Scott & I just spent a fabulous week in Portugal. We booked this trip last year hoping that Covid would be over by now, but even though Covid and the restrictions linger on, we still went and had a great time. We went with a company called Road Scholar which planned everything for us. Sherry had gone on quite a few trips with them and really liked them, so this time we decided to join her. We all flew over on Saturday, April 23rd and came back on Monday, May 2nd. We spent 3 days in Lisbon, 2 days in Figueira da Foz and the last 3 days in Porto. There were a few side trips as well. So much to see and do in Portugal--I am so ready to retire and move there right now!
We arrived in Lisbon on the afternoon of the 24th. We checked into the Hotel Mundial with the help of our guide Leonor. After a quick shower we met with the group to introduce ourselves then had dinner at the hotel restaurant. We crashed after this then met again with the group first thing Monday morning. We had a guest lecturer to learn a bit about the history of Portugal before heading out to the Palace of Queluz, which was built in the 18th century as a retreat for the royal couple Pedro III and Maria I.
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| This was taken from the bus on the way to the palace. Lots of cobblestone streets in Lisbon! |
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| Ballroom at the palace. |
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| Portugal is known for their extensive tile work in and on buildings. |
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| The gardens. |
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| Sherry standing in front of a Plane tree, which I thought was really cool looking. |
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| Exterior view of the palace. |
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| After the palace we boarded the bus which took us to nearby Cascais where we had lunch & enjoyed views of the Atlantic. |
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| After we returned to Lisbon, we went on a guided walk near our hotel. |
After our guided tour we went to dinner at a traditional Fado House, where we listened to some fantastic singers perform Fado, which is sung accompanied by a Portuguese guitar with 12 strings and a classic guitar. We all really enjoyed it.
On Tuesday morning we had breakfast at the hotel. While there, our guide informed us that someone in our group had tested positive for Covid, so we all had to take an at-home test. One other person ended up testing positive, but luckily the rest of us were negative. It was quite stressful, and from then on we had to wear our masks at all times, which was not great. Once that was sorted out, we boarded the bus to visit the Tile Museum, Jeronimos Church and the Monument of the Discoveries.
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Scott's and my negative tests!
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| At the tile museum. |
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| The monument of the Discoveries. |
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| Afterwards we got back to the hotel for some free time. We had lunch then walked around on our own. I took this photo because you can see the Moorish Castle on top of the hill. |
We had a group dinner at another local restaurant that night before heading back to the hotel to pack. On Wednesday morning we headed north to Figueira da Foz. We stopped along the way in the historic walled city of Obidos (which was my favorite part of the trip) and also the Alcobaca Monastery. We stayed at the Mercure Figueira da Foz Hotel which was right on the beach and had amazing views from the balcony. We had some free time which we spent walking out to a lighthouse before another group dinner at the hotel.
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| An old aqueduct which served Obidos. |
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| This is Ginjinha, the traditional Portuguese liqueur made from sour cherries that is served in small edible chocolate cups. Scott said it was yummy! |
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| At the monastery. |
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| The beach as we were walking to the lighthouse. |
On Thursday morning we headed to nearby Coimbra where we walked around the University of Coimbra. We visited its amazing library. It was neat to see all the students in their traditional University uniforms which included a black cape. It felt very Harry Potterish. We had a surprise stop to listen to some Coimbra Fado, which is different from the Lisbon Fado, but still very good. We had lunch in a cute outside cafe--the weather was awesome that day-and then did a little shopping before heading back to Figueira da Foz to visit the salt pans where we learned how they processed salt from the salt water. It was really interesting! That evening we took a guided walk through town led by a local resident then dinner with a couple other locals to learn a bit about the area & their lives there.
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| Clock tower at the University. They are doing some renovations. |
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| View of the city from there. |
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| Street where we had lunch & did some shopping. |
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| The salt pans. |
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| Warehouse for the salt. |
On Friday morning we visited a local school & got to interact with some of the kids--so interesting to see how different it is from American schools. After that we traveled to Porto with a stop at Montemor o Vehlo Castle for a guided tour as well as a visit to Quinta De Villar d'Allen, where we met the family on their estate that produces Port wine. We toured their gardens and then had some of their port wine, which Scott really liked, but I did not. Way too strong for me! Dinner was on our own once we reached the Hotel Dom Henrique in Porto. We ended up just going to the bar on the 17th floor which had pretty tasty food & great views of the city. We headed into town after that for some yummy gelato, which I pretty much ate every day of our trip.
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| The castle. |
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| So many beautiful plants at Quinta De Villar d'Allen. |
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| View of Porto from the 17th floor of the hotel. |
