Tyler and I took a belated Valentine's Day trip to Lisbon two weekends ago and it was wonderful. While the city of Lisbon itself is in dire need of a facelift we loved visiting the surrounding area and enjoyed the warmer weather.
Our flights connected through Brussels, so we got to enjoy our first Belgian beer in Brussels! Very fun way to pass the time while waiting for our connecting flight. Got in to Lisbon Thursday night and after checking in to our hotel we asked for a recommendation for dinner. They suggested a really great restaurant, Sacramento, about a mile away. It made for a nice walk, the food was superb and the bartender and our waiter were from Brazil. We hit it off with them and ended up going back every night! We had caipirinhas, octopus, bacalau (Portuguese cod), green wine, white port, pork, ginjinha (Portuguese liquor made of sour cherries - sweeter than port) - it was all amazing!
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| Torre de Belém |
We only had two full days there, so to make the most of it we booked an all day tour on Friday - from 9 AM to 7 PM. The first half was spent in Lisbon itself. We drove over the 25th of April Bridge, the sister of the Golden Gate Bridge; both were built by the American Bridge Company with steel from the US, hence the similar designs and red coloring. At the end opposite of Lisbon is the Cristo Rei statue, inspired by Cristo Redentor on Corcovado in Rio. Having seen the real deal it is no where near as impressive, but still very nice and glad we drove by it. Our bus then turned around and took us past the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, a monument honoring the different Portuguese explorers, before stopping at the Torre de Belém. The tower was built at the mouth of the river to protect Portuguese ships entering the Atlantic from pirates from the north who would wait for them to leave the safety of the mouth of the river, then attack, plunder the ships and sink them. We could see the 25th of April Bridge, Cristo Rei, and Padrão dos Descobrimentos from the tower.
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| Mosteiro dos Jerónimos |
Next was the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (Jerónimos Monastery) which was commissioned by Henry the Navigator and is where Vasco da Gama is entombed. The details both inside and out of the monastery were breathtaking. Gold leaf detail work, beautiful stained glass windows, stone carvings throughout; amazing knowing it was built in the early 1500's. Afterwards we drove by the Palácio Nacional de Belém, where the president lives, and stopped at the Museu Nacional dos Coches next door (the National Coach Museum). They have different coaches dating back to the 16th century and were they ever extravagant! There were three completely covered in gold; two had tarnished, but one had been restored...before they ran out of money.
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| Praça do Comércio |
We then walked through historic Lisbon, tried some port, and walked down the narrowest street before getting dropped off for lunch near the Praça do Comércio, where the palace used to be until it was destroyed in the major earthquake of 1755. We had two hours for lunch, so after enjoying some local fare (ham, cheese, and pasteis filled with chicken) we walked around the Praça do Comércio before wandering back to get picked up for the afternoon segment of our tour.
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| Sintra, with the Castelo dos Mouros up in the background |
Our bus took us 30 minutes out of town to Sintra - gorgeous! Cute little town, beautiful scenery, we loved it! So much so that we decided that we would return the next day to explore further (we only had an hour and a half on our tour). We hiked up part of the mountain to enjoy the view, toured the Palácio Nacional de Sintra, and got a free sample of some local sweets. Palácio Nacional de Sintra claims to be the only surviving royal palace from the Middle Ages - not entirely sure what is meant by this, but it was very impressive inside. We could see the Castelo dos Mouros overlooking Sintra, but we didn't have time to make it up there in our hour and a half - part of what led to our decision to return the following day.
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| Cabo da Roca |
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| View from Cascais |
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View from the highest tower of Castelo dos Mouros. The
white building in the center is the palace from the day prior |
The next stop was Cabo da Roca, the western-most point in continental Europe. Since it was later in the afternoon the lighting on the coastline was just perfect for photos! It really reminded me of northern California along the PCH - beautiful cliffs, rolling green hills, simply stunning. We were enjoying it so much, we almost didn't make it back to our tour bus in time! Fortunately we didn't get left behind. The bus continued south along the coast, enjoying the beautiful vistas, stopping briefly in Cascais, driving past Casino Estoril (the largest casino in Europe, but it has nothing on Vegas), and eventually making our way back to Lisbon by about 7:00pm, so it was quite a full day!
So as I mentioned before, we decided to go back to Sintra the next day to explore the Castelo dos Mouros and Palácio Nacional da Pena. Both sit atop their own peaks overlooking Sintra and the coastline a few kilometers away. It was a 40 minute train ride to Sintra from Lisbon and it cost only 4 euros each round trip (very nice!) We hopped on a local shuttle that took us most of the way up the mountain then walked the rest of the way up to Castelo dos Mouros. Unbelievable! Because of its location the views are phenomenal. Even the hike from the road to the castle was beautiful. How the Moors managed to build this thing at the top of this mountain with its steep slopes back in the 8th and 9th centuries is mind-boggling. We walked past some archaeological sites; the nice thing was that they had signs in Portuguese and English explaining what they were looking for and what they had found at each one. Climbing up the stairs along the side of the wall all the way to its highest tower made for quite a workout, but the view was well worth it.
