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North Conway - Day 3

Sunday - 10/15

Today was mostly sunny with occasional clouds and periods of overcast. In the early evening we had periods of drizzle. The last couple of days have reminded me how unpredictable New England’s weather can be, changing quickly. I have gotten used to California weather and forgot how the weather is very different here.

When we checked into our hotel on Thursday, the receptionist asked if we wanted to schedule a time at the water park. I didn’t know what she was talking about or how it made any sense given the forecasted highs of 50s for the week. After we finished breakfast this morning, we decided we were going to find out. Turns out our hotel has an indoor water park. I didn’t know there was such a thing and it is the first time I have ever stayed in a hotel that had one. Hopefully they won’t automatically add an additional a resort fee as a result! Needless to say, we won’t be taking advantage of this amenity.

We then went and checked out the Lands End outlet store and the REI store in North Conway. Then it was back to searching for old covered bridges and fall foliage. Here are some highlights from our travels this morning.

Later we went to the grocery store to buy food for lunch and went for a three mile walk on the North Conway Recreation Path. It is a relatively new paved path specifically designed for walkers and bikers.

After lunch we went to the New England Ski Museum. They had a great 10 minute movie that had film clips of skiing in New England in 1930s and beyond.

The picture on the left below is a car from the Skimobile. The Skimobile was a unique ski lift system developed exclusively for Mount Cranmore in New Hampshire, and the design was quite different from traditional ski lifts. Each Skimobile car traveled up a raised trestle, pulled by an underside traction cable. MaryEllen used to ride one of these when she was a kid and got a chance to relive her childhood memories.

The picture on the right below is a “Snurfer,” which is a type of snowboard. The Snurfer is considered one of the early predecessors to the modern snowboard. It’s a board designed for snow, and the user holds onto a rope attached to the front while riding down a snowy slope.

We also went to a craft fair and walked the main commercial area in North Conway. Here are a couple of more interesting pumpkin decorations we saw along the way.

By chance Rich and Debby, our friends from Moraga, along with Paula and Richard, former neighbors from Moraga now residing in New York, happened to plan their vacation in North Conway the same time as us. We’d prearranged to meet, and the six of us enjoyed dinner together at Vito Marcello’s Italian Bistro.

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North Conway - Day 2 - Visit Roger

Saturday - 10/14

It was warmer and sunnier today compared to yesterday. We went to visit Roger, MaryEllen’s brother who lives part time in Conway. To get to his house we had to go over a one-lane covered bridge.

Roger has a beautiful New England house.

Being a local, Roger took us on backroads in the area.

After passing over the Jackson Covered Bridge, which was built in 1876, we went to lunch at Tuckerman’s Tavern in Jackson, NH. It felt like we were eating with the locals at Tuckerman’s.

After lunch we went to search for the “original pumpkin people”. If you have ever been to the New England area in October, you know how seriously they take Halloween.

Later that day we returned to Roger’s house for dinner. It is the first home cooked meal we have had in over 3 weeks.

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North Conway - Day 1 - Kancamagus Highway

Friday - 10/13

We woke up in North Conway to partly cloudy skies, but as the day progressed it turned to overcast, with occasional misting. From our perspective it is cold here. Weather wise it has been a radical change for us. The temperature in Porto on Thursday was a high of 77 and a low of 65, whereas the temperature in North Conway on Friday was a high of 55 and a low of 40.

From a clothing standpoint we packed for both the warm weather in Portugal and the cold weather in New Hampshire. It was a mistake to plan one trip with two different climates. We won’t do that again as it requires packing and traveling around with too much clothes.

Today we drove the Kancamagus Highway in the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire. We drove from Conway to Lincoln stopping numerous times to check out the view, take pictures and go on short hikes. Unfortunately it appears we may have missed the peak autumn colors by about a week. We still saw trees with yellow, orange and red leaves, but some of the leaves had already fallen to the ground as a result of the amount of rain they have received in the last couple of months. From Lincoln we returned to Conway via Highways 3 and 302 to complete the loop. Below are some photos we took.

For dinner we went to Delaney's Hole in the Wall in North Conway. A fun place with good food and lots of people.

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Porto to Boston

Thursday - 10/12

Our day started off by waking up at 5:30am to catch a 9am flight from Porto to Lisbon and then a connecting flight from Lisbon to Boston. Once in Boston we plan to drive to North Conway, New Hampshire to see MaryEllen’s brothers and the fall foliage.

We had an Uber take us to the Porto airport at 6:15am and I was surprised when a relatively new white Tesla shows up. The fare was something like €12 for a 25 minute ride and I thought to myself “How does the economics of this transaction work considering that a new Tesla costs around $40k to $50k and Uber takes a percentage of every transaction?” But it was 6:15 in the morning and I didn’t have the energy to engage in that discussion with the driver who sounded like he spoke limited English.

