Trip Report-two weeks in Portugal

Porto continued

We continued to try to do the Rick Steves walk and I emphasize try. Even with a map and a GPS we seemed to get ourselves turned around. We eventually did most of the Upper Porto walk, stopping for lunch and of course, more pastries. At lunch we noticed that the language of business was English. There was a group of four next to us happily speaking in a language I did not recognize. But they ordered and conversed in English to the waiter. One of them had allergies and his friend told the waiter what he could not have. I must admit it made me nervous—conversing about something so serious in both of their second languages.

After eating even more pastries, we were tired of trying to follow a map and just started walking down to the river. And I do mean down. There had been some elevation up and down but nothing too severe (and we are from flat Florida) but suddenly we were taking stairs down down down. I kept thinking about getting back up!

We ended up at Palacio da Bolsa which is the Stock Exchange Palace. Everything I read said it was very difficult to get tickets (can’t reserve online) but I decided to see what was available since it was after 4:00 pm. We got tickets for an English speaking tour that started in 15 minutes! The tour guide was fantastic. She was quite the actress and told the history of the building and its functions in a very captivating way. The highlight visually was the Arabian Hall which is an overdone version of the Granade’s Alhambra. I had not thought we would get in and so had not really done much research. There is something to be said for having no idea how fabulous what you are going to see is.

We continued after down to the riverfront. We got tickets for the last river cruise of the day. It was fun to see the city from the river and see the setting sun over the bridges. Our feet were tired and it seemed like a nice break from walking. It was 18 Euros and called the Six Bridges cruise. We enjoyed it.

Afterwards, we started walking back up the hill towards the train station. We stopped at Bufete Sao Domingo which was recommended on this board. We waited a few minutes for a table and were seated near the restaurant door a fair way from the musicians playing on the street. I had salmon and vegetables and my husband had a traditional sausage dish which I did not like at all. The salmon was like 12 Euros but a glass of wine was 8 which seemed out of proportion. My husband had beer which was 3 or 4 Euros. He tasted my salmon and said I make better salmon!

Day 3

Day trip to Guimaraes (20,250 steps)

We had a lot of dithering about whether to go to Braga or Guimaraes. I had planned to go to Braga, which is known for its churches, but colleagues of mine from Porto told me to visit Guimaraes instead. This choice was confirmed by several on this board. The historic centre of Guimaraes is an UNESCO site. It is commonly referred to as the birthplace of Portugal since its first king , Alfonso Henriques, was born here in the 12th century. Portugal is a very old nation!

We took the train from Porto here. The day before we bought tickets for less than 8 Euros round trip for both of us. You must validate the tickets before you get on which took some looking to locate the machine. I had thought we would see some of the countryside, but the hour ride was almost entirely urban. We arrived and saw several people by a bus station sign. It certainly did not look like we were in any historical area so we decided to see if the bus could take us there. A small city bus—like the size you would see a day care center use—came and we bought tickets on board. The bus dropped us off in the center by a huge garden.

Guimaraes continued

My husband wanted to visit the first pastry shop we saw at the entry to the historical area, but I put him off, suggesting that we would get better food further in. We wandered around the historical area which was so perfect I almost felt like I was at Epcot Center and came upon a huge square filled with tables and umbrellas. It looked a bit like a fair. We went off the beaten track a little and saw more residents than tourists. My husband spotted another pastry shop and this time we went in.
It was quite crowded and the only English we heard was directed at us. It seemed like the residents came there to purchase bread and rolls. My husband ordered coffee which came in a beautiful teacup and we both ordered pastries. There really was nowhere to sit and the clerk told him he could take it to the park across from the shop.
There we watched the residents. Four older women sat on a bench together talking. A couple men sat on a different bench. It was clear this was a gathering spot. I live in a suburban area, and you would never find such a scene. It made me think about how much less sense of community we have.

We finished our pastries and returned the cup, making our way back to the main street. We quickly came to the castle area. Our Lonely Planet guide said to be aware of the long hill you must trek. The author must not have visited Porto! The hill was relatively mild in comparison.

You come first to the Paco dos Duques de Braganca which is the largest and most well-preserved medieval palace in Portugal. We really enjoyed the palace and would recommend it. It was unique, with chimneys, while we visited other castles in Portugal. You can buy tickets here for both the palace and castle, which is what we did, or for one or the other. You cannot buy tickets for the castle at the castle as a couple we ran into there found out. The husband refused to move to go back to the palace to buy tickets. He apparently kept telling his wife, who walked down with us after we had seen the castle ruins (there was a big hill between the two), that he wanted to be on a tour! He did not look like fun.

It was a Monday and nothing else was open in town so we made our way down. You would be better off visiting on a different day. We didn’t think of this and were mostly driven by the fact the sun was supposed to disappear on Tuesday.

We had this idea that we would buy a picnic lunch at a supermarket we had seen earlier and take the cable car up the mountain of Penha. This was pretty much a disaster. We went the wrong way and ended up eating lunch on a bench in a park without any view. The mountain was not as interesting as we had been led to believe by Lonely Planet which said that it was a popular weekend spot. It has religious sites and a few trails that are really sidewalks. We walked around for about an hour and took the cable car back. We then missed the train to Porto by five minutes and had to wait 55 minutes for the next train. We were too tired to go out to eat and bought something at a pastry shop with meat, cheese, and vegetables in it that looked good but was not. I think we got greedy and tried to cram one more thing in and would have been much better off just heading back earlier to Porto.

