Blogs from Lisbon & Tagus Valley, Portugal, Europe

“Half the enjoyment is in the planning”. And how fast time went from then to now. We cooked this idea up as a combination of unrealised plans in Spain from 2020, with the opportunity to one day visit Portugal. Adding some new knowledge, and an aspiration to see Portugal more than what a lengthy bike packing weekender from Extramadura or Andalucía could have been (it was a two town based unrealised adventure), and here it is. Lisbon to Barcelona by bike is something that might be seen as adventurous, but, we hope to take it gradually, allowing both body and mind to absorb the journey and maybe several paderia/ panadería on the way. There is something about having another birthday, and one’s health, that meant the time’s now. Night time flights for 17 hours are generally ... read more

Kicked off the day with a delightful breakfast in the courtyard before heading to the Castelos dos Mouros (Moorish Castle). Despite Geoff’s aspirational assertion that we should walk the 1.5km uphill, rejection was unanimous and an Uber summonsed. Thankfully, since the Moors apparently had a fondness for building on a hill. A tall hill. On a ridge. So we climbed and we explored. There are two fortifications on high points of the ridge, connected by walls and surrounded by a lush forest. We enjoyed wandering the walls and peering over the edges, imagining the enemies trying to attack and having hot oil poured on them. Both were quite the climb, but a cooling breeze and views of the surrounding countryside and Pena Palace made it less painful. Maybe my legs will feel differently tomorrow. Some replenishing ... read more

We've been staying in Cascais, which connects to Lisbon by urban train (takes about 30 min), so today we bought a 24 hour transit pass to go inti the city to explore. I'd read that there's a streetcar, tram 28, which runs a route that's a good scenic overview of the city, so we decided to do that first. The article I read suggested the stop at the beginning of the route to make sure we could get a seat. That was a mistake- there was a huge line. We waited for probably an hour and a half. We would have been better to get on at the 2nd stop and just stand, because at the second stop there was almost no one that got on, so we wouldn't have had to wait at all (at ... read more

We woke to a cold (16C), wet day. We made some breakfast and chatted to a few other hostel guests, then decided that we might as well bus to Sintra. It was on our list of spots to go to, and as it was an hour bis in each direction, we reasoned that it was a good choice for the drizzly weather.... read more