SYDNEY – PORTUGAL – 14/9/26 – 18/9/26
20 years ago, possibly whilst drinking copious quantities of red wind, I recall talking to Christine (although she denies this) about going to Portugal for 6 months once we retired. I had visions of drinking lots of wine, walking along white sandy beaches, with blue fishing boats resting on the beach, with me wearing a flowing dress, and flirting with good looking Portuguese young men (bear in mind that we talked about this 25 years ago LOL).
So, now we’re heading to Portugal, Christine, me, plus Rhonda & Ray – who we’d travelled with ages ago when we took a cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam.
We left the Central Coast at 10am on Monday 14 September, driving down to the airport for a 2.50pm flight to Singapore. Christine travelled 1st Class so she was able to take each of us into the Singapore Airlines Lounge – I got to accompany her in Sydney, Rhonda would accompany her at Singapore Airport lay-over, and Ray was set for Brussels lay-over. So, here I am, in the first-class lounge enjoying Champagne and prawn dumplings until we were called for the flight.
All’s going to plan – Rhonda, Ray and I were in Premium Economy, nice big seats, good airline food and I was lucky as no-one was beside me, so with 3 movies that I hadn’t seen before, all’s going well for the 8 hours 25 minutes flight!!!
At Singapore, Rhonda, Ray and I disembarked … and no Christine. We weren’t sure, did she get off the plain before us? or was she behind us (not going to plan #1). We wandered around until 15 minutes later we found her and she and Rhonda set off to the 1st Class Lounge, Ray and I started the search for good Singaporean food (dumplings). We were sitting down enjoying the dumplings when Rhonda appeared – it was a miracle that she found us, it appeared that Christine’s next flight was Business Class so Rhonda wasn’t allowed in the lounge (not going to plan #2), I felt slightly guilty that I’d enjoyed the Sydney Lounge … but I quickly got over it!
It was a 2 hour lay-over at Singapore, so the 3 of us headed down to the departure Gate. Boarding time arrived and No Christine (not going to plan #3), we waited as long as we could and then I suggested Ray and Rhonda boarded, I’d wait to see if Christine at least boarded the plane, it wouldn’t have been good if we were sitting in our seats and Christine missed the flight – if she did we wanted to know LOL. Finally 10 minutes later she arrived so at least we knew she was on the plane. So, we’re all on board for the Singapore to Brussels flight – 14 Hours! Luckily (again), I didn’t have someone beside me, this worked out well because my seat didn’t recline as it should, so I decided to use the two seats, although in Premium Economy you can’t lift the armrests, so I sat on the seat beside me, and put a cushion over the armrests and threw my legs over, wasn’t at all comfortable, probably got a couple of hours sleep, it was a long, long flight!!! And yes, from Central Coast to Lisbon took us 35 hours!
So, now we’re in Brussels, the three of us get off the plane – and no Christine, at least we knew she was on the flight, but was she before us or behind us, (not going to plan #4) – we should have set up a met-up spot! There were a gazillion people lining up, we weren’t sure where we should go but followed the sign to “connections”(that would be us), we needed to get on a flight to Lisbon. Still no Christine, but we eventually went through Immigration (a long drawn-out process), and eventually got in touch with Christine via WhatsApp, seems she was in a different part of this ginormous airport (not going to plan #5), and it looked like there would be no Business or First Class lounge for Ray – by this time I’m feeling guilty for the 4 glasses of Champagne that I’d had in Sydney!!!
Whilst it was a 2 hour lay-over, that time passed very quickly and around about the time the boarding call was announced, Christine turned up (thank God). What we though was a 2 hour flight to Lisbon, turned out to be 3 hours, we’re all very tired and just can’t wait to get off the God-damned plane. We landed at 9pm (NSW time), we’d been enroute for 35 hours now. We were picked up by a driver and then travelled for about an hour in traffic, getting to our accommodation at 11am only to find that we couldn’t get to our room for another 2 hours!!! All we wanted was to check in and have a shower (not going to plan #6).
So, we walked about 50m and found a nice restaurant, fortified ourselves with lovely Portuguese white wine and some good local food.
After the wine, I had a “reset” and then took the time to look around. I really like this part of Lisbon – the buildings are all quite old (maybe 100 – 200 years).
Our accommodation … Almaria, we are on the top floor (luckily they had a lift).
This is the complex beside us – many of the buildings (not sure how old they are) have a facade of beautiful porcelain tiles. I asked if they were original or put in place when the buildings were renovated – apparently not! They are the original tiles still in place since the buildings were built.
We have a 2 bedroom unit, very spacious.
The view from our balcony (only 40cm wide lol) down our street. We are staying in the “old” part of Lisbon, most of the buildings were constructed after the 1755 earthquake, so, whilst they are “old” they aren’t that old, that is not dating back to the 11th Century when the Moors occupied Portugal.
The decor of the whole building is to pay homage to the fact that this area was the area where a lot of Portuguese authors lied. Even this “picture” on the wall is books glued to a frame and then painted over with images of one of the authors. And each suite is in honour of one of the authors, very cool.
Once we were in our room, we all had a shower and then either had a nap, or tried to stay awake. We weren’t in the mood for a bid dinner so eventually we all tried to sleep. Next morning we were being picked up to do an all day tour..
We drove for the first hour through Lisbon, mostly through industrial and residential areas – not much different from any other country. Then we came to what looked like an old village – lots of trees and lots of hills. Our first stop was Palácio da Pena (Pena Palace). The castle stands on the top of a hill above the town of Sintra, and on a clear day it can be easily seen from Lisbon. It is a national monument constitutes one of the major expressions of 19th-century Romanticism in the world.