Day 4 Porto (15,300 steps)

This was our last day in Porto. We started out going to the Bolhao Market which was about 10 minutes from where we were staying. The market has been totally redone and it is this interesting cross between Spitalfield in London and the Palermo market. It has the food focus and variety of goods of Palermo and the unusual cuts of meat including chickens with feet on them. But it is neat as a pin like markets that are mostly dry goods not food like Spitalfield. And it is not very expensive. We bought four rolls from a woman who did not speak English (used hand signals) for .50 Euros. We had the best pastel de nata which are Portugues custard tarts in Porto there (and they had lots of competition!). One vender had pastries shaped like ships with port wine in them. Incredible tasting. I could have eaten a half dozen but sadly only had one.

We made ourselves sandwiches and set off to explore the rest of the city. We started at the Cathedral which guidebook claims is free and not open mid-day. Not true. It now is 3 Euros for church and cloister, and it does not close at lunch. I did not like the feel of the church. It had huge stone pillars and then a Baroque altar did not seem to go with them. The cloister was much more to my liking. It had elaborate azulejos decorating the walls which distinguished it from other cloisters I have seen.
We then wandered the streets down near the river, ending up at Sao Francisco Church. The interior of this church is stunning. It is in Gothic style with Baroque but there is so much Baroque that it balances out the granite pillars. For some reason you are not supposed to take pictures in the church though. There is also a crypt you can visit. At one point there is a clear glass window to the floor below which is filled with bones. A bit creepy.

We had decided to ride the trolley, as it was supposed to be easier to do in Porto than Lisbon, and the stop was right outside the church. We got seats and rode Trolley #1 along the river until the end which was near the Foz district. We took Trolley # 18 back which had the advantage of taking us up the big hill from the river, saving our legs. Trolley #22 which goes around the downtown area was not running because of construction. In between trolleys, we basically walked around the park near the river and bought some ice cream from a park stand and sat on a bench near the river. Nothing too exciting.

The trolley route ended near Clerigos Tower which you could climb for a fee. We saw no reason to pay to climb more steps so we did not. There was a little establishment which was making something inside that caught my attention. They were making pasteis de bacalhau which are cod fritters. They have salt cod, potato and cheese and are deep fried. We had not had these yet and they are a specialty of Portugal so decided to buy them plus glasses of port wine. We ate them on the top floor by the window overlooking the Tower. We liked both a lot.

It had started to rain, and we ended up eating at a restaurant that could been at the outlet mall near us except there was some Portuguese spoken. International in the worst sense of the word.

We had rental car reservations the next morning at the Campanha train station two metro stops from the station nearest us. We had not taken the metro (we had planned to from the airport until our flight was delayed) and decided to see if we could put money on the Adante card our host had provided us. We were successful and took the metro back to our place. The metro system is clean and modern and well used. We both were impressed by the system for a city of this size. Tips: you buy trip parts and if you have to change trains, it is two parts. There is no gate but machines where you validate your card.

Porto continued

Reflections on Porto: We really liked Porto. It was a little scruffy in places, but it seemed very livable. I liked the variety of architecture and that it was easy to know your way around. We never got to Vila Nova de Gaia and had some regrets about that. We had thought we would have enough about port when we visited the Douro Valley, but it didn’t quite work out that way.

One of them had allergies and his friend told the waiter what he could
not have.

We travelled with a friend with a nut allergy and she had printed up a card in Portuguese explaining it. The challenge we discovered is that many of the serving staff in our 10 day stay in Portugal had neither Portuguese or English as a first language. Often they would take the card and find someone else to interpret it to make sure it was clearly understood. That person would come to our table and ask questions.

Interesting Allan. I had thought that is what the person at the table next to us should have done. I had assumed falsely it seems that the waiters first language would be Portuguese.

Day 5 Douro Valley (8,500 steps)

Our trip to the Douro Valley did not work out very well and we both agree we would not have done it this way again. We spent one night in Peso da Ragua in a B & B up on a hill away from the center city. I thought it would keep us from backtracking to Porto and that spending one night would be much better than day tripping but for a variety of reasons that turned out not to be the case, only some of which were within our control. We did not leave Porto with a rental car until about 10:30 am which really was too late for October. We had too many adventures along the way which could have been at least partly mitigated by renting an automatic. My husband drove a stick without much incident in Sicily last year and was fine with doing it again. But the reality was that the traffic was much worse in Portugal than in Sicily. He stalled the car getting out of the garage at the train station and told me that renting a stick seemed like a much better idea six months ago than now! The train station was 10 minutes from where we were staying while the airport was 45 but perhaps the airport would have been less challenging to drive from.

We tried taking Rick Steves’ advice to take the tollway to N-101 then down through the mountains but it didn’t work out either. The traffic was heavy even though it was late morning. We tried following the advice to take N-101 from the tollway through the mountains. It was fine at first but then the routing signs disappeared and the GPS was going to take us up roads that frankly made us nervous. We ended up turning around and took the toll way to Via Real and then down to Peso da Ragua. We parked between trees on the street by the river and had a picnic lunch down by the river and tried to figure out what to do next. My husband had had it with driving and said he wasn’t going any further. I thought maybe we could go to Pinhao by train and then hike to a quinta as discussed in the guidebook. But it was getting late and then it started to rain.

