Hello and welcome to the second half of my trip…..Portugal!
In Tenerife, I took an airport transfer to the airport and had to wait for check-in to open. When we finally got checked in & through security, I went in search of food. My choices were 3 places selling baguettes, baguettes and…….baguettes! No thanks, not in the mood for a baguette. I found out that Burger King was opening in half an hour so waited for that. The combo meals offered no choice of size, one size fits all I guess! Turns out, that one size applies to the drink too. It was huge! Absolutely the biggest drink I have ever received! It was 750ml of Fanta Limon Zero. Lucky it was sugar free, could not imagine 750ml of pure sugar!
The flight went well and at Lisbon, I was surprised to see there were no border checks. I mean, I know I came from Spain, another EU country, but given the super strict check in document checking, I would have thought they would be checking the documents on arrival. My passenger locator form wasn’t checked once, pre or post trip!
I took the Metro train to the city centre and walked to my hostel. It was a very hot night, the end of a very hot few days. My hostel is very nice, fairly new (few years old) and nicely decorated. It has an air con too and the flow goes directly to my bunk, so I stay nice and cool.
After checking in, I went out to find some food. I ended up choosing a noodle box type place as I wanted some vegies and didn’t know enough about Portuguese food to know what I was ordering. It was delicious too.
On Tuesday morning I woke up at 8.30am. Wow, late for me! I think it helps that 2 girls came into the dorm after midnight which woke me up. After a slow start, I headed out for the day. My first stop was Manteigaria, a local pastéis de nata shop. This is the proper name for the Portuguese tarts. I tried one of these on the Gold Coast and wasn’t fussed as it was quite greasy. I knew I had to try them again in the country there were invented in. This place is listed as having one of the best pastéis de nata in Lisbon so that was my first stop. I bought one and it was warm, fresh from the oven, and absolutely delicious. It was not greasy at all. So unbelievably good.
Next, I went walking around the streets to the Praça do Comércio. There were a few people around, so I took some photos and kept walking.
Then I went
to the Elevador de Santa Justa. This is a tall free-standing elevator. It is
closed due to covid, but normally you can go up and see the views from the top.
It is quite pretty.It is surrounded by colourful buildings.
I kept walking and discovered a store selling only sardines. A huge, carnival like store, loaded with thousands of cans of sardines. They clearly love their sardines here! Gross!
After an iced coffee at Starbucks, I went and found the Glória - S. Pedro Alcântara, a funicular that takes people up a hill. I didn’t ride it, just took photos.
Then I walked back through the city centre and took a tram north to Belém. On this tram line, they have both modern trams and ancient trams. I ended up on a modern tram. It is a 35min journey and I disembarked at the Jerónimos Monastery. It is HUGE! Like ginormous! I took photos but didn’t go inside as there was a huge queue, and I was on a time limit.
Then I went to another café for a Portuguese tart. This place, Pastéis de Belém, is where the tarts originate from. There was a big queue out the front but turns out that is to dine in. The queue for takeaway tarts is much shorter. I bought 2 and took them across the road to a park to enjoy. There were really good too, but greasier than the one I had earlier.
Then I went for a walk to the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, a large monument dedicated to seafarers. I didn’t go inside as well as there was a queue again.
Next up I continued walking to Torre de Belém, which is a medieval tower on the edge of the river. It was also closed for covid so just a look & photos then off again.
I stumbled upon a Monument to the Overseas Combatants, which was having a changing of the guard. It was interesting watching the process.
Then it was time to head back to the city. I took the tram back and stopped at my hostel before continuing. I had a food tour booked for 3pm.
I went and waited for Tram 28, which is a famous tram because it is an ancient old fashioned one, and new ones cannot go on this route as the corners are too tight. It was a rickety ride, but I made it to the Alfama area right on 3pm.
Turns out one of the other girls on the tour is also an Aussie, from Melbourne (Doncaster to be exact) and lives in London (north London)! And it turns out, this Aussie girl is on the exact same tour as me tomorrow to Sintra! Wow! What are the odds?! There were also Americans and a Dutch couple.
Our guide
took us on a walking tour of the Alfama district and gave us lots of
information along the walk. Then we finally arrived at the first restaurant.
Here we began our tastings with a cod cake, tomato rice and green wine. The tomato rice was really good, cod cake ok (given I don’t like fish), and the green wine was not bad (given I don’t like wine). Then we had another tasting…..sardine on toast. I tried a little tiny bit off the end and did not like it. Did you know that they eat the sardine bones? Dis. Gus. Ting. Nope, hard pass for me.