Outside the city we were flying along the highway at 125 km per hour, which at the time I had no idea of fast that was. Turns out it was 78 miles per hour. I don’t think he was driving his Tesla in “Eco” mode :-).

Needless to say we arrived at the airport early. The boarding process on Tap Air in the Porto Airport was disorganized mess. But both flights were on time.

We enrolled in Global Entry pre-Covid, but this was the first time we have had a chance to use it. With Global Entry we avoided the long line at US Customs in Boston and whole customs process took about 2 minutes.

We made reservations to pickup a rental car from Budget at Logan Airport. We waited in long lines— first the Budget counter and then at Budget garage to pickup the car. Our flight arrived at 2pm in Boston, but we didn’t get on the road until around 4pm. By then we had to deal with Boston outbound commute traffic and an accident or two along the way. We stopped for dinner at Chili’s and finally arrived at Hampton Inn & Suites in North Conway, New Hampshire at 8pm. It was a long day.

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Porto - Day 4

Wednesday - 10/11

This is our last full day in Porto. After reading more about the inside of the Lello Bookstore we decided we would make another attempt at seeing it. If you recall from my earlier post, the belief is this bookstore inspired J K Rollins to create a similar bookstore where Harry Potter buys his books before going off to Hogwarts. So we went for a 20 minute walk to the bookstore. Along the way we encountered more street art as shown below.

We also saw a poster of Porto we liked in a little shop and decided to come back later in the day to buy it. Once we got to the bookstore we learned more about how the ticketing process works to get inside. They have timed entry tickets— you need to buy tickets online in advance for a specific entry time. The process sounded pretty strange to me just to get into a bookstore… but then again it is Harry Potter.

So we struggled with our iPhone’s small screen, slow cell service and an unresponsive web site and finally managed to secure tickets for an hour later. In the meantime, we picked up a picnic salad for lunch and returned 15 minutes ahead of our scheduled entry. Below are pictures from the inside of the bookstore, which was very impressive.

After the bookstore we headed off to Jardim da Cordoaria, which is the same park where we have eaten lunch on two other days. The park has a lot of shade and is very peaceful place. It is nice to take a break from all the noise and congestion of the city.

Next we trekked across the city once again and then walk across the upper bridge to Vila Nova de Gaia. It seem like every time we go somewhere in Porto we have go up and down one or two hills to get there. All on cobblestone sidewalks and streets. Here are pictures from crossing the upper deck of the bridge.

Once we reached Vila Nova de Gaia we ended up going up to the Monastery of Serra do Pilar (Mosteiro da Serra do Pilar), even though it is currently closed to visitors. The monastery observation area is still open and we went there for the views. Here is picture of the monastery.

And here are some pictures taken from the monastery observation area.

We ate dinner down by the river at a very small restaurant. The service was very slow, which normally would have been OK, but we still needed to pack for our early flight to Boston tomorrow morning.

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Porto - Day 3

Tuesday - 10/10

Our hotel is located at Batalha Square (Praca da Batalha). The square is named after a 10th-century battle fought between the Moors and the inhabitants of Porto, which resulted in the defeat of the inhabitants. The picture on the left shows a statue of King Pedro V in the square with our hotel in the left background. A tram used to run through this square in front of our hotel (picture on the right), but that tram line has been temporarily replaced by a bus route due to construction going on in other parts of the city.

Until the tram service is resumed, I am not sure I would stay at this hotel again. The hotel is located on the edge of the Porto main area on top of a hill, so every time you want to go somewhere you have to walk up and down hills. While it’s hard to avoid hills in Porto, I would choose a location that is more centrally located. I would consider checking out Porto bay Flores, which is recommended by Conde Nest Traveler and centrally located in Porto.

Our first stop today was to go to Porto Cathedral (Catedral do Porto). The cathedral was built in the 12th century. Note the blue tile on the right.

Next we bought food for a picnic lunch and started a walk. As we walked through the city we have seen a lot of street artists/performers in Porto.

We ultimately walked along the river for about 30 minutes and had lunch along the way. After lunch we went to the Tram Museum (Museu Carro Electrico). Porto first had horse drawn trams (picture on the left below), then steam trams and finally electric trams. Early electric trams had a catcher in the front to scoop up any people or animals in their way so the didn’t run over them (picture on the right below).

The pictures below show some of the specialized tram cars. The tram on the left moved baskets of fish within Porto and the tram on the right was used to transport coal.

After the Tram Museum we took our first bus ride in Porto. Bus route 500 goes along the river back to the center of the city. Once there we went to Saint Francis Church (Igreja de Sao Francisco), which is Port’s only Gothic style church.

They didn’t allow any photos inside; the picture below is from the internet.

Next stop was the Stock Exchange Palace (Palácio da Bolsa). This was where the Portugal stock exchange was first located and now houses the Commercial Association of Porto. Taking a guided tour of the palace is very popular and we waited in a line for about 30 minutes earlier in the day to get tickets for a 5pm English speaking tour.