We ended up on one of those cheesy trains that look like they belong at an amusement park. To make insult worse, it played two Portuguese folk songs over and over. I felt like I was back in “It’s a small world” at Disney with my children when they were young. The train drove four of us (no one else wanted to go in the rain I guess) up into the hills and then to taste port wine. We saw a short movie and then had a glass of port. Neither of us were sure we would actually like port but we did. We even bought a bottle for 6 Euros. But it wasn’t exactly the day of visiting a quinta and looking over the vineyards we had envisioned.

Afterwards, we visited the Douro Museum. It was quite interesting, explaining the history and geography of the Douro Valley. It is certainly worthwhile although on a nice day I would probably do something else. I talked to the woman at the desk about the harvest and where the people came from. She said that until recently it was local people but there has been an exodus to the cities and now the quintas pay a contractor to find them people.

We had tried to drop our luggage off at the place we were staying when we came in (no one was there) so we knew how precarious the location was. So we had dinner which was great Indian food from a place on the river and then ventured up these terribly steep roads. The place turned out to be very nice with a large suite and a lovely breakfast but there is a reason why Rick Steve’s book recommends places down by the river. We basically were trapped in our room from 7:30 pm on since we could not easily walk anywhere.

Day 6 Douro Valley to Coimbra (15,500 steps)

The next morning my husband was refreshed and willing to drive up to a quinta so we made our way up to the nearest one on the other side of the river. We arrived when they opened but were told that no tours were available without a reservation. Sigh. There are fewer people in October but because it does rain the tastings are all set up inside so there is less capacity. We were able to wander around and see the grounds and could have purchased a drink to sip when the bar opened an hour later. But it started raining before then and we left to drive to Coimbra just as all the tour buses were arriving.

It rained most of the way to Coimbra but stopped as we went into town. We stayed at Hotel Astoria which is accurately described as a faded fine old hotel. It is ideally located, our room was large, and the breakfast was very good. The elevator only holds two people and luggage and even then there was a half flight of stairs we had to navigate. The biggest issue for us was the Wi Fi which was very inconsistent. Also, there is no parking which required my husband to drive down three levels into a municipal garage into the tiniest space imaginable. The spaces were all like that. You can hardly open the door to get out of the car.

We found Coimbra even hillier than Porto. After a quick lunch at a gyro place next to our hotel, we climbed our way up to the university. We had a tour reserved for 3 pm and we wandered around until then. The tour was very worthwhile but you have to make reservations. While we were waiting for our guide to check everyone’s tickets, a woman was begging the ticket sellers to let them buy two tickets for today. No dice.

The tour covers the history of the university and shows some very interesting rooms including where the students and faculty (different places) were imprisoned for saying things that threatened the monarchy. The practice of punishing people for saying disagreeable things ended in the late 1800s. The star of the tour is the Baroque library which is one of the best surviving in Europe. It is really striking.

After the tour we made our way to listen to Fado ao Centro . Fado in Coimbra is sung exclusively by men as its origins can be traced to the university which at the time was all male. Today the university is 60% female which is similar to the US I think. Fado ao Centro has 50 minute very enjoyable shows in a hall followed by a reception with a small glass of port. It features present and former students but I would say mostly former by the ages of the singers. It started at 6 pm which suited us well.

We then went to another student restaurant-this time Korean-for a quick dinner.

Day 7 Coimbra

15,600 steps

I had planned for us to go visit and hike between some of the Schist villages which are driving distance from Coimbra. But we woke up to pouring rain which nixed that. Instead, we saw other sites in Coimbra. I would guess we saw everything there was to see!

We started with Machado de Castro Museum. The bottom floors of it are Roman ruins which you can freely wonder around. These were beneath what once was a forum. This is quite cool. The rest of the museum is various forms of art including statues, paintings, ceramics, and religious vestments. We spent a few enjoyable hours.

We also visited the Old Cathedral, a few other churches, the Science Museum, and the free Botanical Garden (which is quite nice).

But the most momentous event of the day was dinner.

Coimbra continued

We ate at Restaurante Ze Manel dos Ossos which is in the Rick Steves book. It is a tiny establishment with 7 tables on a little street that took us awhile to find. When we got there (in the afternoon checking restaurants out), a woman came out. She said they do not take reservations and that she was told to come by 7 for the 7:30 opening of the restaurant if they wanted a table. She also said it was recommended by the guide on the tour she took. She did not look impressed with the logistics of eating there.

But we decided to give it a try, showing up at 6:50 pm with people already in line. We had decided we would bail if we did not make the first seating. About 7:15 pm a man came out of the restaurant and started going down the line asking people how many was in their party. Ahead of us, was 2 tables for two, 1 table for one, and 1 table for 4. We were going to get in!

At 7:30 pm the doors opened and the groups were shown to specific tables which were set up already with bread. The man eating by himself was seated in a table next to the table with four which gave everyone enough room. We were seated in an area with several tables for 2. There was one waiter. He gave a few tables menus but only one per table and not at the same time. It was all in Portuguese with no English translation. The couple at the table next to us got a half order of ossos which are pork bones and we decided to follow. We ended up with that, a half order of goat, and potatoes and beans. And a carafe of house wine. We were going to order another meal but the waiter told us no, too much food. He was right. We didn’t finish what we had.

