Adventures in Portugal

Flying internationally sure isn't the same these days. We booked our flight on American Airlines and they wouldn't even give us a boarding pass for the second leg of the flight! I had to download the app of that airline to get it. A good thing I did. AA said "just go to the counter when you get to the airport in Madrid". HA! We had a hard enough time figuring out where to go to get our next flight without having to figure out where to get a boarding pass too.

 

Our first view of Lisbon as we flew into the airport.

When we got to Lisbon, John's bag was right there on the carousel but mine wasn't. Luckily, we had airtags in our suitcases. When I checked my airtag, it was still in Madrid. Seriously. At least we didn't waste time waiting for all the bags to be unloaded and I did get my bag later that night so all's well that ends well but a bit of a rough start.

LISBON:

If I had to describe Portugal in one word, it would be "hilly". Everything seemed to be at the top or the bottom of a hill. And we're not talking a small hill. We're talking lean forward and get your heart rate up kind of hill.

We walked up this hill in Lisbon every night to get to our hotel! Note the cobblestones on both the side walk and the street. That's not helpful on your knees going up or down. All the streets were like this. Having said that, it was well worth it.

We took the city tour and one of the places to get off the bus was the Tower of Belem. It was built in 1519 at the mouth of the Tagus River to protect the city of Lisbon. The line to get into the Tower was 2 hours so we took photos and moved on.

These are funiculars. They are trams that will take you up those super steep hills. It's like the city is built in layers or floors. To get to the stuff at the higher layers, you have to climb up there. Too bad all the hills didn't have one of these.

This is the Monastery of the Jeronimos, which is a religious order whose role was to pray for the eternal soul of the King. The building was started in 1501 and took 100 years to build. It was occupied by the Order of St. Jerome until 1833 when the order was dissolved. The building survived the earthquake of 1755 that destroyed most of the city.

This is the Medeiros e Almeida Museum, the home of Antonio de Medeiros e Almeida. The guy made money by investing in automobiles in the early 20th century. Then he invested in and ran Air Portugal, which he eventually merged into TAP (the airline that left my stuff in Madrid!). Antonio was quite the collector of art and things. Part of the museum is his house which contains all his original furniture, etc and the other part is all of his collections, of which there are many. It's pretty cool.

Se de Lisboa or Lisbon Cathedral. It was built in 1147 and is the oldest church in the city. This city has churches next to other churches and the majority of them are Catholic. I'm not sure how they are all supported but this one is pretty amazing. It took a hit during the 1755 earthquake but was rebuilt. You can go up to the balcony right by that rose window. There's a museum in there as well.

Not even a block away is Igreja de Sao Antonio (Church of St. Anthony). St. Anthony of Padua was born here in Lisbon and the church was built in 1767 on the site where he was born.

This is the Christ the King statue that is across the Tagus River from Lisbon. It's to celebrate Portugal being spared from World War II. They had a treaty with England and, in theory, should have declared War on Germany when England did. However, Franco, who was in power in Spain, was on Hitler's side and would have wiped Portugal out had the Portuguese gotten into the war. Instead, they supported England with supplies.

This is the April 25th bridge as seen from the top of Castelo Sao Jorge. It looks just like the Golden Gate Bridge because it was done by the same guy. It's called the April 25th bridge because that was the day of the Carnation Revolution. That's the day that Portugal became a democracy. It was a military coup when military officers overthrew the authoritarian Estado Nuevo government. April 25th is a Portuguese holiday called Freedom Day.

This is the Praca do Comercio. The photo is taken from the boat tour that we did. It's right on the banks of the Tagus River and used to be where the Royal Residence was located. In 1755, Lisbon experienced a devastating earthquake that caused a tsunami and then, as if that wasn't bad enough, fires broke out. King Jose I relocated and this square was rebuilt as a place of commerce. It's quite beautiful.

The National Museum of Contemporary Art was small but cool. It's all Portuguese artists. It was in a very cool neighborhood. It has all kinds of art: paintings, photos, sculptures and other types of media.

I put myself into the art! This is called "Couple in Waiting" by Sara and Andre.

Remember the funicular that I described earlier? This is where it takes you! It's one of the most amazing views of the city. By the end of our time in Lisbon, we had decided that Lisbon is Portuguese for "at the top of the hill".

Along the way, we passed yet another church: Igreja de Sao Paulo. It was built in the 15th century but destroyed during the 1755 earthquake. It was rebuilt in 1767.