After walking through the streets some more, we went to the next restaurant. Here, we were served cured meat (like a salami), tempura green beans and some sort of octopus dish, along with a glass of rose. The salami was absolutely delicious and the beans good. The octopus was not to my liking, nor was the rose.
Next was another restaurant where we were served 4 types of cheese with pumpkin jam, mini toasts and Portuguese sausage. The 4 types of cheese were a sheep cheese, a goat cheese, a sheep/goat mix cheese and a cow cheese. They were all good, but the cow cheese was the best for me, and the pumpkin jam was really good. The sausages were really yummy, but definitely not healthy in the slightest. They had the white fat chunks through them, and I even got a white sold inedible chunk. Oh, they also served red wine but I didn’t have this one.
Second last we went to a local shop where the lady served up a shot of ginja (sour cherry liqueur) in a chocolate cup. It was very good, tastes like a plum pudding.
Our last stop was for Portuguese tarts. This place is our guides favourite in the whole city. They were really good too, but a bit greasy so I prefer the ones from the place I went to early this morning.
It was a fantastic tour, and our guide was awesome. If you ever go to Lisbon, I highly recommend the Treasures of Lisbon tour. Definitely worth the money!
Afterwards I, the Aussie girl and the solo American girl went back to the first restaurant as the Aussie girl wanted more tomato rice. It was only a 5min walk so nice and close. They ordered melted goat cheese (served with bread), steamed clams (American girl) and cod cakes with tomato rice (Aussie girl). I didn’t eat as I had plenty on the tour. We sat and talked for a while which was good. Then it was time to go as the American girl had to be on a work call at 9pm. The Aussie girl and I walked back to the city centre and parted ways.
Wednesday morning was a bit of an early start as the meeting point for the tour was at 8.30am and it was a 10min walk away. I stopped at another café, Fábrica da Nata, to try their pastéis del nata. They were very fresh from the oven & quite warm, and definitely delicious. The café was only 1min from the meeting point so it was perfect. By 8.30am a large group had formed, including the Aussie girl from last night. One by one guides in vans turned up and called out people. Turns out this is the meeting point for all the tour groups and people go in groups of 6-8 in minivans, pretty much to the same destinations all day. As the Aussie girl booked with AirBnb and I booked with Viator, we were not in the same minivan, so we said goodbye.
I ended up in a van with a Belgian couple, a Kiwi couple who live just down the road from me in London and a British lady from the Cotswold’s.
We headed out to Sintra as our first stop. It was very overcast and cool, and we were warned there would probably be fog. As we drove higher up the mountain, we found the fog. Great. We parked and walked uphill to the Palace. The forest was beautiful, and the fog created a gorgeous atmosphere amongst the trees.
Arriving at the palace, there were no queues so we could go straight in. More uphill walking and we entered the palace gates. It was SUPER foggy. Sintra is very colourful, bright yellow, red and blue. Unfortunately, the fog completely dulled this down. Also, Sintra normally has fantastic views over the surrounding towns and oceans, but today, the only view was white, white and more white.
Our guide gave us lots of information about the palace and then left us to walk through the inside alone (guides aren’t allowed inside). Inside was quite nice. Not OTT like Versailles, but not bare. Lots of tilework.
Outside we met with the guide again and he gave us information on the outside of the building and also the normal views. Then he gave us some free time and we went to the chapel, then got a coffee. We made our way back down to the van and left to visit the town of Sintra, further down the mountain. We were given just over 2hrs to explore and 4 of us immediately went to a tiny café that makes a Sintra pastry specialty. Custard tart but with cheese and cinnamon. I bought 1 and headed straight away to find the well, eating along the way. It was really nice but did not taste like custard OR cheese. I actually thought they had given me the wrong thing!
I was aiming for the Quinta da Regaleira Palace. On the property is the Initiation Well, a famous attraction. Apparently, the queues can be huge (over an hour) so I raced uphill as fast as I could and went straight up to the well. The queue didn’t look too big so fingers crossed!
After 25mins I was at the entry to the well. Yay! Less than 30mins! I had my camera and phone in hand as you were not allowed to stop on the walk down. The Initiation Well is a 30m deep round hole with a spiral staircase going around the outside. It is a one-way system, so you start at the top and walk down. It is really beautiful. At the bottom is a series of underground tunnels. Only 1 is open and this takes you back outside.
Next, I walked through the forest gardens to the Palace. I didn’t go inside as the queue was very big. It is a big, beautiful palace though.