It was interesting to watch the waiter. He was totally relaxed with serving seven tables. He did not hurry. He did not seem to care how long people waited. It was like watching a finely tuned performance.

The food was fabulous, especially the ossos which we did finish every bit of. He brought the bill-26 Euros for everything. But then we found out that there were no credit cards! We did not have that much cash on us having cleaned ourselves out at lunch at another restaurant which did not accept credit cards. Fortunately, we were minutes from our hotel with more money which my husband retrieved. We seemed to be the only customers surprised. It was probably on the menu but of course we could not read the menu!

Some more:
Day 8 Towards Tomar
22,000 steps

We left Coimbra and drove first to Batalha and then to Fatima before settling in Tomar for the night. This worked really well and was very efficient. We took our passports and other important papers with us and left our luggage hidden in the trunk.
We went first to Batalha. Batalha is a huge church and monastery built by King Joao I in thanksgiving for his 1385 victory over the Castilian king. Always interesting to ponder the intermingling of Church and State in Europe. Before entering, we sat for a bit getting caffeinated before entering at a café with a gorgeous view of the structure.
The church was free and there was a wedding that day. It was so fun to see everything set up and the people waiting. I loved seeing the church being used as opposed to just being a tourist attraction. Later when we tried to figure our way out, the bride was coming down the aisle. The central area was roped off but tourists could still walk up the side. In fact, they had to in order to get to the entrance to the monastery.

There was no line to buy tickets for the monastery which was huge. Beautiful cloisters, a hall where monks once lived (low door opening-they must have been short!) and an unfinished chapel. Apparently, it was started but then money was diverted to Balem to monuments to the age of discovery. It is actually very beautiful.

We stayed maybe 90 minutes and moved on to Fatima.

We are practicing Catholics but have never been of the ilk that would visit a pilgrimage site. But we were close by so went anyway. Overall, we did not find visiting Fatima to be a spiritual experience but rather one in which we felt like anthropologists looking in and observing what others were doing.

Driving to Fatima, there were people walking along the side of the road with orange vests on so they could be seen by traffic. The road does not even have a shoulder. The site itself is huge. There are two churches—one which is huge and modern and another that is a traditional Basilica that contains the tombs of the three children who Mary appeared to in 1917. The square is simply gigantic and I understand on the 13th of the month it is filled with people commemorating the day of the month that Mary appeared in 1917. When we were there we saw groups of people from many different countries and there seemed to be programs for them. We wandered into various spaces where events were being held for people all wearing the same tee shirts! There were some people crawling on their knees in front of the outdoor Chapel of Apparitions which marks the spot where Mary appeared to the three children. When we were there, there was a rosary being said in Portuguese.

When we left the site, we went to a gift shop to buy presents for my sister and mother in law who wanted something from Fatima and looked for a place for lunch. It was incredibly tacky and touristy in the streets nearby. We saw a restaurant across the street after we walked awhile and thought it looked more local. And it was. It closed at 2 pm for the afternoon! We ended up with bad pizza and some expensive appetizers that were supplied without a price. My husband was hungry by then so eat them and of course we had to pay for them. It did bother me that we were never told the price.

Tomar is more lovely to stay in than either of these towns. Our only issue is that there was a festival put on by the city celebrating St. Irene of Tomar who was martyred in 653. The bridge we were supposed to take to our hotel was blocked and it took us an hour to get to our hotel, passing many families with children. The festival includes amusement park rides, musical performances, and some special masses. According to the woman at the hotel desk, it lasts for two weeks. Later that night we walked around the amusement park ride part which reminded us of our church festival but it only lasts four days! Our church festival is also a fundraiser. I was slightly amused by the idea of celebrating the life of a martyr with rides but the families seemed to be enjoying it.

We stayed at Thomar Boutique Hotel for $119 including breakfast. It is well located and the breakfast is good. Our room though was pretty small. It was fine for one night.

The town is charming and hilly (what else is new) and before dinner we walked around and then up to the parking lots of the Castle of the Knights Templar and Covenant of Christ . We staked out the best way to drive as we planned to visit the next morning by car. This would allow us to leave for the Algarve when we were done.

We had dinner at Sabores ao Rubro which was recommended both in the Rick Steves guidebook and by the hotel receptionist. But we were not impressed. We both had seafood as we had enough meat for a week the night before. I had salt cod which was well salty. I couldn’t really eat it, although my husband who likes food saltier than me ate some. He had shrimp and his only comment was that mine was better. This was his second comment to this effect. Apparently, it is only worth eating out if the food is better than what I make for us at home!

Enjoying your report, thanks for sharing!

Tammy-Glad you are enjoying!
Here is the Algarve!

Day 9
Algarve
15,800 steps

We parked at the parking lot right outside the Castle of the Knights Templar, arriving at 9:00 am when it opened. The problem with arriving then is you don’t know where to go. We went around the back of the complex where we had the whole place to ourselves and took some amazing pictures but couldn’t figure out how to get inside (even though we heard voices!). Finally, we backtracked and followed where the buses were parked and entered.

The complex is a cross a combination of a castle and a monastery. It was where the knights would go to be blessed before battle. Those building dates from the 12th century. Some of the other buildings are newer—15th and 16th centuries. We talked to one woman who told us the cleaning of the outside of the building Convent of Christ. The funding was due to it being an UNESCO site. It took a long time because it all had to be done by hand but is beautiful.