Then it started to rain...
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| Castelo dos Mouros & Palácio Nacional da Pena behind |
Just a sprinkle. Then it stopped. We decided to carefully make our way down the worn, centuries-old and now wet stone stairs. Then the rain started again. And got heavier. We took cover for a while in the remains of an old church built nearby in the 12th century (pretty cool). When it started to lighten up we made our way out and climbed up the road towards the other peak and the Palácio Nacional da Pena. We finally made it to the base of the other peak and the rain just kept coming so rather than keep walking in the rain we took a little tram at the base up the last little bit of the peak to the palace itself. The nice thing was that we were able to get little headsets here (where you punch in the numbers on the different signs throughout the palace) so we were able to do our own little walking tour with many more details than were provided on the signs alone. We couldn't take any pictures within the castle itself, just outside, but the artifacts were very impressive. They even had the crib that was used for two of the princes when they were babies in the 1800's! By the time we made our way through the interior of the palace it had *finally* stopped raining and was once again beautiful outside. Of course we were already soaked and had just walked through the cold palace so we grabbed some hot cocoa from a little cafe on the grounds and stood in the sunshine trying to dry off and warm up! With the improved weather came even better views! We took pictures till the battery in the camera died (both batteries, we even had a back-up).
Finally, cold and tired from hiking up and down the peaks and castle and through the palace, we decided to make our way back down the mountain to the train station and back to Lisbon. After warm showers and changing into dry clothes we went back to our favorite dinner spot, had more amazing food, got some free drinks, and said our goodbyes. The next day in the airport we purchased some white port, two bottles of an amazing red wine from the local area that we had with dinner one night, as well as a bottle of 40 year old port. (Side note: oh my gosh! we tried the port with Rett when we got home and it is like sweet nectar from the gods! lol) We had another long layover in Brussels, enjoyed some more beer, and walked around the airport before finally heading home.
We loved this trip! It was the perfect length to get away and relax, but we could've stayed for another day or two. We've both said we'd love to go back sometime and stay in Cascais or Sintra because there was so much more that we'd love to explore.
On the plane, ready to go to Lisbon!
SO much Belgian chocolate in the airport in Brussels
My octopus from dinner our first night - yum!
On the tour bus
25th of April Bridge and Cristo Rei
Details of Torre de Belém
Guys fishing in front of the Torre de Belém; Padrão dos Descobrimentos
enjoying the tour
Outside of Mosteiro dos Jerónimos
Tomb of Vasco da Gama
Standing outside and the ceiling inside
Ceiling of the Coach Museum
The oldest coach in the museum and cherubs on the top of another.
Another shot of the ceiling. Check out the bling on this coach!
There were 2 others like this covered in gold.
Historic Lisbon and the narrowest street in Lisbon
Statue of King Jose I in the center of the square; bas relief on the curved base.
Arco da Rua Augusta at one end of the square.
The Latin at the top means "the virtues of our ancestors."
Smile; check out the local police on their Segways.
This square had a mosaic like Copacabana! Parque Eduardo VII where we caught the bus and fortunately, just around the corner from our hotel.
Castelo dos Mouros; enjoying the hike partway up the mountain in Sintra
LOVED the beautiful colors of these flowers!
My Atlanta boy with his Coca-Cola ;-)
Castelo dos Mouros from Sintra
Swan ceiling in the Palácio Nacional de Sintra; view of Sintra from the palace.
Check out how small this door is.
Gold ceiling; think of the BBQ you could make in this kitchen!
beautiful garden
Another view of the castle
Outside of the Palácio Nacional de Sintra.
Cabo da Roca
Some of the views as we drove along the coast.
Enjoying Cascais
Roman aqueduct
Hiking up to Castelo dos Mouros. A grave site along the way.
Remains of the nearby church from the 12th century.
Goofing around
View of Palácio Nacional da Pena from the highest tower of Castelo dos Mouros
You can see Sintra in the upper right corner of the photo.
Amazed at the huge boulders around the castle.
Being silly again
Entryway to Palácio Nacional da Pena; determined to get a picture despite the rain.
Outdoor garden; we were literally in a cloud up there for a while.
...and just like that it cleared up and was beautiful again
Ty trying to dry off and warm up in the sunshine; SO cute :-)
Entryway to the palace
Neptune supporting the bay window - tribute to the Portuguese explorers.
Palácio Nacional da Pena
View of the castle from the palace
Ty with the castle in the background
With the castle behind us
Great panorama shot from Palácio Nacional da Pena