Then I headed back to town. I had 50mins until pickup so plenty to time. I got my souvenir shot glass, had a walk around the tiny town and then went to a restaurant for food. I chose a carbonara and it was delicious. Exactly what I needed to keep me going.
Then we got back in the van and headed to the coast. Our next stop was the Casa del Roca. This is the most westerly point of mainland Europe. It was alright, just some cliff views and a monument.
Then we headed down to the town of Cascais. It is a seaside town that the people come to for summer vacations, beach days etc. There isn’t much to do so 4 of us (Kiwis & Brit & me) walked around the streets for a bit. Then we went to an Italian gelato shop for some ice-cream, recommended by our guide. It was really nice and refreshing.
Then it was back in the van for the drive back to Lisbon. After we got back, I went to my hostel for a couple of hours to chill.
At 6.30pm I headed out in search of dinner. I had seen on the map that there was a location called Pink Street and it was on the way to dinner, so I stopped there. It is a long street painted hot pink, and at one end is some floating umbrellas. Pretty.
Then I continued to the Time Out Market. This is a large indoor food ‘market’. Not market where you buy fruit & veg, but market where you buy cooked food and drinks. Like a food truck park but permanent stalls not food trucks. There were 30+ places for food and drink! It wasn’t overly busy which was good. My first stop was the croqeutteria for some croquettes. I had a traditional beef & pork, a chicken curry, a roast duck and a goat cheese with caramelised onion one. They were good, but not outstanding. Then I got a cocktail from one of the bars, strawberry with sparkling wine and some other stuff. Yummy! Lastly, I got a truffle mushroom pizza. This was not great, a bit disappointing actually. Considering the cost, there was hardly any mushroom and a few dollops of truffle cream. Shame, I had been looking forward to some truffle mushroom food for a while now!
Then I walked back towards my hostel, but I took the scenic route along the river. It was pretty and very busy. Lots of people walking along here with dogs, riding scooters, having food, drinking beer etc.
Thursday was a transport day. I had booked the Flixbus to take me to Porto so after packing up I headed to a train station, took 2 trains to another train station and found the bus. The bus ended up being quite full, probably because it is a direct bus between London and Porto, and dirt cheap. Cost me just €5. I ended up watching tv shows the whole time. It took 3.5hrs as there was a bit of traffic coming into Porto, and the road is single lane.
After disembarking, I used my Google Maps to find my way to my hostel. I knew it was at the Sao Bento station, but boy did I underestimate how close! One of the doors into the hostel leads directly onto the platforms! It is a really nice hostel, old building, super high ceilings, nice social space upstairs. The only downside is the rooms are quite hot at night, especially when you close the windows and shutters for some quiet & darkness.
After checking in, I went out to explore. I walked for a while, taking photos along the way. Porto is extremely hilly, if you lived here and walked everywhere, you would end up with a bum of steel! I ended up down at the Douro River and walked along for a bit. There were so many people out enjoying the sunshine, eating and drinking.
I walked across the lower part of the massive bridge and walked along that side of the river too. I saw a bright yellow building that was quite busy so I went to explore. It was a building selling cod & cheesecakes (croquettes). Inside it was decorated with thousands of old books, there is a large, ornate organ being played and of course, cod cakes for sale.
After a while, I headed back across the river and took the funicular up the hill because I was being lazy, and the hill is a big one. The views were really good on the way up.
Then I went in search of food. I wanted to try the special Francesinha, a Porto special sandwich. I found a place with good reviews and a couple of options. So off I went. The sandwich is a meat sandwich, covered in melted cheese, egg & a tomato beer sauce. The meat in my sandwich was ham, mortadella, sausage, rump steak, bacon. It comes with chips on the side. It was huge! Massive! The sauce is always a tomato beer sauce, but the exact recipe is unique to each restaurant. Turns out this one is a bit spicy. I managed to eat the whole thing, minus the chips. It was good, but not amazing. I don’t need another one.
Afterwards I headed back towards my hostel but ended up on the wrong street and found a church instead. Not hard given there is like a thousand of them here. It was big and ornate, so I took some pictures and then went in search of a bookshop that I had heard about.
This bookshop, Livraria Lello, is one of the most beautiful bookshops in the world. One of the girls in my hostel had said she went past earlier, and the queue was 2-3hrs long! Sure enough, when I got there the queue was quite long! It is very nice from the outside, so I bought a ticket for Saturday morning with the plan on getting there early. Yes, they charge you to go into a bookshop, but you get the entry fee discounted off the cost of a book if you buy a book.