We visited for about 90 minutes and then headed out of town. The driving was challenging until we got south of Lisbon and then we were on a pretty empty tollway. It was glorious.

We had debated about going to the Algarve but both of our sons had been to the area and raved about it and going there was a way to share experiences with them. Going in October actually worked well because the area is most distinct because of all the rock formations which have fairly small beaches in between. We stayed in an apartment complex in Carvoeiro which I chose because the air bnb had reviews that talked about how quiet it was. It actually was the only quiet place we stayed.

Carvoeiro we were told by a Bolt driver is predominately British while Lagos is touristed by Americans. Carvoeiro is really a resort town. There is nothing else there. It was easy to get in and out of with a car and we could walk to restaurants. But the beaches were not that close—about 25 minutes in either direction by foot. We did visit but did not spend a lot of time on the beach.

The first night we were there we got very good Italian food. The second night we went for Thai.

Day 10

Algarve

16,750 steps

Today we were to walk the most famous trail of the area-The Seven Hanging Valleys. We parked at Praia da Marinha which was not very far from where we were staying. Our plan was to walk to the other end of the trail and then take a Bolt or Uber back to the parking lot. It didn’t quite work that way.

There were people on the trail but it wasn’t unpleasantly crowded. The seven valleys refers to how many times you have to go up and down to the beaches. Everyone I spoke to who had done any of the trail remarked on how much harder it was than they expected. Some parts of it had railings and was well marked. At other times, you were scrambling over rocks. We had downloaded All Trails and used it to guide ourselves. Part of the problem is it is mostly rock so it isn’t very clear which way you are supposed to go.

We had lunch at some picnic tables part way through the trail. A couple from France with two children asked if they could share the table with us. There were lots of families we spoke with from France. Apparently, it was a break in French schools.

Not too long after lunch my husband tripped on the path we were following over a root and injured himself. He had a surface abrasion on his hand that was heavily bleeding and had injured his shoulder. Fortunately I was carrying a package of bandages including some large bandaids and we were able to get it mostly to stop bleeding. We continued until the next “valley” which we recognized from our wanderings from the night before. We left the trail at that point and walked back to the town and back to our apartment.

We still had the problem of the car. After some down time, we walked to a large hotel on the main road and called a Bolt. We both were worried about how he would drive a stick shift with an injured hand. I can drive one as well but wasn’t on the car contract, although I would have just driven it anyway if he could not. Turned out it did not hurt his hand at all (different spot) and we decided to go visit Lagos which is where our older son stayed this past May.

We parked outside the center city as recommended in the Rick Steves book and walked in. Lagos did not seem to be the youth oriented place I expected in October. It was pretty sedate. It is touristy but a touristy real town with shops, churches, a castle, and a beach. I liked it better than Carvoeiro but Carvoeiro was much quicker to get out of to visit the rest of the area.

Day 11
Algarve

17,750 steps

Our sons were sending us suggestions of other hikes we could do in the area but, considering my husband’s sore shoulder and the difficulty of the trail the day before, we decided that to go to Silves instead. Its Moorish Castelo de Silves was my favorite castle of our trip. It was not crowded at all and we just sorta wandered aimlessly through it. The castle is made of red sandstone and the contrast with the bright blue sky was striking. There were stairs to climb but not as many as other places we went and there was a cistern we visited.

Afterwards, we decided to go to Morgado do Quintao in hopes of a wine tasting. I saw mention of some wineries in the area in the Lonely Planet Guidebook and decided to try as it was on our way back to our place. We followed some dirt roads and signs into what was labeled “the main house”. We weren’t sure we were going to find anything there! But there was a large group under the trees having lunch and a couple some distance away drinking wine. You needed to have a reservation for lunch. We ended up with one wine tasting for 12 Euros and a large plate of cheeses, meats, breads, olives and the like. My husband was kindly given his own glass and I shared a bit of my wine (he was driving and did not want much wine). We could not finish the platter even though we had not had lunch. It was a lovely few hours and made us feel much better for having missed the same in the Duoro Valley.

Before we left the Algarve, we wanted to have fresh fish. We had dinner at Bella Rosa in Carvoeiro. I had sea bass and my husband had sword fish. Mine was excellent and better than my husband’s.

Day 12

Lisbon

28,750 steps

We drove this morning to the Lisbon airport to return the car which was very easy. We then took a Bolt to our apartment. We followed the signs to the parking garage and arranged to be picked up there. Basically, ride share drivers pulled into parking spaces near where people were standing to pick people up. A rather different arrangement but it worked.

The place we were staying was above the main street and only residential cars were allowed. Our host gave us an address to give the Bolt driver but it was a couple blocks from the apartment not the address of the coffee shop she referenced. Goggle then took us the strangest way to our apartment which required climbing the steepest hills with our luggage and then some stairs only to find a much less steep hill going down to the main street near our place. Goggle tried to take us this way several other times but we smartly disregarded the directions!

We met up with our host without any problems and then set off for the center of Lisbon where we were to take a walking tour.

The area we were staying in is called Sao Bento and is adjacent to the Bairro Alto. We took the Best of Lisbon Walk by Inside Lisbon that afternoon. It was a 20-25 minute walk to the center of Rossio where the tour started and included some amazing hills. It is a 3.5 hour walking tour that includes stops for several local snacks so it really doesn’t feel as long as that. We loved it and would highly recommend. You learn about the history of Lisbon, see many important sites, and have a guide who knows how to get from A to B with the least hill climbing. She took us up elevators in buildings and train stations! We tasted pastel de nata (custard pastries) and pasteis de bacalhau (cod fritters) which was included in the tour price. We then had the chance to purchase a shot of gininha in a chocolate cup for 1.5 Euros which we did. She demonstrated how to drink/eat it.