Below is Arabian Hall, which was inspired by Granada’s Alhambra and decorated in th Moorish style with wood, plaster and gold leaf. It took 18 years to build.

Afterwards we had dinner in the Majestic Cafe, a historical and luxurious coffeehouse/restaurant known for it architectural beauty that dates back to the 1920s. 

We shared a Francesinha and a club house sandwich. A Francesinha is a Portuguese sandwich, which originated in Porto, made with layers of toasted bread, steak, spiced sausage and ham, over which sliced cheese is melted and then covered with a warm tomato-and-beer sauce. It looks like a prescription for a heart attack, but tasted good.

After dinner we went window shopping on Rua de Santa Catarina.

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Porto - Day 2

Monday - 10/9

Another sunny day today with highs about 85 degrees. After breakfast MaryEllen and I decided to check out the swimming pool associated with our hotel in case we wanted to come back and relax in the afternoon. We talked to the person at the front desk and found out the pool is below the street level. We checked it out and I don’t think we will be spending any time there.

Today we did part 2 of Rick Steve’s walking tour of Porto.

Pictures of tiles inside Sao Bento Train Station.

Street art on the left below and ? on the right.

Stock Exchange Palace

Below is a picture of a statue of Henry the Navigator. Henry was famous for his expeditions which found new trade routes and connected various peoples. His voyages also began the process of European colonization and the transatlantic slave trade.

Most of the streets in Porto are cobblestone, and some are very narrow and have restricted access by cars. Only taxis and delivery vehicles are allowed to use them. On certain streets this is enforced by metal pillars that block access and can be lowered by a remote control device, that it appears taxis have.

The picture below is of Clérigos Church and its 75 meter bell tower (Igreja e Torre dos Clérigos). Out in front of it is the end of the line for Tram 18.

Pictures from the Ribeiro district, Porto’s riverfront. It is full of outdoor cafes, restaurants and street performers. On the other side of the Douro River is the town Vila Nova de Gaia, often referred to as just “Gaia”, which is considered the hub of the port wine industry. We walked across the lower bridge to explore Gaia.

We made a reservation for a Port winery tour at the Calem winery, which is located in Gaia.

We walked around Gaia. The picture on left below is more street art and on the right is a store that exclusively sells canned fish, primarily sardines.

For dinner we had two different pasta dishes at Pasta Amore e Fantasia.

We then headed off to the Calem Port Winery for a 6:30pm tour, port wine tasting and Fado show. On the tour we learned that Port wine comes from the Douro Valley, and not much more.

After the tour it was time for wine tasting. Since we have been going to so many churches in the last couple of weeks that we are starting to get halos.

And then the Fado show began.

I was not impressed by the wine tour or wine tasting Calem. They had a red and a white port wine already poured out and even though they have many varieties of Port they didn’t bother to tell us what we were drinking. And our tour guide was no where to be found.

Although I am no Fado expert, I do think the Fado musicians and singers at Calem were a quality act. It was a great, and relatively inexpensive way to get a taste of Fado music. I think I would have a better appreciation for it if I knew Portuguese and could understand what the singers were singing about.

After the Calem tour/wine tasting/Fado show we got gelatos and walked back to our hotel. It was a beautiful evening down by the river.

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Porto - Day 1

Sunday - 10/8

Our hotel includes a buffet breakfast

The weather in Porto was sunny today hitting a high of 83 degrees— very similar to Lisbon weather. Hopefully the nice weather keeps up for the rest of our trip. I have been wearing shorts the whole time in Portugal, except for two nights in Lisbon when the temperature dropped down to about 70 degrees.

Below is a photo of our hotel, the NH Collection Porto Batalha. It used to be a post office.

This morning we went on part 1 of a self-guided Rick Steves walking tour of Porto. This church was built in the first half of the 18th century on a mediaeval site. The tiles on the outside walls were added in 1932.

Here are some sights we saw along the way. The left picture below are “Dancers for Euros” :-). There are a lot of street artists in Portugal looking for tips. Some of them are very talented. The picture on the right is a church.

Here is a picture of Porto city hall.

Porto has the only McDonalds in the world where you will find soup and a chandelier.

There is major construction going on in the center of Porto as they are building a new metro line. Some of the main streets are torn up and one trolley line is using buses instead to avoid the construction mess.

Along the way we stopped for a treat at Padaria Ribeiro, a pastry and bread shop.

Here is a picture of Armazens Cunhad, a department store in Porto. It doesn’t appear to be as upscale as the El Corte Ingles department store we saw in Lisbon.

Two church’s and a narrow building between them.