We went to this church on purpose. It's the Basilica Estrela. It was built in 1779 at the behest of Queen Maria of Portugal as a thanks to God for bearing an heir to the throne of Portugal for the House of Braganza. It, too, is at the top of some of the steepest hills in the city. I thought Joao (that's John in Portuguese) was going to divorce me as we huffed and puffed up the hills. Then he went inside and I was forgiven.

This photo doesn't do it justice but it was beautiful.

Our hotel, also at the top of a hill, was fantastic. We stayed at the Vintage Lisbon. The room was cool and it had windows that actually opened. Our room is in the upper right hand side.

John enjoying a view of the city.

It had a rooftop bar that was nice. Here's a view of the city at night. That bright orange light way out is the Castelo Sao Jorge.

The Castelo Sao Jorge was a fortress. It dates back to the first century and was used by the Celts, the Phoenicians, The Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, the Visigoths and the Moors. Then in 1147, Afonso Henriques laid siege to the city and took it back for the Portuguese. It's been used as a fortress, a castle  and a military barracks. All we saw were the fortress walls, towers, etc. We didn't see anything that would make me think this was a castle.

Now this was the most surprising find in Lisbon. Igreja de Sao Vicente de Fora. It's a 17th century church and monastery that is outside the walls (de Fora) of the city. It's 8 Euro a person to go in and it is so worth it. There weren't many people and you can tour the entire structure.

We went to the absolute top of the tower. But there were several rooms and floors to explore. We spent more time here than we did at the Castle and we could have stayed longer if we'd wanted to look at everything.

The views from here were the best in the city, in my opinion.

This church also has the Royal Pantheon where many of the Kings, Queens and their children are interred. This is the tomb of King Carlos I. This is the crying woman representing the grief of the country. Carlos I and his son were assassinated in 1908.

This is the actual church. Once again, it's beautiful and the photo doesn't do it justice.

They also had all these tile scenes. Each one had a story. Like this one is called the "Chicken that Laid Golden Eggs". The story goes like this: "There was a chicken that laid a golden egg everyday. One day, it's owner went there, killed the chicken and cut it open, thinking that its entrails must hold a great treasure as the chicken laid those eggs. However, he found nothing special. As he had now lost the chicken, he paid the price for his own greed."

These were awesome! The whole display was called the Fables. 

We were in Lisbon for five days and could easily have stayed longer. We'll for sure have to go back.

SINTRA/CASCAIS:

One our Lisbon days was spent on a day trip to Sintra. It was a cool tour that only had eight people on it. It was about a thirty or forty minute drive from Lisbon but our guide to us straight to the Pena Palace. 

I'm sure you'll be surprised to hear that it sits at the top of a mountain. While the van took us up the mountain, we still had to climb to the castle.  It started out as a Chapel to our Lady of Pena built where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared. In 1493, King Joao II made a pilgrimage here. 

King Manuel I, built a monastery for the Order of St. Jerome and at one time, 18 monks lived here peacefully. In 1755, the earthquake destroyed most everything except the Chapel. This was one of the few buildings left after the earthquake. It's a small chapel (but not THE chapel). It survived because it's built into the mountain.

After the earthquake, it sat abandoned. Then in 1838, King Ferdinand I bought it. From 1842 to 1854, he built this palace. Ferdinand was the King consort to Queen Maria II of Portugal. They were co-rulers. He was a German prince but loved Portugal and eventually became a much loved King. Though their marriage was arranged, they fell in love and had eleven children. Sadly, Maria II and her eleventh child died in childbirth. 

The weather was not cooperating with us that day. Every other day we've been here, it's been beautiful and sunny but you can see how foggy it is as we hoof it up that hill.

This was Ferdinand and Maria's summer palace. The "Old" part of the palace was the remains of the monastery.

Here is the cloister which is essentially a courtyard. One thing I forgot to mention about Lisbon but you can see here as well is the tile. A lot of the buildings including the cloister of this one were covered with decorative tile. It's beautiful. In this case, the earthquake destroyed a lot of this and Ferdinand couldn't match it so he just added new stuff.

Normally from here you can see the ocean. It's so foggy you can't even see anything below.

Entering the chapel.

This is "THE" chapel. I can't believe it survived the earthquake but it did. As a reminder, that earthquake was in 1755 and this chapel dates back to the 1500's!

The stained glass window. The bottom left pane has a picture of the chapel in it and when you zoom in, you can see this stained glass window as part of the chapel. Ferdinand had the stained glass put in during the 1800's as part of the reconstruction of the palace.