You can get a Rick Steves discount if you buy tickets in advance. The discount is per order so we did better buying tickets for the two of us in separate orders.

After the tour we walked to Duque Da Rua which is a small fado place I saw mentioned on this board. It did not open until 7:30 pm so we had an early dinner. There was no space unless you had a reservation but the owner gave us a card with his contact information on it. My husband contacted him via What’s Ap and made reservations for Saturday night, our last night in Portugal. We walked back to the nearby square Largo De Camoes where Goggle said we were only a mile or so away from our place but my feet said no way. We took a Bolt.

Day 13

Sintra

20, 088 steps

My plan was to take a Bolt in time to get to the Pena Palace when it opened. It didn’t work out that way as we had trouble getting one (all were busy) and ended up with an Uber with a wait of 20 minutes. We bought pastries at the bakery at the corner for the wait-after all what sooths disappointment better than chocolate! As it turned out, we arrived by 10:00 which proved to be plenty early.
I had bought tickets for Pena Palace (park only), Moorish Palace, and National Palace ahead of time. I wasn’t sure if we would get to all three but figured there was a big advantage of not having to stand in ticket lines. When we arrived at Pena Palace, there were lots of people standing in line to get in along with signs sternly telling people that they were not allowed admittance after their ticket time. I had been sure we could get there by 9:30 so I was doubly glad I had not purchased tickets of the inside. The building outside is simply amazing and we enjoyed walking around and taking photos. The sun came in and out that day and when was out, it was so photographic with the bright colors of the building against the blue sky.

Afterwards, we walked back down the hill to where the bus was and on the road a bit to the entrance of the path heading towards the Moorish Castle. As the path came out by the road again, it would seem you could walk the whole way on the road as well. At the road, there was another path that led to the castle. It too was a bit of a walk, although paved this time. It was lunch time by the time we entered the castle and we decided to eat the sandwiches we had brought before tackling the castle. There were a few tables and we got one. Afterwards, we climbed to the center of the castle ruins to see the view. There were two other look out points, both considerably higher. We decided to do just one, to save our legs for the rest of the day.

We took the marked path down right outside the castle to center of the city. It had quite a few steps on it and those bothered my husband who had torn a meniscus about 5 years ago.

Afterwards, we walked to Quinta da Regaleria. Along the way, we walked through the center of town. I was surprised for some reason with how touristy the center of Sintra was. It was nothing but restaurants and tourist shops.
Quinta da Regaleria has these amazing gardens which is why we came. I was surprised by the line to get in but was able to buy tickets (don’t stand in line but go up to the ticket booth) and get in at the next time which was 3:30 pm. I enjoyed wandering around a lot even though we didn’t see all the most notable sites. There is a well that everyone was lined up to enter. We didn’t have the patience to wait and from what we could see it was a pretty claustrophobic walk down. We didn’t realize until later that the well was the entrance to under ground tunnels and paths which we could see people on. We never got to the building.

My feet felt fine when we were done so decided to walk back to the train station to go back to Lisbon. A mistake. It took longer than we thought and by the time we were there, we both were exhausted and had hurting feet. We bought a three day pass from the machine since we had trouble figuring out much else, knowing we were going to go to Balem in the morning.
We visited a nearby grocery store after we arrived in Lisbon, purchasing ingredients for some vegetable pasta and salad. We took a Bolt back with our purchases and stayed in for the rest of the night

I’m looking forward to the rest of your report.

Barbara N-thanks for the interest and here it is.

Day 14

Balem

23,400 steps

We took the 8:50 am train from Cais Do Sodre station to Balem. It is a short walk to the monastery where we were to begin. There was a line, of course, and I went across the street to try to buy tickets but no dice. Turns out the ticket sellers were on strike. Someone in line with my husband showed him how to navigate the site to buy tickets. I had tried both on my phone and computer several times and had given up. There are directions but they do not link to where you buy tickets. There is no place it says to go to buy tickets. Turns out you have to scroll down to the bottom of the page you enter on the website. All was good until I tried to get the site to take my credit card. It kept spinning. We have T mobile and a week into our trip were told that we had used all our 5 G data and would be downgraded to 3 G. That thankfully turned out to be find for navigating but not for online purchases. So when we would have gone in, we ditched the line and went to see other sites, intending to come back to see at least the church (which is free) but did not open for an hour.

It was a beautiful day and we did the usual tourist loop. We walked to see Balem tower which once protected the harbor. It was closed because of the strike but we had not planned to go inside anyway. It is very striking and was especially so against the bright blue skies. We walked on to see the Monument of the Discoveries which is an incredibly compelling monument shaped like a ship with Henry the Navigator at the helm and others behind him. There is a marble map in the sidewalk that shows the routes the Portuguese took to explore. The map provides you a good sense of the extent of Portuguese exploration. I was not aware of how far they had gone.