Neat the bookshop is a gelato place that serves rose shaped gelato cones. Of course, I had one and it was delicious!
Then it was time to head back to the hostel. I chatted to some of the girls in my dorm for a while then we all went to bed.
Friday, I woke up early and headed off to meet my tour. I had a full day Duoro Valley trip booked. There ended up being 6 of us on the tour, 2 German couples, an Austrian (German speaking) lady and me. Our first stop for the day was the village of Amarante. This village is a lovely little village set in the countryside and is famous for one thing……penis cakes. Yep, you read that right! It has something to do with the patron saint of fertility. When we got to the town, our guide gave us a little walk around then set us loose for a bit. A lady was selling the penis cakes for €2.50 so I got one. After a few cheeky photos, I tried it. It was gross! Rock hard, like ultra-stale bread. Not at all the texture of a cake. It was so bad that I threw it out in the bin after that one bite. I was walking with the Austrian girl so we went and got a coffee. It was super cheap! Coffee with milk, as they call it here, cost me just €0.90!
Next up we drove to the Duoro Valley and went to a viewpoint called Galafura. It has expansive views over the terraced grape vines of the Duoro. Very pretty.
Then we went to a nearby restaurant for lunch. The Duoro is 10oC hotter than Porto so the air conditioning was very welcome. We were served local red and white wine, and water, which I did not like, but some of the others liked the white. No-one really liked the red. First, we were served a vegetable soup, which was really nice. Next was a roast pork, roast potatoes, rice and some garden salad. It was quite nice. Then, for dessert, we had Viennetta. Hmm, yummy but not very Portuguese!
Next up was a drive to the town of Pinhao for a cruise along the Duoro. We boarded a traditional boat and cruised upstream for half an hour. The boat was full of people from multiple tour companies. It was very scenic, definitely a lovely ride.
We unfortunately did not get to visit the town, but it looks like a really nice village. We next headed to the oldest wine house in Portugal, Quinta S. Luiz, who make the Kopke port wine. It was established in 1638 so that’s pretty old. Some other tour groups joined, and we were taken on a tour of the property. The company owns multiple farms, has 125 hectares, and produces 1 million bottles of Duoro wine and 7 million bottles of port wine each year. The oldest grape vines they have are 95 years old! To grow wine grapes in the Duoro, the wine association has a specific set of rules that must be followed, including that after 8 years of age, the grape vines are not allowed to be watered ever again. The soil can provide enough water for the grapes. Also, there are several types of port wine: tawny, white, ruby and vintage. After the tour, we tasted a red Duoro wine, white Duoro wine and a 2014 vintage port. I did not like any of them.
Then we drove back to Porto. After chilling out for a bit, one of the girls in my dorm and I went to a nearby healthy food café for dinner. She had a vegan burger and I had a beef burger. Very good.
Then we went and hung out in the upstairs social lounge with another girl from our dorm for a few hours before heading down to bed.
Saturday, I woke up early again and headed out to go to the bookshop. My guide yesterday told me I needed to be in the queue by 8am (for 9.30am opening) but breakfast starts at 8am and well, priorities. I joined the queue at 8.45am and there were around 30 people in front of me. Not too bad. By 9.30am, however, the queue would have been 300 people long. Definitely glad I stood in line for 1hr instead of the 3hrs. The bookshop is stunning. A large, ornate red staircase is the centrepiece, and it is definitely the most beautiful bookshop I have ever been in. There is a range of books, in multiple languages. A decent Harry Potter section, and a lot of classics made into mini sized books. They also have rare and collector’s books which go for hundreds or thousands of Euros. I ended up buying Pride & Prejudice and Edgar Allen Poe short stories, both in the mini books.
After the bookshop, I went and got some pastel de nata from my favourite shop and headed back to my hostel to eat.
After a video call with my mum for a few hours, I decided to head out and explore some more. Not only do they have the world’s most beautiful bookshop, they also have the world’s most beautiful McDonald’s. That was my first stop. There was a big queue to get in the door, so I decided to come back later. I took some pictures of some really ornate buildings and went in search of food. I found a café called NoLa Kitchen, which has a range of healthy salads, bowls etc. It was busy but they got me a table and I ordered a haloumi bowl. It had lettuce, tomato, haloumi, egg, mashed avocado and a beetroot & sweet potato puree. It was absolutely delicious. Best meal I have had in a long time!