Lello Bookstore is considered the 3rd most beautiful bookstore in the world according to Lonely Planet. Rumor is that this bookstore inspired author J K Rollins to create Flourish and Blotts, the bookstore where Harry Potter buys his books before going to Hogwarts. We didn’t go inside because there was a long line and looked like it would take at least an hour in line.

The picture below is of Clérigos Church and its 75 meter bell tower (Igreja e Torre dos Clérigos).

That concluded part 1 of our walking tour. We plan do part 2 another day. For lunch we brought packaged salads and ate them in the park. It was nice to get away from all the people, noise and congestion of the central Porto area we had been walking in.

After lunch we decided to take a ride on the historic tram 18 to see more of Porto. We searched on the internet but could not find a map of the tram route. Same with when we tried to a find a bus route on a previous day. Our experience in Portugal is they sure don’t make it easy for tourists. Anyway we decided to follow the tracks to the end of the line, which wasn’t too far. It ended up being in front of Igreja e Torre dos Clérigos.

We rode tram 18 from one end to the other end, which was the neighborhood For do Duoro. The best view of the river when going this direction on the tram is to sit on left side (single seat side) of the tram.

For do Duoro Is where the Douro River meets the Atlantic Ocean. It’s like we went from Porto 1 to Porto 2. Totally different vibe in Porto 2. Less congestion and buildings are more modern. Slight ocean breeze. It is a more expensive area to live in Porto.

It was so beautiful we decided to hike back along the river.

Real estate is not cheap in Porto, but seems less expensive than Lisbon. Here is a nice 1,240 square foot 3 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment with ocean views for €880,000.

For dinner we both had Pregos (steak sandwiches) at Casa Da Companhia Restaurante.

We did a lot of walking today… 23,500 steps which is the most we have walked on this trip in a single day. Our prior record was 22,900, which was the day we hiked out to Ponta da Piedade in Lagos.

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Lisbon to Porto

Saturday 10/7

This morning we sadly left our apartment in Lisbon for the last time and took an Uber to the Lisbon train station. We took the train to Porto today, Portugal’s second largest city. Like most European cities, the train stations in Portugal are clean with no questionable people. It is even safe and clean in the bathrooms! It is so refreshing to see that.

The train traveled at times between 80 and 130 mph and was very smooth and quiet. There is so much more leg room compared to the bus. Second class senior rate was only €16 to travel to Porto, which is about 190 miles north of Lisbon.

For lunch we had ham and cheese on a baguette that we had purchased at a bakery by our apartment plus two American staples— Pringles and Oreos. It has been years since I last had an Oreo cookie. I am surprised to find these “treats” in Portugal given they are known for their deserts and sweets. We choose them because they would travel well in our backpack.

We had a little excitement on the train… a woman in her 20s did not have a ticket and the conductor chased after her down the aisle. I guess hiding in the bathroom doesn’t work in Portugal. We never found out what happened to her.

And then later they couldn’t get the door opened for our passenger car and we were trapped in it. Two American in our passenger car missed their stop because they couldn’t get the door open to get off the train. When the train pulled into Porto luckily they had three mechanics waiting there and the fixed our door so it could open again.

We took an Uber from the train station to our hotel, which is NH Collection Porto Batalha. After settling into our room we went for a walk to begin our exploration of Porto. Porto has a different feel from Lisbon. I am not sure how to describe yet… I think I need a day or two to figure out how it is different.

Since we didn’t get much exercise today, we wanted a lite dinner. Plus Pringles and Oreos kind fill you up… with all types of things that aren’t good for you. So we went to Honest Greens for dinner and had some fantastic salads.

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Lisbon - Day 8 - Walking Around

Friday 10/6

We are leaving Lisbon for Porto tomorrow and starting to prepare for our train trip. I came back to our apartment after emptying the garbage and our electronic front door wouldn’t unlock. Luckily MaryEllen was still inside. It is a keyless entry and for some reason the green light turned on after entering the correct code, but the door latch didn’t respond by unlocking. After about 1/2 hour of communication back and forth with our host and playing around with the lock, it started working again. The rest of the day we were concerned that the lock may malfunction again. Luckily the host provided us with a way to get a key to manually unlock the door if it failed again. So much for IOT (Internet of Things)!

We need to buy our train tickets still for Porto. We attempted to do it online but the web site kept switching between English and Portuguese, making it very difficult to understand how to use the site. Since there was a train station two blocks from our apartment, we decided just to walk over and get our tickets there.

Today we walked up the tree-lined Avenida de Libberdade to the Parque Edwardo VII. Avenida Libberdade is where a number of upscale retail stores are located (eg, Rolex, Louis Vuitton, Guess, Boss), plus one of the areas where American expats tend to live.

Real estate is not cheap in Lisbon. This 4 bedroom 4 bath apartment with parking for 3 cars is for sale for $2.6 million.

We stopped and had a picnic lunch under the trees at the edge of the park. After lunch we walked though the park. Supposedly there were two Pickleball courts there, but we couldn’t find them. We found the tennis courts, but no Pickleball. I guess we not moving to Portugal :-).