We then made a visit to the National Coach Museum which surprisingly was open. The coaches are amazing to see but I must admit after about a half dozen, it became repetitive and I sat down and let my husband explore more. When we went back to the church, it was after twelve and the church was closed until 2. We decided to go back to Lisbon rather than wait 1.5 hours. On the way, we investigated Casa Pasteis de Balem which is the birthplace of pastel de nata. The line was huge so we decided to skip. But as we sat and waited for the tram to take us back to Lisbon (my husband’s knee was bothering him from our visit to Sintra and preferred the tram to avoid the steps to train), one of the lines (there are three) suddenly only had a few people in it. I quickly ran across the street and in a few minutes had procured six pasteries in a box still warm. The plan then became to go to the Time Out market which is near the train and tram station and buy some lunch to go with them.

Our son and his now wife had visited Portugal in 2019. They sent us fun pictures from this market and we wanted to do the same. But it was wall to wall people with no seats to be found. We ended up just buying a few things from the food market and heading back to our apartment. Rick Steves says the pastel de nata from Casa Pasteis de Balem are not really better than others—it is just that they are warm. We didn’t eat ours until they were room temperature. Having eaten many more pastel de nata all over Portugal, we can tell you he is wrong. They simply are the best around.

We hung around the apartment for a few hours and then went walking towards downtown. Our destination that evening was a dinner with chef Mateus which I had booked through eatwith.com. The price right now is 46 Euros a person (I think I booked for 35 so might have been a sale) which is all inclusive.

There were eight of us which included a mother and son from Germany and a couple and two teenage children from the Chicago area. They were all fun to talk to and the food was simply fabulous. It included a cocktail drink, wine, appetizers, bread, soup, a fish and meat dish and dessert. Here the salt cod was excellent! His twin brother acted as host and Mateus came out and explained each dish. It was a fun and appetizing way to spend the evening.

We took the metro from Baixa-Chiado. We swiped a credit card to enter through the gates. The subway went maybe six flights underground which taxed my husband’s knee. We figured out when came out that was because of the hills. It was not down nearly as far when we went out.

Day 15

Lisbon

14,800 steps

This is our last day in Portugal. It was raining this morning and we took a Bolt to the National Tile Museum which is not located very conveniently to any public transportation. We arrived at 10:15 and only a few people were in line. This is a wonderful museum for anyone who loves tile and I do. It also is an unique way to appreciate the history of Portugal as the tile is presented in chronological order and the style of the tile changes over time. Upstairs there is a room that has a panorama of Lisbon before the earthquake. It covers much of the walls of the room and is quite compelling.

We spent about 2 hours here and thought we would then make our way by foot to where the 28E tram was. But it turned out to be a long walk and we weren’t sure we could get on anyway so we ditched the idea when my husband saw a bus going to Cais Do Sodre. We then took the street car from there back to Balem. We were feeling almost like locals with our command our public transportation!

I had bought tickets for the Jeronimos Monastery for 4 pm thinking the line might be shorter then. In the meantime, we had lunch on a side street at an inexpensive gyro place (10 Euros for both of us including a Coke and fries for my husband) and went into the church. There was no line after the crowd that accumulated during the lunch time closure was through. The architecture was interesting to contrast with the other churches we had seen with its huge rope style knots characteristic of the Manueline period. It is a style unique to Portugal and the age of the discovery which is why we looped back to see it.

I had read the timed tickets meant nothing at the monastery so decided to see if it meant we could get in early as opposed to having to wait until our appointed time. We did. We entered at 3:15 pm rather than 4. We waited maybe 10 minutes. When we exited at about 4 pm, the line was much longer. Again, the Manueline style was an interesting contrast to the other cloisters we had seen but I must admit you probably have to be aware of the different styles of cloisters to adequately appreciate the Jeronimos Monastery.

We bought another 6 pack of pastel de nata at Casa Pasteis de Balem. We intended to try to be seated in the café as we were told at the dinner the evening before it was a worthwhile experience. But the line was long and we opted to do pick up.

We went back to our apartment via a very crowded tram and packed (and ate pastel de nata) for our return to the USA the next morning. Our last activity in Lisbon was to attend fado at Duque da Rua.

We walked there from our apartment which meant one last huge hill to wear off those pastil de nata. And in case you are wondering, we did not gain any weight while in Portugal even with all the pastel de nata we ate. Climbing all the hills wore it off!

We arrived at about 7:45 pm and there was a table with my husband’s name on it. The proprietor came over and greeted us even. Like the place in Coimbra there was one waitress for maybe 9 tables. Noone was in a hurry and like in Coimbra a few tables received a menu (but only one) at a time. There was an English translation this time though. The fado started at about 8 pm and we stayed for two sets, leaving about 9:30 pm. There was a line of people waiting to replace anyone who left (and one couple left after the first set). There was no admission charge and the food and drinks were reasonably priced. We spent about 50 Euros but that was because it was our last night and my husband was feeling indulgent. We ordered a bottle of wine for 29 Euros which we did not finish and two different tapa platters which we also did not finish. We could have happily partaked for about 30 Euros for 2. There were two instrumentalists and then a variety of both female and male singers. One of them was the bar tender! It was fun and more intimate than the fado in Coimbra which was in a hall. It also was less expensive and earlier than other places in Lisbon that I read about. I would recommend, but be sure to have a reservation.

We walked back this time knowing it was down hill and that we needed a bit of exercise if we were going to sleep that night.

