Blogs from Portugal, Europe - page 3

This morning it was the Pálacio da Bolsa Take II. This morning we thought we had a cunning plan. Arrive soon after opening at 9.30am to queue up for the English-speaking tour at quarter past the hour. Well, that was the plan. We arrived at 9.40am and joined the end of the queue which was fairly short at this hour of the morning. Great, we thought, we should be a shoe-in for the 10.15am tour believing from our reconnaissance on Sunday that the tours rotated all day through Portuguese, English, Spanish and French on the hour, quarter hour, half past the hour and the three quarter hour. And that optimism lasted until we were able to see the board inside listing the tours and the number of people already booked. Wouldn’t you know it, the English-speaking ... read more

The gulls are very vocal here in Porto and the soundtrack is making us feel like we are in an episode of Wycliffe. Visually, though, the sights are nothing at all like Cornwell, ha, ha. This morning we ventured out heading in the general direction of the Igreja and Torre dos Clerigos. It is easy to be distracted though. First by the city’s magnificent Câmara Municipal do Porto (town hall) and then by São Bento Station. The station was on our list, but not on our list for today because our spreadsheet said it was closed on Sunday. It wasn’t, so we went in to take photos of its beautifully tiled front hall. Designed by Jorge Colaço in 1930, around 20,000 blue and white tiles depict historic battles and the history of transport. Next we were ... read more

We showered last night and tangled with the shower curtain managing to soak our bath mat and partially flood the bathroom floor. We had to shower again this morning with an already soggy bath mat to step out onto. And flooded the bathroom floor AGAIN despite taking great care to make sure that the curtain was inside the shower recess! I hate shower curtains!! This morning we had timed entry tickets for 10.00am to visit the jewel in Sintra’s crown, the Pena Palace. You can walk up to the palace, but it’s a 40 minute walk and it’s all uphill so we were hoping to catch the bus or, possibly a taxi. Bernie had read that the bus service has been a bit dodgy in Sintra this summer. The drivers have (allegedly) not been turning up ... read more

Having purchased our 24-hour Lisboa cards yesterday afternoon we were keen to get our money’s worth out of them. Although we are just around the corner from the Elevador de Santa Justa we haven’t ridden it because we are not prepared to queue for an hour for a 30-second ride!! Because the ride is included on our card, this morning we resolved to get up early and go to ride the elevador as soon as possible after it opens at 7.30am before the queue gets out of control. Hmmn, so we arrive at the elevador at 7.45am and … it’s not open! Oh well, let’s return to the Praça do Comércio early in the morning and try to take some photos without loads of people milling about. Fabulous, that plan worked well and we were able ... read more

Today we headed out of Lisbon on an Into Lisbon operated tour to Fátima, Batalha, Nazaré and Óbidos. We walked over to the Hard Rock Café where it seems all the tour operators arrange to meet their tour groups. There were people everywhere at the appointed time of 8.20am, but not a guide in site. We were somewhat reassured that we could at least see a vehicle operated by Into Lisbon Tours. At 8.30am guides appeared seemingly out of nowhere and started calling out the names of the tourists on their lists. We were paired up with Tomás and our group of eight headed off with him into the underground parking lot to his minibus. Thank goodness for a Lisboan local to navigate the roads leading out of the city! I am quite sure we would ... read more