The site itself has a long history dating back to the Middle Ages when a monastery was built. For centuries Pena was a small, quiet place for meditation, housing a maximum of eighteen monks. In the 18th Century the monastery was badly damaged by lightening, and then in 1755 the whole complex was destroyed in an earthquake. In 1838, the King Consort Ferdinand II, acquired the old monastery, plus other properties to build a palace for the royal family. Strangely, to do the rebuild they hired a German amateur architect who put his mark on the new buildings, but then Ferdinand and his Queen intervened regarding decoration, etc, and suggested including vault arches, Medieval and Islamic elements and other Christian features – creating a mish-mash of different styles which was completed in 1847. It is indeed something to behold and fascinating.
Before heading to the castle we explored some of the buildings that I imagine were used by those working at the Castle, and the landed gentry. Most of the streets would only have been suitable to a horse and cart. I was lucky in a lot of spots to avoid having tourists in my shots LOL.
Then we headed up towards the castle. All around it were impressive gardens.
The arch in the bottom right hand corner is where we walked through to get access. See the “watch towers” up in the middle of the image on the right hand side.
Close up of one part of the castle.
Note all the tiles on the facade of this part, and the lovely ornate windows, I can just image one of the royals out on this balcony.
Another section with lots of porcelain tiles.
As I said, it’s a mish-mash of design styles, some facades tiled and others just plain cement.
The tiles apparently are set up in sets of 9, and in the 9 ties there is intentionally one tile that is different to the other 8, I couldn’t find any difference LOL. A couple of samples of the tiles.
This wall apart from featuring lovely tiles, depicted things of the ocean.
A close up … all down the walls at either side below the main feature were depictions of coral reefs and shells, pretty cool.
Looking back at the entrance, you can see a few tourists in this shot but in the main I was able to shoot images without tourists in them – no mean feat as there were a gazillion tourists.
Me in one of the watch towers, I thought it would be a watchtowers for archers, or gun emplacements, but I think it was only for decoration, no way could you shoot an arrow through one of these slots.
The view from the palace looking back to Lisbon, without the cloud/smoke/smog, you would be able to see the ocean.
Once we’d finished at the Palace, our guide drove us over to the coast – we travelled through a lot of small towns and country areas, didn’t see much agriculture (that must happen further inland where it’s not so hilly).
This is the most western part of Europe, Cabo da Roca and here is it’s lighthouse.
The coastline below the lighthouse – you can see why they need one.
There’s a memorial at the lookout, the wind was vicious, and I had to hide behind the memorial to get out of the wind.
Looking south from the lookout – stunning coastline.
From Cabo da Roca we headed South to Lisbon along the coastline – the scenery was stunning. We were then dropped off at one of the villages for lunch, we chose a seafood restaurant.
This was the platter that we ordered. I have to say that whist it had on it some things that I hadn’t tried before, the prawns weren’t as good as in Aussie.
One of the items was barnacles, you know the things that grow on the bottom of boats when they’re in the water. Strange little things, about the size of your little toe, although not that fat, I did eat them, and they weren’t too bad, sort of makes me want to go down to a marina at home and harvest some LOL.
We were dropped back to our apartment at 5pm and by 6pm we were downstairs enjoying happy hour margaritas – well Rhonda and I were! Great finish to the day.
The next day we had a lazy morning as we were pretty much stuffed, then we were picked up by a Tuk Tuk tour (basically an open electronic vehicle with no sides – they’re all over the place taking tourists around) for our tour of the city. We first drove all over the oldest part of the city, apparently most of the city was destroyed in the earthquake in 1755, so none of the city is all that old.
Oldest church in old city Santa Maria Maior built in the late 12th Century, I think this survived the earthqake. Pretty impressive.
A lot of the “streets” are narrow and with steps, and then in other areas the steps are replaced by cobble stones. I actually liked this part of the city, it’s not a tourist area.
We were then taken to the highest part of the city to enjoy the view (lots of tourists and tuk tuks here).
We then went down to the river – this is a very old church we passed along the way.
And this is one of the many forts along the river heading towards the sea. This particular fort is well up the river and wouldn’t have seen any action by maurading boats heading up stream, so it’s quite ornate, centuries ago, it would have been situated out in the middle of the river but there’s been a lot of land fill in recent times so it’s now on the shore.
And then we headed down to the “pastel de nata factory” the birthplace of Portuguese Tarts. We’d been tasting them for the past three days, so we were keen to see if these ones were better than what we’d tasted so far. Apparently, at the Jerónimos Monastery in Belém, Lisbon, during the 18th century, the monks used egg whites to starch their religious garments, leaving a surplus of egg yolks. Resourceful, they began creating desserts with these yolks, giving rise to many egg-based sweets across Portugal including the most famous tarts. When the monastery closed down apparently they moved across the river to this building that is where the tarts are made today.
I got to see the ladies in the kitchen putting the pastry in the pans that they back with the custard in them.
And then we went in to the front of house where they sell approximately 24,000 each day (according to our tour guide), and YES, they were the best we’ve tasted!
And that ended our tour, we’d be leaving the next morning for the Azores.
So, what did I think about Lisbon? I really liked the old parts of the city, loved the history. But I was overwhelmed the enormity of the place, and how everything was close together (narrow roads, 4 – 5 story buildings everywhere and so many people (mostly tourists I think). Would I go back? Maybe but 3 days was not enough and I’d like to go further away from the big city life. And, I’d maybe take a stop over between Sydney and Lisbon, doing that trip in one go was exhausting. And why am I giving you a shot of toilet rolls??? Well, the Portuguese (and I assume Europe) ones are not as wide as ours, so be prepared Australia, narrower toilet rolls may be coming our way LOL>
Thanks Christine for including Lisbon on the itinerary. Next stop The Azores!