Day 16

Return to Miami

The time changed the day of our flight which meant that we had an extra hour, although I must admit I stewed over making the correct adjustment until my husband’s cellphone gained an hour at 1 am.
We took a Bolt back to the airport at 7:30 am for our 10:40 flight. We were dropped off in the parking garage where we had been picked up days earlier. We were there 2.5 hours before our flight. Even with stopping to shop for the ruby port we had liked in the Duoro Valley and ginjinha and chocolate cups from Lisbon we had time to kill at the gate. The ginjinha and chocolate have already been shared with my sister who stayed with my mom while we were gone and they were a big hit. I am saving the port for thanksgiving.

Our flight was uneventful and even arrived a few minutes earlier. Only interesting thing was that our plane was towed to our gate. Not sure how or why.

Overall reflections:
Language: Almost everyone spoke English well but we learned a few phrases like thank you and hello which I could tell were appreciated.

Money: We took about 300 Euros and ended up needing more. Some restaurants were cash only, the cost of our Lisbon tour sans our credit card deposit required cash, and then there were small purchases. We also paid for our taxi when we arrived in Porto with cash.

What we would have done differently: My husband and I agreed that we seemed to make more mistakes with this trip than any other we have taken. We have flown internationally maybe a dozen times and this is our fourth trip since covid. So we tried to discern why and decided it was mostly due to 1) underestimating how densely populated Portugal is and 2) underestimating the hills. Most of the time there were a lot of cars on the road, even though we didn’t drive in either Lisbon or Porto. My husband was making noises about wanting to go on a guided bus tour multiple times. We really didn’t get lost that much but all the round abouts, constant off and on ramps made you feel like you were constant danger of doing so. He also nixed the idea of a manual again, although he only stalled it twice and both times shortly after renting the car.

The hills. Well, we knew Portugal was hilly but not how hilly hilly was. Our daughter lives in the north side of Atlanta and her neighborhood is hilly. I was thinking that kind of hilly but no. We both had done stair master but clearly not enough. We got in better shape as the trip went on. We did both take hiking shoes which were great on the cobblestones and hills. Mine were blue and didn’t look much worse than some sneakers do.

We also made some mistakes with accommodations. I would not recommend one night in Douro Valley, at least in October. One son of ours did a day trip in May (longer days) and the other did a bus tour in May also. My husband nixed the bus tour idea but then admitted we would have seen a lot more had we done that. We talked to a number of other tourists also staying in the Duoro valley and all stayed multiple nights. We also did not consider the terrain when we made our reservation at a bed and breakfast. We live in flat Florida and am not used to thinking that way.

Lisbon though was our biggest mistake. We chose our location over a similarly priced air bnb in Avenida Liberdade. That apartment had been redone and was quite modern which did not seem as charming as the one we chose. We had this idea of being in the more historical looking area but it turned out to be inconvenient. It was 15 minutes to any public transportation and 25 minutes to the center by foot up some incredible hills while the alternative we did not chose was close to the Rossio Train station. Ours also had four very narrow flights of stairs to the apartment and more stairs inside the apartment, which were not always lit adequately. My husband was touting the advantages of an elevator by the time we left.

All in all, we enjoyed Portugal despite our miscalculations. Our favorite things were probably the Eatwith dinner in Lisbon, the fado in Lisbon, and the winery outside of Silves.

Thank you for this helpful report. We are traveling to Portugal in April and I appreciate your details and especially your candor about mistakes. Because of your comments, we might be able to avoid these particular mistakes and make a bunch of our own different ones! Thanks again.

Excellent trip report! All the details will be so helpful to others planning their trips to Portugal. Brought back many memories of our RSteves Portugal tour in 2014. I vividly remember all those pastries, ruby port, goat and ginginha. I remember staying in Coimbra at the Hotel Astoria where we were issued large bottled waters and told not to drink the water from their lead pipes. Supposedly Rick’s tours don’t stay there anymore. And yes, it seems all of Portugal is on a hill!

Nancy-if you avoid our mistakes, you will be doing well! We always make mistakes, as does almost everyone, but this time really did it. And mostly avoidable! Best of luck on your trip!

Luv2travel-I did not mind Hotel Astoria but my husband was less than impressed. So I can see not the best for groups any more. Personally, I kept thinking about how grand it once was and that I could never afford to stay if it was renovated!

Beth I read every word with great interest, as I’m preparing for March trip!

As I have a knee that screams on the downhill, you’ve scared me a little. But I’m kicking my hill walking up a notch!

I’ve read a lot of folks reports that the food can be very hit or miss. I’m coming in to Lisbon 2 days before meeting a tour group, so I plan to take a food tour the first afternoon, and hopefully get good recs from the guide. Got my list of must try items!

Thanks for taking the time to report back.

kkmittz-

Be careful in Sintra with the hills if you have a wonky knee. That is what really did my husband in. It was the going down from the Moorish Castle into town. Perhaps you can grab a bus or an uber instead of walking down like we did.

And yes, the food did seem to be a bit hit and miss.

BethFL, this is a terrific trip report! Your detail and honesty are very helpful. I can certainly relate to just about every hiccup. I appreciate the reasonable tone of your report in both good times and bad. I gather that we’ll spend more time standing in lines in the autumn than I realized, and that there will also be more traffic. Not to mention the hills, the hills, the hills. BTW, the number of steps you accomplished each day was an achievement!
We visited Slovenia last autumn, a very organized place with easy driving and very little wait time anywhere. Thanks for the reality check regarding Portugal.