Top Ten Portugal

So, all I'll say is that 2010 is really kicking my butt so far but I think the fog is lifting. And one of the first steps to getting back on track is blogging.

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After our 2 days in Madrid, we flew to Portugal.

While there we went to these cities in our rented car: Braga, Ponte da Barca, Valenca do Minho, Viana do Castelo, Porto, Aveiro, Tomar, Mira de Aire, Sintra, Lisbon. There were 4 or 5 other places/areas we wanted to check out but had to cut for time reasons.

So without further ado, our Top Ten (in no particular order).

1) Cathedrals - Portugal is a deeply religious country and there are cathedrals, chapels, churches, convents, monasteries, sanctuaries, etc all over. Usually we aren't too interested but we read through our travel guide and picked 3 or 4 to see. Each one we saw was unique and had something very cool that made it stand out.
Santuario do Sameiro: We actually found this on on accident because it is just up the hill from one we had been looking for. It had amazing views because it was at the top of a mountain. It had a large square which led to a really long set of steps but from the top it looked like it dropped off the edge of the mountain. It was a little foggy which added to the atmosphere. We didn't go inside, we didn't need to since the outside was plenty awesome. And we showed up just as the bells were chiming the hour, which Brent got on video.

Bom Jesus do Monte: This is the one we had been looking for when we found the first one. This church is one of Portugal's most famous buildings and pilgrims come from all over to worship here. The church itself was pretty cool looking but the reason we went was to see the double stairway leading to the church. It has over 1,000 steps and each landing has a fountain and represent the five wounds of Christ, the five senses, and the 3 virtues. The architecture was amazing and it had some pretty great views as well.

Convento de Cristo: This set of buildings was once the headquarters of the Knights Templar in Portugal. It was built in like 1160 or something. It was really beautiful and it was surreal walking around a place that is essentially the same as it was almost 900 years ago (without all the knights and monks of course). The complex had a small "castle" which wasn't much more that the main gate of the surrounding walls, a church, cloisters, cemeteries, monk's dormitories and a few other surrounding buildings (kitchens, stables, etc). The high altar is located in an eight sided section of the church which has a 16 sided charola inside which basically a small chapel. It was fascinating. I'm not much for religious art but this was pretty incredible. It was really hard to get a good shot without a flash or a tripod. The carvings and sculptures around the exteriors were so ornate and they had some circular stone stairwells that we had fun with. We gave up seeing a castle on an island in a river to go there and I'm glad we did.

2) The Fortress at Valenca do Minho - The town of Valenca do Minho was built up inside of a fortress, and not just any fortress, a double fortress enclosed in two massive linked fortresses overlooking the river that separates Portugal and Spain. Most of it was built in the 1600's by a military architect. The town grew up inside of the walls of the fortaleza and is pretty self sufficient now. There are shops and restaurants and a chapel or 2, houses, businesses and it all has a pretty wicked view. The 2 fortresses are connected by a dry moat and we were there at sunset. Amazing. Plus we could see Spain, which was fun. Oh, and we saw a cat on a leash, one of the most hilarious things I've ever seen.

3) Grutas de Mira de Aire - There are quite a few caves systems in Portugal but we only had time for one so we did a little research and decided on these, which happen to be the largest. It stretches for 2.5 miles but the tours only cover about 750 yards. It was a rainy day and the caves are in the middle of a small town (I kid you not, the entrance is in a neighborhood of houses) pretty far away from any major cities so it was just us and one Spanish guy on the tour. It was great because the guide would let us take our time while he practised his Spanish on the other tourist. Or he'd talk to Brent while Caractacus Potts (my camera) and I had some fun. I don't have enough adjectives to explain these caves. Seriously. Now, I'm all for keeping the beauties of nature in their natural state but the caves had artificial, and sometimes colored lighting, man-made pathways and steps that were made to look like the rocks, fountains and a speaker system which played classical music as we walked along. The entrance to the caves was pretty even with ground level but by the time we got to the end, we had climbed down 110 meters (360 feet). One of the rooms was bigger than I could have ever imagined, especially for a cave. They call them "show caves" because that's what they are, big and sparkly and showy. Not your typical ranger guided trek through what the inside of a mountain looks like (which is also cool). It was an experience. Loved it.