At the opposite end of the park was El Corte Ingles, a large seven story upscale department store. We went inside and found a luxurious selection of high-end designer merchandise, even surpassing that of Bloomingdale's in the US. It provided our first glimpse into the lifestyles of Lisbon's more affluent residents.

We then decided to continue walking in a new neighborhood so we could check out a restaurant that sounded good. We got lost a number of times even with the aid of Google maps. Below is some street art we saw along the way.

During our walk we saw some roosters struting around at a park we passed. In Portugal, the rooster symbolizes honesty and good fortune, stemming from the tale of the “Galo de Barcelos” (Rooster of Barcelos). This 17th-century legend tells of a man falsely accused of theft. He boldly proclaimed that a roasted rooster at the dinner table would crow at his execution to prove his innocence. Miraculously, the roaster rooster stood up on the serving plate and crowed, and as a result the man's life was spared. 

Tuk tuks provide unique way to explore the Lisbon, especially with its narrow, hilly streets which are challenging for larger vehicles. Tuk tuks can be hired by tourists for guided tours around Lisbon.

Back at our apartment, we took one last view of of the Monumento aos Restauradores and the surround area just before sunset from our living room window.

For dinner we had chicken Peri Peri at Bonjardim Restaurante.

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Lisbon - Day 7 - Day trip to Fátima Batalha, Nazaré and Óbidos

Thursday 10/5

While making my oatmeal this morning, I realized I should comment on our apartment’s stove. Our apartment is very modern and has an induction stove. Other than a cooking class I took at DVC, this is the first time I have used one. I cannot believe how fast you can boil water with them. At home it takes maybe 3 to 4 minutes to get to a rolling boil over our gas stove, and the induction stove here takes about a minute and a half. Plus turning the temperature on the range up or down is almost instantaneous, there is no heat loss around the pan, and you don’t need to turn on the overhead fan to exhaust the nitrogen dioxide (NO2) produced from the gas burner.

Today we went on a tour that includes Fátima Batalha, Nazaré and Óbidos. The furthest town, Fátima, is about an hour and a half outside of Lisbon and the tour guide/driver took us plus six other tourists in a Mercedes van. We wanted to use the Inside Lisbon tour operator, but all their trips were sold out so we used Go2Lisbon instead.

Our van left at 8:45am and we didn’t return until around 5:45pm. There was more traffic than I expected outside of Lisbon. In the towns some of the roads were very narrow making driving pretty challenging. I am glad we didn’t try to drive this ourself with a rental car.

Our first stop was Fátima, which is known for the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to three shepherd children at an oak tree in Fátima in 1917. During these appearances, the Virgin Mary relayed three messages to the children, known as the "Three Secrets of Fatima," which included visions and prophecies. The most notable apparition, the "Miracle of the Sun," attracted a crowd of around 70,000 people who claimed to witness the sun dancing in the sky. The Catholic Church has officially recognized these Fátima events as “worthy of belief” and as a result, Fatima has become a significant pilgrimage site for Catholics worldwide.

Pictures from Basilica of Our Lady of Fatima.

The left picture below is a statue of Pope John Paul II. The Fatima complex also includes the Church of the Holy Trinity, shown on the right below. It is a modern church that was completed in 2007 and can hold 9,000 devotees.

Chapel of Aberration, shown on the left below, is built on top of where the oak tree was located. At that location some believers burn candles and some shuffle on their knees to get their prayers answered.

Our next stop was the town of Batalha. There we visited the Monastery of Santa Maria. The monastery was founded by King João I in 1386, following a vow he made to the Virgin Mary after the Portuguese victory in the Battle of Aljubarrota against the Castilians. The monastery took 200 years to build and never really completed.

The workers that carved the stone blocks used to build the monastery carved their identifiers on each stone they carved. Why? Because they got paid by the stone block and it was used to determine how many blocks each worker produced.

Here is a picture of a statue outside the monastery. What is wrong with this statue?

Both the horse’s left front and left rear hooves are off the ground. If this occurred in real life the horse would loose its balance and fall over on its left side.

Our next stop was Nazaré, a beach town that was once a fishing village. Sailors believed that statue of Our Lady of Nazaré in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Nazaré shown below had special protective powers. Before leaving for long voyage or after returning from the sea, sailors and fishermen from the Lisbon area would come the sanctuary to pray for protection or give thanks for a safe journey.

Today Nazaré is internationally famous for having the world’s biggest waves, and as a result it is now better known as a surfing mecca. The biggest wave are are during winter and someone has actually surfed a 90 foot wave here. There is an HBO and/or Netflix documentary on Nazare called “100 Foot Wave”.