The backside of the palace. We got to see all the rooms and furniture and stuff. When Queen Maria II died, King Ferdinand eventually married an opera singer. When he died, she inherited the palace and she sold it. The Portuguese state eventually bought it back. Remember King Carlos I? He wasn't as beloved as his grandfather, King Ferdinand. He and his eldest son were assassinated in 1908. His wife and younger son escaped here. They were the last monarchs of Portugal to live here. They eventually fled to another country.

We spent some time in Sintra just walking around the small town. Like Lisbon, everything is uphill. The locals don't like the tourists so much because of the traffic jams caused by tour busses.

We took a side-trip to Capo de Roca which is the westernmost point of Europe. It was a cool area but just as we got there, it started to rain.

Our last stop on the tour was Cascais which is right on the beach. This is part of the retail area. Just as we got out to walk around, the rains came again. We ducked into a little bar and waited it out.

While it was a rainy day, it was still fun. Sintra was definitely worth the time and if we come back to Portugal, we'll definitely come here again.

PORTO:

The next stop on our adventure in Portugal was Porto. This is the train station in Lisbon. We took the train to Porto. It was so inexpensive. Forty dollars for both of us. It took a little over three hours but we got to see some of the Portuguese countryside.

Porto is a bit smaller than Lisbon and it's right on the Douro River, on which there are six bridges.

Ponte Luis I built in 1881 by a former partner of Gustave Eiffel.

Ponte Infante Dom Henrique completed in 2003.

Ponte Dona Maria Pia built by Gustave Eiffel in 1877 as a railway bridge.

Ponte Sao Joao built in 1991 as a railway bridge to replace the Maria Pia bridge.

Ponte de Freixo built in 1995.

Ponte de Arrabida built in 1958. You can climb to the top of this bridge if you are so inclined. It's 262 steps. I'm good.

Some of the old walls of the city that date back to the 14th century.

View of the city from the river. I will say, it’s a very colorful city. I love the views, the secret passageways and certainly the history. I wish I had the means and the time to investigate all the cool structures.

There are a ton of churches in Porto. This one is cool from the river. It's called Igreja de Massarelos and it was built in 1776. There's a tile picture on the back in homage to the Navigators.

We took a city tour and the bus took us all the way over to the Atlantic Ocean. The waves were pretty rough and it was a chilly day but there were still people out there with wetsuits trying to surf. 

This is Casa Nobre do Cais Novo. It's a palace of an 18th century noble family that made port wine. It's clearly in ruins and that makes me sad. There are a lot of buildings like that here.

The Se de Porto (Cathedral of Porto) is beautiful. Once again, we were able to climb to the very top of the tower and had some amazing views. It was built in the 12th century and changes have been made through the 20th century. You go in through a museum, up to the inner cloister and up to the tower. You then get pooped out to the church itself. All of it is amazing. The views from the tower are breathtaking.

The view from the top of the Cathedral of Porto. Amazing!

One of my favorite churches, and there are so many here, is this one. Capela del Almas de Santa Catarina was built in the 18th century and was restored in 1801. The tiles were added in 1929. Some of the buildings here have the tiles but not like in Lisbon. I like the tiles on this church. It's on Rua Santa Catarina which is where all the shops are.

Porto City Hall. This is about a block from our hotel. There’s not a lot going on here but everything seems to be within a 1/2 mile walk. It’s certainly not as hilly as Lisbon but don’t be fooled. Every day is legs day here too!

One of the things I like about European cities and Porto and Lisbon in particular are the little side streets and hidden alleys. These were stairs that we had to take to get to the river. Along the stairs were houses so you might live in a house in the middle of this stair case. While I think that would be cool, I think it would get old fast.

Another secret passage of stairs. This one goes by an old historic city wall that was built in the 14th century. There were four rings of walls that went out around the city as part of its defense. How many people before me have huffed and puffed up these same steps? (Not including João Chaney as he’s huffing and puffing with me).

This is our hotel. We're on the top floor. You can't really tell but I'm out on the balcony, the top one closest to the right. It was built in 1951 and fully renovated in 2024. 

There I am! It's a really nice room. 

Of the two cities, I think I liked Lisbon a little better but if we'd come here first, things might have been different. Lisbon seemed to have more to do and see, though to be fair, we probably didn't scratch the surface of all there was in either place.

Most everyone spoke English. Signs and menus were in English as well. We did make use of the translate app though. We lucked out with the best weather. Only a couple of rainy days. The rest were either sunny or coolish and overcast.

Overall, we were in Portugal for about 11 days and it went by so fast. We had some delicious food, met some nice people, saw some amazing things and had a fantastic time. But like at the end of any trip, there's no place like home.

Adeus, Portugal! Vejo Voce de novo!! ( see you again!)