4) Sintra - The town of Sintra is about 30 minutes outside of Lisbon. It is home to several of the past royals summer homes. We went to one of those, called the Palacio Nacional da Pena. It was built sometime in the early 1800's by the same quirky guy that designed the Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany (featured in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and one of the items on my "must see before I die" list since I was about 9). It was one crazy castle. Bright colors, interesting and mismatched carvings, and the interior had some pretty strange decor. Many of the rooms were themed and had some really crazy furniture and paintings. No photos were allowed inside but my mental camera was going nuts. There was a painting of a barbershop run by monkeys whose clientele was cats. Weird and awesome. It was really rainy and foggy and we were at the top of a mountain which I'm sure had amazing views that we couldn't see. It was really spooky and cool though.

After the Palacio, we walked about 10 minutes through the rain with our umbrellas, if you could call mine that (I swear it spent more time inside out that not) to the Castelo dos Mouros. It is ruins of a Moorish castle that has been there since like the year 900 or something. It was getting dark and it was really rainy and windy so we were the only ones there. It felt like if we closed our eyes and held really still we'd go back in time to Robin Hood days. It just seemed like at each turret there should have been a soldiers and archers with a giant torch ready to sound the attach or something. We were so soaked and probably shouldn't have risked taking out the camera but we did anyway. By the time we got back to the car, we were soaked to the bone and freezing and the car fogged up the whole way to our hotel for the night. Good times.

5) The Oceanario de Lisboa - While in Lisbon, we decided to do something a little different. We went to the aquarium. We never do that, especially when there is architecture and museums to check out. We are so glad we did. The set up for the Oceanario is really interesting. It's built over the bay and is 2 stories tall. Imagine a square-ish building. Each of the four corners are dedicated to the oceanic zones (Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic) and the top floor (entrance level) has exhibits of what kind of life is above water in that zone (penguins, otters, etc) and is even the correct temperature (cold and dry in the arctic, hot and humid in the Indian, etc) and the bottom floor is all about what lives under the water. Am I making any sense? Anyway, now imagine a giant circular column in the middle of the square that goes both levels. That is a MASSIVE 1.8 million gallon tank. Sharks, rays, sunfish, schools of mackerel, you name it, it was probably in there. It. Was. So. Cool. And huge.

6) Driving - We aren't the type to go to one place and stay there our whole vacation. We don't have time to do that. We're only here for 2 years and *need* to see as much as possible every time we go anywhere. This trip was no exception. We got our rental car first thing and hit the road. It was nice to be on the right side of the road for once. Brent had fun driving (the motorways are really nice and open and clean, albeit expensive since they're privatized) and I loved looking out the window at the scenery. Portugal is very hilly and in the north there are lots of grape orchards and rivers. We even drove along the coast for a few hours but it was night so we didn't see a lot. The central part of the country was still hilly but felt very different from the north. It was all very beautiful though. I loved all of the red tile roofs. I also really loved the freedom of having a car. We took a few stops that weren't planned and skipped some that were which wouldn't have been as easy taking trains or buses or if we had been with a tour group. Plus we just enjoy road trips with each other. We're a pretty good team. Brent does all the driving and I try my hardest to keep us well snacked and not lost. I only got us really lost once this trip. That's what you get for following a diesel that *should* know where he was going. He did not.

7) Fun and Unique Lodging - We were in Portugal for 3 nights and each night we were in a different town. We were able to find 3 very interesting hotels.
Castelo de Santa Catarina: A gothic inspired villa in Porto built in the 1920's. In the guidebook it is described as "ostentatious and possibly gaudy" which is so true. The outside is covered in typical Portuguese tiles. The inside is decorated with chandeliers and gilt mirrors, bright and ornate carpets, wallpapers, reproduction furniture but with updated bathrooms (thank heavens). It was really fun. Breakfast was really good too. And it fit very easily into our budget.

Estalagem de Santa Iria: This was our hotel for the night in Tomar. The hotel itself wasn't anything spectacular (very tired and 70's looking decor) but we had a room with a nice balcony overlooking the river on which our hotel's island was. Yes, it was located on a tiny island in the middle of a river. And the island had great views of the Knight's Templar Cathedral up on the hill. We took a walk after we checked in and got some fun pictures of the river and the Christmas lights that lined the roads (most of the towns we went to had Christmas lights up along the major roads) . In the morning we were privy to some really amazing homemade rolls. 3 different kinds. Yum! Brent really enjoyed driving on the tiny bridge to get there.

Residencial Alegria: Our last night was spent in Lisbon and we stayed in a pretty standard pensao, which is a hotel with no frills, just the basics. It was clean and warm though and a nice breakfast in the morning. The appeal was that is was one street off of the main tourist street in Lisbon and was in a cute little square with a tiny park in the middle. It felt like a pretty good taste of city life.