At Nazaré we hiked down the coastal point to Fort San Miguel (Forte de São Miguel Arcanjo) from old town and had a picnic lunch there. After lunch we took a tuk tuk (small three-wheeled vehicles) back up the hill to save time in order to explore the old town before the tour left for its next location.

Our last stop on the tour was the town of  Óbidos. Óbidos is medieval town with a well-preserved castle, cobblestone streets, and historic architecture. The Obidos castle was once used as a fortress to protect the town from invaders. It is known as Portugal’s wedding city. In 1282 King Dinis gave the town to his bride as a wedding present. Later kings carried on the tradition for several centuries. As a result the castle was historically ruled by the queens of Portugal who invested in the construction and restoration of various buildings and cultural life.

Óbidos is also known for its Ginja, Portugal’s famous cherry liqueur. In Óbidos Ginja is typically served in a small edible chocolate cup.

One of the problems in visiting numerous castles is your feet get tired of walking on cobblestones. They are uneven, irregular shaped and you need to be careful everywhere you are walking.

By the end of the day we were tired and not interested in researching a new restaurant, so we went to Il Mulino again.

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Lisbon - Day 6 - Day trip to Sintra

Wednesday 10/4

Today we took a train to Sintra. Sintra is a small town in the foothills of Portugal’s Sintra Mountains with a beautiful palace and a 10th-century Moorish castle. It is about a 40 to 50 minute train ride from Lisbon. The picture below is the Rossio train station we left from, which is about two blocks from our apartment.

Our first stop in Sintra was the Peña Palace (Palácio Nacional da Pena) which is a 30 minute bus ride from the Sintra train station on a narrow windy road up the mountain. The 434 bus takes you there, but you must buy a 4€ ticket at the train station with cash— they don’t accept the Lisbon metro card. To avoid waiting for a bus, head there immediately after the train arrives.

The Peña Palace was an old monastery built in the 1500s, severely damaged during the earthquake of 1755 and restored and converted into a palace by King Ferdinand II in 1838. We spent most of the morning touring the Peña Palace.

After lunch we hiked over to the Moorish Castle. The castle was built by the Moors in the 8th and 9th centuries to protect the region, including the town of Sintra. It was taken over by Christian forces 1149.

Rather than take the bus back to the train station from the Moorish Castle, we decided to hike back down to town and then to the train station. Hiking down we occasionally found trail forks that were not marked so at times it was a challenge figuring out which direction to go. Before we left the castle we asked about a map and found there wasn’t one, and the trail wasn’t on on Google Maps either, so we were on our own! It ended up taking us about 50 minutes and it was a beautiful trail— first hiking down among lush green trees in the shade and then walking through Sintra’s town center.

The town of Sintra would be a great place to stay for a day or two. Looks like they have some nice restaurants and shops… and it is a very pretty area. But I would say the whole Sintra experience was somewhat confusing because of a lack of signage, maps and explanations that are empathetic to tourists. At Peña Palace, they had three different check points where you had to keep showing your e-ticket. If they sold tee shirts, which they didn’t, an appropriate one would be “I survived Sintra”.

We took the train back to Lisbon and had tapas for dinner at Restaurante Figus. The tapas were very good. Met a couple from Phoenix at dinner who were traveling with a tour and staying at Hotel Mondial. Briefly researching the hotel it sounds like a nice place to consider if hoteling in Lisbon.

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Lisbon - Day 5 - Day trip to Belem

Tuesday 10/3

Today we took Uber to Belem, which is a district within Lisbon.

Our first stop there was the Belem Tower. It was built in the 16th century to defend Lisbon from enemy ships.

Next stop was the Monument to the Discoveries. It’s shaped like a ship, with 32 figures lined up— 16 on each side, representing famous people from the 15th and 16th centuries. We went to the top of it which had an observation area.

Next we went to the National Coach Museum, which has one of the most prominent horse-drawn carriage collections in the world. 

After lunch we went to the Monastery of Jeronimos. It is an impressive symbol of Portugal's power and wealth during the Age of Discovery. The lines were very long to get into the complex and we ended up waiting 35 minutes. This was due the site being closed in the morning due to a state visit by government officials from Moldova.

Associated with the monastery is the Church of Santa Maria.

After the church we got Pastel de Nata and had a relaxing break in a park.

On the way back we decided to take a trolley back to our hotel. In Portugal cars drive on the right side of the road. So we assumed the trolleys also would follow the same convention. We knew the direction we wanted to go in, just what side was in question. We didn’t see any signs that we could understand, so up the stairs over the overpass and down the stairs to the platform we went. Still no help on the platform on which side to be on. So we asked some kid on the platform. Luckily he spoke limited English. We were on the wrong side. So up the stairs to the overpass and back down the stairs to the other side.

We had read that you needed to tap on when entering a trolly. But when we got on, we saw no where to tap. Turns out you tap out at the station. Learning a new country has its challenges.

