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Our drive led us away from the Douro River but still through mountainous terrain. While we were planning this trip, we were monitoring severe forest fires in northern Portugal. Fortunately rains had arrived to extinguish them, but we were moved as we saw the effects. In our Pacific Northwest home, we suffer fires and see their scars as well, but there are typically many large, old trees that survive. Here, we were seeing entire mountain-tops completely denuded. It was quite devastating.
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| Forest fire damage along the drive from Douro Valley toward Coimbra. |
In our Porto notes, we mentioned swapping info with a winemaker we met at Bar Tolo. He had told us he might be at the winery on this day and if so, we could join him for lunch. We navigated to Vinha Paz in Viseu, and possibly took a wrong turn and found ourselves basically in the vineyard. We gave him a call and unfortunately he had a conflict and wasn't at the winery that day anyway.
Travel Tip: There are lots of toll highways throughout Portugal so if you are renting a car, make sure to get one with the Via Verde transponder. We had mixed information about whether this would also work in Spain, but we didn't see any tolling there in any case.
I had already picked out a place for lunch in the nearby town of Anadia, so we tried to use that as our backup plan. Churrasqueira Manique was supposed to be some sort of BBQ place and I wanted to see what it was like. It was noon-ish, and while the shop was not closed for mid-day break, it seemed more like a carry-out or catering business and we were not able to get a table or order anything. Looks great in the pictures though!
So we got back on the road toward Lisbon, and found a place for lunch off the N-1 road (probably) between Anadia and Coimbra. I didn't note the name and was not able to identify it again or find it using photo search - far too many have white tablecloths and blue and white tile. Their specialty was a roast pork called leitão, which we didn't order because it seemed like a lot for lunch. But when they set it down in front of man at the next table, OMG I wish we had gotten one to share.
Travel Tip: Enable locations on your digital photos. I generally keep location disabled in my phone's camera app as a general privacy setting, but I thought to turn it on part way through this trip. If I had had it enabled, I would have been able to figure out what that restaurant was, and it also would have been handy trying to reconstruct my memories from the photos. Similarly, if you are using multiple devices for photos, synchronize the time on them so they will sort in order in storage. You might need to set some manually as you change timezones.
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| Night view of Lisbon from the Santa Justa elevator viewing platform. |
Upon arival in Lisbon, we checked into our hotel, the Holiday Inn Lisbon. You might think it's odd to choose an American chain hotel on a European vacation, but after location, we were trying to favor loyalty memberships (in this case, IHG) and price, and we needed a place with parking. This hotel was not near many of our sites of interest, but it was close enough to metro stops. It also turned out to be one of the nicest places we stayed on the whole trip for overall comfort.
In the evening, we hopped the metro for our dinner reservation at Oficio. This small, modern restaurant was crowded and noisy but with an energetic vibe and excellent service. We trusted the advice of the server to bring us 5 or 6 dishes to share. Reviewing the menu now, I think we had the cold garlic prawns and the tempura leeks. I know for sure we had the quail vinegar rice. It was a bit more tart than I expected but it was still a good choice with a modern twist on traditional regional fare.
The nice weather was holding out so we took a bit of a night walking tour. We went up the Elevador Santa Justa, a century-old ironwork elevator reminiscent of the Eiffel Tower, with a viewing platform at the top. The elevator is actually part of the public transportration system, connecting the street to the Barrio Alto neighborhood 7 stories above. I just learned while writing this that if you are only interested in the view, you can climb the hill yourself and walk out on the platform for free.
We continued wandering around, through busy streets and markets, down a long alley-like stair flanked by shops and restaurants, and some cool architecture. When our feet tired, we made our way back to the metro and then "home" to bed.
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| Lisbon's popular Tram 28 ready to pick up a load of tourists. |
We had a great day planned: a walking tour utilizing the famous Tram 28, part of the public transportation network that happens to track along many popular tourist sites. It was a beautiful day as we hoofed it from the hotel to the metro for the ride down to the tram route starting point. But when we arrived, there were so many people and tour groups waiting in line that, even though a new tram was boarding every 10 minutes or so, we would have waited well over an hour. Here was an opportunity to be Danish for the day. We grabbed a cab to the Castelo de São Jorge.
Castelo de São Jorge occupies the highest hill in the city. Its earliest walls date to the second century, and it is known to have been used successively by multiple civilizations until it became the royal palace of the kingdom of Portugal. You are able to walk the grounds and the tops of the walls for some great views of the city. There are ongoing archeological digs as well.
