Ben-Vindo a Portugal! Days 1 - 3

Hello friends!

I usually try to blog daily but the last 3 days has been a blur and very eventful. I'll try to catch you up, so it may be a bit long! This trip we are travelling with Darren's family (his parents, brother and sister-in-law).

Our trip started out a little bumpy. We got a notification that our flight was delayed 2 hours, making our connection in Toronto not possible. I called immediatly but the wait time was 60+ minutes. So, we decided to head to the airport right away. Turns out, that is the way to do it. The airline assistance there told us if you phone in the airport they know you are there and will help you sooner. Definitly true! They picked up right away. They worked away and got us on a flight to Montreal with a connector to Lisbon and because we were there at the airport, we were able to get to the flight no problem. Everything from there worked pretty good. We breazed through customs (that includes the new EU idenification).

Except....retrieving our luggage. We were travelling with Darren's parents and between the 4 of us, we had 3 pieces of luggage. One bag was right there when we got there. Then we waited, and waited, probably 90 minutes. Thanks to Darren becoming our resident techy, we had air tags, so we knew our luggage was in the building. I finally went to ask where the lost luggage area was because our baggage carousel showed that the last bag had been delivered. He asked me if our bag was oversize and I said it was not. However, on our way to luggage assistance we noticed a red bag circling a belt that looked an awful lot like ours and low and behold it was! On the oversize bags, with the other bag which was a very small suitcase, also belonging to our group. Who knows how long they had been circling!

But the important thing...in Lisbon, on time, with all our luggage!

We got out transfer to our hotel and then decided to explore a bit. We took a walk down their main street which is modeled on the Champs-Elysees. It was very hot, about 30 degrees.

We ended the night with dinner at a very good little pizzaria across the street.

Day 2

Today we met up with Darren's brother and sister making our group 6. We organized a tour to Sintra, an area just outside of the main city of Lisbon. We were picked up at our hotel and then made our way out of Lisbon city. All of the traffic was coming in, so going out seemed pretty easy. Our guide Carlos gave us a lot of information about Lisbon and Portugal on our way out to Sintra. The drive was lovely.

We first went to Pena Palace. King Ferdinand II built this palace in the mid 1800s as a summer retreat. It is high on one of the mountains. We had a short walk up from where we parked and took in the views to start and Carlos gave us some background about the palace. We then got to walk through it. The views from there were pretty amazing. We then walked down to the Valley of Lakes. They seemed more like ponds to me. They were algae covered, so very green.

We then went for lunch at a nice place that Carlos picked out. I got to try a cod risotto. When we were in Norway last year, we visited Lofoten. It was known for cod fishing and for salting cod. They had said that most of their fish went to Portugal. I figured I'd have to try some at some point. I love risotto so decided to give it a try. It is definitly salty but I did really enjoy it.

After lunch, we headed on a walk through town towards Quinta da Regaleira. It was quite a walk up to our next stop. There was a little miscommunication about what exactly we were doing after lunch. We thought we would be able to get back to the van to grab backpacks and hats, but we were actually walking all the way up to Quinta da Regaleira. It is a palace constructed in the early 1900s and again had great views. We got to walk around for a bit and then made our way down to they town center to meet Carlos.

Next, we took a ride to Cabo da Roca. This is the most western point of continental Europe. The 16th-century poet Luís de Camões described it as the place "where the land ends and the sea begins". Last year we made it to the northern most point, Nordkapp. Only 1 out of 3 to go... I don't see us making it to Russia anytime soon, so we will have to settle for north, west, south. We headed back to our hotel where we met up with some of our Scenic tour group (those doing the pre-Lisbon tour) where we had a welcome drink and some information for the the next 3 days. I was introduced to a new drink, a Porto tonic. This one was made with white port. It was very tasty. I am sure I'll have a few more this trip!

We finished up with a latish dinner downtown.

Day 3

Today we met up with our Scenic tour guide in Lisbon. We had a morning bus tour that took us to the waterfront where we visted the Belem tower and the Monument of Discoveries. We also visited a church where sailors would have their confessions heard before they went to sea. We were dropped off at old town where we met Darren's brother and sister-in-law and we rented a tuk tuk to take a tour of Lisbon. We got to go up to the top of one of the hills and the views were spectacular.

We ended the day with dinner at Pinoquio in central Lisbon. It was very good. I had a seafood bread pudding, a Portuguese dish. It was fantastic. Darren had the squid with bacon, also very good. Lisbon has not disappointed so far. We have one more full day here before heading to Porto.