Dinner at El Paso Cantina Mexicana. Who would expect good Mexican food in Portugal? Not us, but it had 4.8 rating on Google by hundreds of reviewers. So we went there. It was disappointing from someone who is used to Mexican food in South California. But we finally did meet some English speaking tourists at dinner who were not from Canada— they were from Boston.

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Lisbon - Day 4 - Day trip to Evora

Monday 10/2

Today we took a day trip to Evora, whose history dates back to 2 BC when it was a Roman town. It was later controlled by the Moors and then the Christians.

We took a bus to Évora, located about 1.5 hours from Lisbon. Once you get beyond the cities in Portugal, the roads become notably less congested. Although the bus was labeled 'Évora', we mistakenly thought that was the final destination for everyone on board. It made a stop and the bus driver made an announcement in Portuguese, which we didn’t understand, and a few passengers got off. Assuming it was just a stop along the way, we stayed put. During the driver's short break at the stop, we began to question our assumption. It dawned on us that this was the Évora stop, and the bus was continuing to another destination with most of its passengers. Thankfully, we got off the bus before it left again. Who knows where we would have ended up.

The old town section of Evora is surrounded by a wall.

Historically an aqueduct brought water from outside the town walls into the town. The magnitude of the engineering and construction effort required to build an aqueduct never ceases to amaze me.

Evora has of the best-preserved Roman structures on the Iberian Peninsula, built around the 1st century AD. This Roman temple was part of the Roman forum and illiterates Roman occupation of Portugal.

We hiked up to the roof of the Evora Cathedral.

At the southern end of old town is the Church of St. Francis, which we also toured.

Saint Francis “invented” the manager scene as a tool to tell the Christmas story. We viewed an exhibit the church had of some of their nativity scenes which had been donated from all around the world. We have seen a similar exhibit, only with more nativity scenes on display in a church in Montreal. Here are two I found especially interesting. The one on the left because of the amount of activity in the manager scene, and the one on the right because I have never seen a Chinese Mary and Joseph.

This church had something unique… associated with the church is “The Chapel of the Bones”, which was built by three monks. They used the skull and bones of over 5,000 people buried in various Evora church graveyards to construct the chapel walls and columns.

At the entrance to the chapel above the door reads the message “APS OSSOS QVE AQVI ESTAMOS PILOS: VOSSOS ESPERAMOS” which supposedly translates to: "We bones in here wait for yours to join us."

After we had enough of skull and bones, we took a bus back to Lisbon.

We ate dinner at New Himalaia, and as you probably can guess, is a Himalayan restaurant. The food was very good. At the restaurant I heard some people speaking English (a rarity), so I went up and introduced myself. More Canadians! Is anybody left in that country, or are they all visiting Portugal!

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Lisbon - Day 3

Sunday 10/1

Another sunny day. Today we went to the castle which is on top of one of seven hills in Lisbon. On our way up to the castle we took two elevators which reduced the amount of elevation we had to walk up to get to the castle entrance.

From the top of the hill at the castle there are some great views of Lisbon in all directions.

The picture below is water from the Tagus River which ultimately empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Lisbon. It is no wonder our apartment can have a full-strength rain shower without any flow restrictions (unlike in California).

Here is another picture of Lisbon from the top of the castle. In the distance is the 25 de Abril Bridge, a red two tower suspension bridge… Golden Gate Bridge’s twin brother. Both bridges were built by the same company.

Lisbon is a city full of tourists but it manages it well. English is not the native language of most of the people we have encountered (both tourists and locals), but most people can understand and speak some English. We have met way more people from Canada than from the US.

There is a lot of energy and activity going on in the city. There are restaurants and cafe everywhere. Places to have a beer, sangria or a Coke along with a sweet pastry. Our tour guide told us since the Arab Spring, tourism in Portugal has increase dramatically driving renovation and construction here. We have encountered an occasional crowd, but nothing that it is unbearable. The longest time we have had to wait in any line so far for anything is about 10 minutes. However, I would not recommend coming here during the summer as I would guess the heat and crowds would be challenging. Today was the first day we even realized that cruise ships stop in Lisbon.

The street Rua Augusta has has both retail stores (eg Zara) and a lot of outdoor restaurants. There are also pop-up vendors illegally(?) selling belts, purses and other leather goods on the street, just like they have in Barcelona.

For dinner we went to Il Mulino again.

After dinner we went for a stroll and ended up at Praça da Figueira. The plaza has a market run by artisans and is open during the evening. MaryEllen ended up buying a small cork small pocket purse and I bought dried apricots.

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Lisbon - Day 2

Saturday 9/30

Another sunny hot day. The high today will be 89. Today we are taking a 3 hour guided walking tour offered by Lisbon Walker. The guides are a bunch of locals and get mainly 5 star reviews. Hugo was our guide and did a great job.

In the 1700s there was a major earthquake and most of the town was destroyed. Over the next 100 years most of Lisbon had to be rebuilt.