Travel Tip: Make sure you are in the right line. You always have to figure out, is this the line to buy tickets or for people who already have tickets. But we found a couple twists. One is that you might be able to buy your tickets online even while you are in line, and move directly to the entry. At this palace, we also found (thanks to the family in front of us who sent an advance scout) that the room next to the ticket counter had ticket purchase kiosks with no line at all.
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| Atop the walls of Castelo de São Jorge. | View of Lisbon. |
From the castle, we worked our way down toward the waterfront, past various sites such as the Arco do Castelo, the Igreja de Santo Antonio de Lisboa which boasts to contain the bones of Lisbon's patron saint, the Sé de Lisboa, and fountains and public art. We had descended the hill and flights of stairs and were standing at an overlook trying to determine our next direction.
We decided we needed to be right where we were looking down, and as we turned to go, we saw that there was an elevator from the street to the lower street levels. Fantastic! Lisbon has several of these, like the Santa Justa but more modern, that are part of the public transit system. We expected to have to swipe our transit cards for it, but it was free passage.
Observation: While we did see lots of graffiti everywhere, probably more than at home in the US, we also saw that otherwise people seemed to respect and take care of their amenities. This unattended elevator was in working order and did not smell of pee, unlike what I feel we might have found in US cities. People also seem to do a better job keeping streets and metros clean, and graffiti artists (or vandals, however you see them) don't seem to tag official or historical buildings. Less tragedy of the commons going on where we visited in Portugal and Spain both.
We emerged close to the Tagus River waterfront and continued to the Praça de Comércio. There is a history museum there, the Lisboa Story Center, that we did not enter but I have since read good reviews of it. I was tempted to go into the Museu da Cerveja which looked to be more restaurant and brewpub than museum, but it looked too crowded.
We were definitely getting tired and hungry by this point but decided to adhere to the guidance to avoid tourist plazas for dining. We walked farther down the waterfront looking for something that might be a little more authentic and less expensive. A few blocks away we found a pedestrian avenue and an outdoor table at My Story Hotel's restaurant. We might not have succeeded at finding something less touristy and expensive, but we were very ready to eat and it was fine.
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The courtyard tiles at Praça do Comércio, and many others locations in Lisbon, have evident - and beautiful - fossilized shells. |
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| Praça do Municipio. | |||
| Cute sculpture at the Praça do Municipio. |
We wanted to get to the Torre de Belém so we decided to walk back over to the Praça Do Municipio where we had seen the tram tracks there. The tram was coming right by so we jumped on and then figured out how to pay - luckily, the same metro cards we already had - and where to get off.
Belém Tower was built in the early 1500s as a fortification guarding the Tagus River entry into Lisbon. It was built on a small island. It is very close to the shore and you can probably walk to it at low tide but there is a walkway. We did not go out to it but we did walk around the waterfront and park that it is in. There were people having picnics and playing and just enjoying the beautiful weather.
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| Torre de Belém. |
Monument
to seaplane Lusitânia and the first crossing of the South Atlantic to Brazil. |
Monument to the Discoveries. |
Courtyard mosaic at Jardim da Praça do Império. |
We walked back along Avenida Brasília for as long as we felt like it, passing the Jardím da Praça do Imperio, Jardím Vasco da Gama, and Jardím Alfonso de Albuquerque. There are many museums in the area and I think you could spend a couple days here just going through those. Some I would especially like to see next time are the Museu de Arte, Arquitetura e Tecnologia and Quake - Museu do Terramoto de Lisboa.
Observation: In the US we don't really think of southwest Europe as an earthquake zone, but many of the locations we visited had histories including being rebuilt after multiple tremors. It's more active than you might expect.
Despite not following our Tram 28 plan, we still managed to see most of the sights and enjoyed our urban hiking. We were exhausted so we grabbed an Uber back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.
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| Menina e Moça bookstore bar on Pink Street. | |
| Pink Street evening scene. |
After a cleanup and brief rest, we headed back to the metro to get to our dinner reservation at Restaurante Sala de Corte. We were a bit early so we wandered around and found ourselves on Pink Street, a pedestrian street literally painted pink and roofed by colorful hanging umbrellas.
There was a band playing at one of the pubs so we squeezed in to tiny table and seats - think kindergarten class furniture. The pub also seemed to house a bookstore, maybe a little subversive. I'm not sure if the titles were for sale or reading while there, but it seems like a place I might spend time if I lived there. (After the fact, thanks to Google search and maps, I figured out that this was Menina e Moça.)