I kept walking afterwards and found a big shopping street. I walked around, checking out the shops, checking out the supermarket and just generally wandering.
Then I headed back to the Maccas to see if the line was gone, and it was! They let me go in to take some pics. It certainly is a beautiful Maccas. Stained glass windows, chandeliers etc. Apparently, it is a heritage building and when Maccas bought it, they were required to keep the original architecture.
Then I headed back to my hostel for a bit before heading out to watch the sunset over the city. One of the best spots to watch the sunset is across the St Luis bridge to a park on the top of the hill. It was only a 10min walk from the hostel. The St Luis bridge has 2 levels, a car & pedestrian level closer to the water and an upper tram & pedestrian level at the top. The top level is 85m high. I went with the Dutch girl as she wanted to see the sunset too. There were a lot of people heading the same way as us. We found a nice spot on the hill amongst everyone else and sat down to wait. It was very busy. Lots of people had brought food & alcohol to have a little sunset picnic. It wasn’t an overly spectacular sunset but still nice.
After sunset, we parted way. The Dutch girl went back across the river to a vegan restaurant she wanted to try, and I stayed on the Gaia side and went in search of food. Apparently, the restaurants on the Gaia side of the Duoro River are better than the restaurants on the Porto side of the river. So, I went down a VERY steep hill, 85m down to sea level, and started walking along the river. I wasn’t sure what I wanted, but most were very busy. Dinner here is eaten late, and kitchens don’t open until 7pm at the earliest, so at 9pm, restaurants are still full.
I decided to try one of the cod cakes with sheep cheese. The ones from the big shop with books & a man playing an organ from the other day. I only got 1, and it was ok. The cheese was a ball in the middle, not dispersed throughout, and the cheese section was delicious. Without the cheese, it was quite dry and pasty. Not a fan but glad I tried it.
Then I kept walking and settled on a small restaurant that had been recommended by one of the staff at the hostel. It was not busy and had a few nice sounding items. I had a table outside, and the waiter told me the recommendations for today were the tiger prawn skewer and some type of flat, ugly looking fish starting with R. I selected the tiger prawn skewer as I had been told Portugal has some good prawns. They are ultra-expensive, compared to all the fish they sell. In a few restaurants I had looked at online, a prawn dish can sell for as much as €76! The prawns had want to be dipped in gold for that price!! Fortunately, the dish I chose was a little cheaper at €22.50. It had 5 large tiger prawns on a metal skewer, chips & salad. I did have to peel them as they were whole, which was quite messy, but they were really good.
Then I headed back to the hostel. As I was down at the river level, I had to drag my butt back up the 85m to the hostel level. I chose to cross the river back to the Porto side on the lower level and take the stairs up, instead of walking up the steep road I had come down and crossing the upper bridge level. Not sure if that was a smart decision or not. It was so steep! By the time I got to the top I was completely pooped!
When I got back to the hostel, I packed all my stuff and got ready for bed, whilst talking to the Dutch girl. It was midnight when we went to bed, and I had to be up by 3am so that sucks lol.
Sunday morning came far too quickly. I was up, dressed and out the door in 20mins. Pretty good! When I got out into the street to wait for my airport transfer, I was surprised by the number of people wandering the streets. All party animals who were on the way home from the clubs or hanging out. Some VERY drunk. Unfortunately, by 4.05am my transport had still not arrived. By now I was quite stressed as Ryan Air had advised that there was strike action at Porto airport between 5am-9am and significant delays were expected. I ended up getting an Uber to the airport and plan to lodge a complaint with the company when I get home.
Lucky for me, the queues were not massive, and it was quite quick and easy to get through security. As it was so early, and I only had 2.5hrs sleep, I went in search of coffee & food. There was only 1 place open, and the line was quite long. Took 20mins in this queue! I got a ham & cheese croissant (cold, yuk), pastel de nata (cold, not crunchy, probably yesterday’s leftovers), fresh OJ (yum) and a milk coffee (also yum).
By then, the gate information was released so I headed for the gate. On the way, we had to pass through Immigration, and then at the gate we had all our documents checked. Then it was straight onto the bus and off to the plane. It’s a 2hr flight back to London Stansted, then I have to make my way home from there.
Then it is back to the real world, back to work on Wednesday and limited/no travel until the next holidays in mid-October.
Portugal is a lovely country. The food is pretty average, except the pastel del nata, but the buildings and scenery are awesome. I definitely recommend a trip to Portugal when you are in this part of the world. I will have to return and explore the Algarve area as I have heard places like Faro and Lagos are stunning.