Portugal is famous famous cherry liqueur called Ginja (also known as Ginjinha). As part of our tour we stopped at A Ginjinha in Lisbon for taste of this sweet cherry liqueur.

After lunch we decided we were going to take Tram 28E from end to end. It is often recommended to take this tram because it goes past so many sights and different Lisbon neighborhoods. It can be extremely crowded at the old town end of the line with tourists waiting to get on it, we decided to start from the other end. We ended up taking the metro and switching lines to get to the Rato station.

From there it was supposed to be a 25 minute walk in a residential area of Lisbon (ie not many/any tourists around) to Campo Ourique, which is the other end of the line. However, the walk was not without its challenges. It must have taken 10 minutes for us to agree on what street to start walking on after we got out of the metro station. We surfaced  from the metro at a very complex intersection with streets going in many different directions. And we had no point of reference, the streets we not well marked, we were each using different navigation apps and it was about 85-90 degrees out with limited shade. When we finally arrived at the tram’s end of the line we did manage to get seats on the tram. The tram ride experience was complete with going up hills and down hills, narrow streets, viewing interesting neighborhoods, clanging bells and near miss experiences with autos that got in the way. It was like riding cable cars in San Francisco, without the underground cable, but with overhead electric lines.

After about an hour we reached the other end of the tram line and we decided to embark on a 30 minute walk back to our hotel. On the way we saw a different grocery store and decided to continue my quest for Quaker Oats. Thanks to Google Translate we discovered that this store did have oatmeal and it translated the label for me. The picture on the left is the label on the package from the store and the picture on the right is what the Google Translate camera function showed me on my iPhone.

Along the way back we encountered a couple of thousand people on a protest march. It was unclear what exactly they were protesting, but someone told us it was because rents were going up faster than wages. Sounds familiar.

For dinner we went to Bonjardim for its roasted chicken, which came highly recommended. It was really good.

After dinner we returned to our apartment in order to do laundry. Our apartment has a washer/dryer combo unit inside the apartment. Sounds great except that we quickly learned that all the dials, buttons and instructions were in Portuguese— oops we forgot about that. So doing laundry took some time, but ultimately MaryEllen was able to figure it out.

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Lisbon - Day 1

Friday 9/29

Now that we are staying in an AirBnB, we are back to making our own breakfast. The last couple of days I got spoiled. I brought 2-days worth of oatmeal to cook with us on the trip. Before we left I looked up whether I could buy Ouaker Oats in Portugal. I found a site that was selling a container of Quaker for $38. I don’t think so! I looked for it in the grocery store last night but didn’t find it. So I maybe eating something else for breakfast when my 2 day reserve runs out :-(.

It was sunny and hot today. High 80s in the afternoon and still about 80 at 9pm. It’s not bad except in the afternoon when you are in the direct sun.

Today we took a Rick Steve’s audio walking tour to get oriented to Lisbon. That took most of the day. One thing I have noticed is practically every street in Lisbon is composed of gray cobblestones and the sidewalks are paved with white limestone, regardless of whether it is a big street, or just and alley with a very narrow sidewalk. Many sidewalks and plazas have mosaic designs combining the white limestone with black basalt.

The Portuguese love salted dried cod. It is especially interesting because the cod they eat is not local, but comes from Newfoundland.

A couple of comments in cars and pedestrians. As a tourist, you would never want to have a car in Lisbon. Many of the streets are extremely narrow, there is very little parking and locals drive fast… but not aggressively. Practically no one honks their horn— which is good, and somehow the local drivers and the local pedestrians have figured out how to coexist with each other. Lisbon is a very walkable city. But as a visiting pedestrian you do need to be careful whenever you walk a where a car can drive. And sidewalks can be very narrow (eg 15”) or blocked for a variety of reasons, forcing you to walk in the street.

It is so warm in Portugal that some people hang their clothes out their window to dry. I found this building interesting and got me wondering how many women live there.

Part of waking tour resulted in us taking a funicular that went uphill (17% grade) to Bairro Alto from Restauradores Square. It’s only purpose is to move passengers up some of the steep hills of Lisbon. But this seems to be mainly a tourist attraction as the lines are fairly long. I think the locals just hike up the hill. It didn’t seem to steep to me, but I bet the white limestone sidewalks would be slippery if wet.

We ate dinner outdoors at Il Mulino. It located on Rua das Portas de Santo Antão, which is a pedestrian only street with a lot of outdoor restaurants. We chose Il Mulino based us discovering it last night and then reading Trip Advisor reviews. A local musician serenaded the restaurant patrons with Beatles songs sang in Portuguese. The food was very good and I would be surprised if we don’t go back and eat there again. I love eating outdoors!

After dinner we went to the grocery store to get tomorrow’s lunch— packaged salad. There is no fashion show in Lisbon tonight!