Now on to Sala de Corte. Reviewing the photos on their website brings it back to me, and I would definitely go back here. It's a steakhouse, specializing in aged meats of various cuts. The service and atmospehere were on point, the wine was tasty. But what sent me over the top was the dessert.
I am not really a dessert person and I mentioned in my Douro Valley notes of being convinced to try a chocolate dessert and liking it. But nothing, for me, compares to the cheese tart the server talked me into. I don't know if you like cheesecake or not. I do, but to help you understand my taste, I will say that most cheesecake - and especially from Cheesecake Factory - is garbage. This cheese tart - it was everything a cheesecake should be. Creamy but somehow also light. Sweet but with the tartness of naturally cultured dairy. It was a-mazing. See, I am still talking about it! Go there, and save room for dessert (it will be hard but I am sure you can manage).
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| Each metro stop we saw in Lisbon had its own cut stone art repeated along the walls, all done in the same style. | |||
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Panoramic view of Sintra |
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| Vila Municipio apartment hotel | ||
| Street art and historical building | ||
On this day, we put our rental car to use and set out to some nearby towns and the coast. First stop was Sintra, a hilly, 19th century palace town. We didn't have a complete itinerary and there was a lot of traffic so we just parked where we could find a spot and started walking around. We followed the flow of foot and taxi traffic to the old town center and up to the royal palace, then continued climbing the narrow winding streets up to the top of the town. A steep peak outside the town shows the outline of the medieval monastery which was rebuilt into a European Romantic castle. It was interesting but very crowded and touristy, even in October. If we were to go back, I would probably plan ahead to do at least the garden tour, as I read about secret passageways and the Knights Templar, as well as pools, fountains, and architectural elements.
From Sintra we navigated to the Park and Palace of Monserrate. The drive went through several small towns along narrow roads beautifully lined by what I believe to be London plane trees, a sycamore hybrid that was popularized from the 17th century. Our first set of map directions took us up a one-lane (but two-way) road to what turned out to be a service entrance, so we had to head back and try again. On the second attempt, we made it to the entrance and luckily encountered someone leaving and snagged their parking space.
The descriptions of Monserrate discuss it as a writers' and artists' retreat, with intricate columns and domes and interior and exterior nooks for quiet and contemplation. I did not realize how expansive a botanical garden it offers. Its roughly 125 acres flows up and down steep terrain, where microclimates support native and exotic gardens, surrounded by oak forests. Garden areas feature native flora as well as collections from Mexico, Australia, Japan, and more. The stone paths climb and dip by waterfalls, pools, bridges, arches, and an "ancient ruin" chapel reminiscent of those in south Asian rain forests.
The main house has some of the most amazing carved marble and stone in bright whites and rich colors. Every line of sight is a visual treat, from the floor to the colonades to the ceilings and insides of domes. Downstairs you can see the tiny kitchen holding an enormous stove and peek into the second kitchen where cold foods were prepared. Upstairs rooms contain exhibits including video loop detailing the property history. We had some (not impressive) refreshment at the Tea House and then hiked back to the parking area to continue our travels.
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Top:
Forest of ferns Palace of Monserrat exterior Succulent close-up Bottom: Inside of dome in the Palace Romantic (constructed) ruins Cactus garden Agave (probably) with tree-height flower stalks |
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These photos are just a few examples and don't really do it justice. We saw many more interesting plants, flowers, butterflies, lizards, waterfalls, pools, and frogs. We had already been hiking around for a good while before arriving at the palace and I was getting a bit "hangry" to fully appreciate all the craftsmanship. There are more direct routes to it, if you consult the map, and there is also a sunny lawn if you care to bring a picnic.
| Cabo da Roca lighthouse and monument marking the westernmost point of continental Europe. |
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We made the short drive to the coast at Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of continental Europe. The lighthouse was built in 1772 atop 450-foot cliffs. Trails lead away from the lighthouse to the cross-topped stone monument and excellent vantage points for post-card quality photos. As we arrived, there were cars parked all along the road, but there was parking available up at the lighthouse, if you need a more accessible option.
Returning to our car, we navigated a scenic route along the coast, turning back east to Cascais and our dinner reservation at Mana. With indoor and outdoor seating, it has a fun, modern atmosphere. We ordered flatbreads that were the envy of a fellow (Canadian, I think) at the adjacent table, while we were drooling over some of their selections. Clearly the menu warrants a return.
After our terrific day outdoors, we drove back to the hotel and tumbled into bed. In the morning we would check out and head into the Alentejo wine region.
Haha, not everything in Europe is old, we just don't take as many pictures of the modern stuff like the Vasco da Gama Bridge we crossed as we left Lisbon.