8) Tiles - Portugal is pretty well known for its use of tiles in building. Most buildings, especially in the bigger towns have at least some tiles on the exterior, and many are completely covered. Houses too. I love the tiles. I think are beautiful and it's amazing how many different uses and types there are. I knew, before we even got there that's what I wanted for my souvenir. Some of my favorite tiles were in Porto, Aveiro and Lisbon. We saw some that were hand painted 300+ years ago and some that made up huge murals and some mass produced ones. You name it, we saw it. It took a lot of searching and some frustration but I found 2 sets of 2 tiles for my souvenir. They are new but hand painted in the original style. Brent though, we discovered has expensive taste. We were browsing through and antique tile shop and he decided that he really wanted an original tile. An old one. Unfortunately, those are expensive. We saw one mural (it was huge) that was 24,000Euro. Yikes! We were searching through a pile of tiles from the early 1700's because we figure we might be able to afford *one* of those, if it wasn't too much (tiles with people, especially babies, are considerably more expensive than those with say flowers) and he kept coming back to a half piece of tile with a castle and a river on it. It may just be half a tile but he loves it. I think he may have seen it in the pre-existence. AND since it was only half, it was in our usual souvenir budget. Phew! If we had a couple hundred to spend on souvenirs I think we could have found a nice small mural but we are too cheap for that, hence my choice of a reproduction piece. Maybe someday... Anyway, tiles = good.

9) Sun, glorious sun! - We love England, we don't mind rain and snow can be fun but we had really great weather while we were there (except for the second half of the third day which was rainy). The sun was so warm but the air was nice and cool. It was perfect during the day and got chilly at night but not too bad. I never got hot but my skin got to soak in loads of glorious Vitamin D. The second day, we walked around Porto which is a city on a bay. It's very hilly and has sets of steep steps to get from the main part of the city down to the waterfront where a lot of the housing is. It was so nice to be able to do that in the sun. After Porto, we went to, Aveiro, a town built on canals and we took a boat tour of the canals and bridges. The sun kept us warm over the water and it made everything shiny and pretty. Mmm, sun...

10) Portuguese People and Food - The Portuguese people we came across were so lovely. They were very friendly and helpful and became even more so when they discovered Brent could speak their language. He says he had a hard time but other than a few times where Brazilian words and Portuguese didn't match up or he forgot a word or 2, he took care of us. I felt very safe knowing we could communicate, since a lot of our time was spent in smaller towns and villages where most people didn't speak English. One time we had a bit of a mix up was at the fortress where a woman from a local church/orphanage was selling easter cakes, tiles, wine and "caramels". She asked if we wanted any caramels and Brent confirmed in Portuguese so we went for it. It wasn't until we went to eat one that they were menthol cough drops. Oh well, you always need cough drops on hand. Also that evening we stopped in Viana do Castelo, a beach town, for dinner and to walk around and see the town's Christmas lights. We had a hard time finding a restaurant but finally came across a very authentic cafe. The food the owner offered us was not on the menu and we though we were given a choice between fish or beef so we chose beef but Brent realised about 2 minutes before they bought it to us that we had ordered beef liver. Oops! Oh well. We choked down most of it and considered ourselves covered on the whole iron front for a long while. The rest of the food was really good and they had a really yummy pastry/eggy/custardy cake with chocolate on top. Portugal, as we found, has mastered the dessert and pastry scene. We stopped in many Pastelaria's for pastry treats, both sweet and savory. In Ponte de Barca, we got a chocolate mouse (yes, mouse, not mousse, it was shaped like a mouse) which turned out to be a sort of mince-pie-meets-brownie covered in chocolate. Another night we went to whatever restaurant was closest to our hotel and tried to order from the menu but the waiter (no, he was not a server, we was a waiter, bowtie and all) kept saying they didn't have any. So eventually he suggested something with fish and rice and potatoes and we agreed. It was actually really good. We really loved the breakfasts in our hotels, too. Each morning we were offered rolls, usually fresh and homemade, a selection of meats and cheeses, yogurt, fruit, juice and hot chocolate. They had coffee and tea as usual but they also had cocoa readily available. If you try to ask for that in the UK, they'll say they don't have it because that's dessert. Well, in Portugal, it's perfectly normal to have hot chocolate with breakfast. But man, those rolls...

So there you have it. Congrats if you made it this far. Portugal is probably the most favorite vacation I have ever been on, and by default Madrid gets thrown in there too, because it was the same trip and we did have a lovely time there as well. I would LOVE to go back to Portugal someday and I think that anyone who can, especially if you speak Portuguese, should go.

Here's the online album for a larger selection of our pictures.