact her at the time he would come for the luggage. So at 10:30, two hours later than expected we were out the door and down Rua Vigario to Santa Apollonia station where we caught the ... read more

First of all I apologize for this blog being so lengthy but we did have a very busy day touring the area and I didn’t want to leave anything out. We left the apartment at approximately 10:30 am and finally returned around 8 pm after walking 11.5 miles and 25,309 steps and we haven’t even started walking the El Camino yet. The day began with Harlan and I (Karen stayed at the apartment as she still is not feeling well) walking to the cathedral (Se) to get our El Camino passport stamp since when we start the walk on Wednesday morning the church will be closed. For those of you who are not familiar with the El Camino we are required to get at least one stamp every day in our passport so when we arrive ... read more