For the October half-term we decided to escape to somewhere warm, so we headed to Portugal! It fit the bill perfectly with both city and beach on the itinerary.
Day 1-2: Lisbon
Day 3: Sintra
Day 4-5: Salema
Day 6: Lagos and fly home
We flew down to Lisbon and arrived at our apartment in good time to get settled in and go off in search of some dinner. We headed to the Time Out Market, which is like a food court with long tables in the center and small food vendors around the perimeter. It was very busy and full but we found a burger place that looked good and then managed to find four seats together (after much searching! We got lucky that another group was leaving so we snagged their seats.). The food was wonderful, and once we had finished we picked up some Pastel De Natas to-go, which we ate once we got back to the apartment. Soo good!
Day 1:
We spent our first morning walking and riding trams and metro around to see some landmarks of the city. We started out at the Pink Street. It used to be Lisbon's red light district, where sailors used to find their entertainment while they were in port, but it has since been cleaned up. It's still a hot spot for nightlife apparently, so we found an empty street first thing in the morning which was perfect for us to take some photos! Andrew's favorite color is pink so he was especially excited about this street.
We worked our way over to the Praca do Comercio, seeing the Santa Justa Lift on the way. We got our first (distant) view of the 25 Abril Bridge and the Cristo Rei statue from the water.
Next we went to the Castelo de S. George. We got a great view of the city and spent some time exploring the towers and castle walls. We saw peacocks and an archeological site, and ate an overpriced pizza for lunch. We weren't super impressed by the castle itself, but we've seen a lot of them since moving to the UK, but it was still a fun stop with a nice view.
The National Tile Museum was next. We saw some amazing tile work and got some good pictures, but the highlight for the kids was a pond in the courtyard with turtles swimming around.
We made our way over to the bridge to do the Pillar 7 experience. This is the pillar where the cables originate at one end of the bridge. The experience takes you though the inside of the pillar and up a lift to an observation booth for a view at the level of the bridge (this is not a bridge with pedestrian access). It was pretty neat to see how it all works, and it was definitely a unique view. Note: you have to scan your tickets about 10 times as you work your way through, which was super annoying. So don't put your tickets away after the first scan, like I did, if you ever go there.
We were getting pretty hungry by the time we finished at the pillar. On our way we had seen a neat street with some food options, so we worked our way around the block to find it. Turns out we stumbled upon a hip little area! We were still on the early end for dinner (it wasn't quite 6:00pm yet I think) so some of the restaurants weren't open yet but we found one that turned out to be really good! Then a quick stop for some groceries and then we called it a night.
Day 2:
On our way out for the day, we stopped for a quick visit at Estrela Basilica. It was a lovely church, and then we stopped at the park across the street to let the kids play for just a few minutes while Aaron and I finalized our route for the day.
We took a tram and a bus from there, across the 25 Abril bridge toward the Cristo Rei. The bus dropped us off along the main road once across the bridge, so we had to make our own way up to the monument. It was a really warm day and parts of the walk were very steep but we made it up, with a little extra pink on our cheeks. We went up to the top (you can go as high as the top of the main square below the figure's feet) and then we had a little snack as we looked out over the bridge and the city of Lisboa.
We caught the bus again and crossed the bridge back to the Belem area of Lisbon. We ate lunch at a café near the Belem Tower and then headed across the park to see the tower. We opted to not go inside (after reading reports of it being crowded and narrow and ultimately not worth the time and entrance fee) and instead just enjoyed it from the outside. We walked along the water, got some fresh fruit juice, and went to the Padrao dos Descobrimentos, where we finished our juice and listened to a street musician.
We headed away from the water and walked to the Jeronimos Monastery. We had to wait in a bit of a line for the free portion of the church, but it was worth it. It was beautiful! The massive columns were ornately carved and there was some beautiful stained glass. The tomb of Vasco da Gama is even in that chapel. There was no line for the paid portion of the Monastery (free with the Lisboa Card, which we had) so we were able to go right in. This was also wonderful, with beautiful walkways overlooking a central courtyard.
Next it was just a short walk over to the place that makes the most famous of the pastel de natas- Pasteis de Belem. It was pretty full, but we went back to the large seating area in the back and were taken to a table right away. It took a while to actually get served but it was so good! We thought about getting a meal there (once we saw the larger-than-expected menu) but decided it was too early so we just got the pastel de nata (plus some to take away) and a hot chocolate.
We stopped back at our apartment for a few minutes and then got dinner around 7:00pm at Mercado de Campo de Ourique. It's a similar set up to the Time Out Markey but smaller and less busy. It seems like we were still on the early end though, because it got busier as we ate! We got some fresh pasta and it was delicious.
Day 3:
We took a trip outside the city to Sintra for the day. We took a train, which is always a hit with the kids. We took the first shuttle bus to Quinta da Regaliera, which seems to be most well known for its Initiatic Wells. We headed right for the main Initiation Well first thing in an attempt to see it with as few other people as possible. We had a blast exploring the grounds- the wells, tunnels, waterfalls, towers were all so neat! The palace itself was a bit underwhelming, in part because there are only a few rooms that are open to the public, but the outdoor spaces were amazing. We spent the entire morning there.
After we took the shuttle over to the Castelo dos Mouros, we bought our tickets and ate a picnic lunch before walking the trail to the castle. While it offered a nice view, there wasn't much to do here (what can you expect from an 8th century castle?) so after walking the walls we headed back to catch the shuttle to Pena Palace.
This was a beautiful palace. Pena Palace was definitely the family favorite of the day. We didn't explore the grounds at all though, we spent the whole time there at and around the palace. There was a lot to see and it was just so bright and colorful.
Day 4:
Aaron and Andrew went out to pick up our rental car while I finished getting ready and packed up with David and Brandon at the apartment. It was a bit of a hassle to find a place to park while we loaded up the car but we got it all sorted and got on the road. We were heading down to Algarve for some beach time! We stopped for a picnic at a rest stop along the way and arrived in Salema in the early afternoon. Once we met up with our Airbnb host and got our bags inside, we changed into our swimsuits and walked behind our house to the beach! We didn't want to waste the perfect beach weather we were having! We spent the rest of daylight basically at the beach.
After I helped Aaron get the kids cleaned up and settled with a TV show, I went back to the beach on my own with my camera. I sat on the beach and watched the waves and then walked along the beach toward the sunset. It was so relaxing to be out there on my own with just the sounds of the ocean. I definitely don't claim to be a photographer but I had a good time experimenting with some sunset photography.
Day 5:
It was a bit of a cloudy morning so instead of hitting the sand we walked up to the little convenience store and then to the cliffs overlooking the beach where I had walked the evening before. We came across some stairs that led down to the beach to we headed down to explore before walking back toward the village. Andrew was making a valiant effort to not get wet, but some of the waves came up higher than we expected and his trousers were definitely wet by the time we were done.
The sun came out just as we were heading to one of the few restaurants in the village for lunch. They seated us right next to a large open window on their upper level overlooking the beach so we got to enjoy (or not, depending who you ask haha) the sun shining on us as we ate. Aaron got a local seafood meal which he really loved.
We changed into our swimsuits and went back to the beach after lunch, though the sun was starting to go behind some clouds again, and spent the rest of the afternoon there. It was still plenty warm, just not sunny. Aaron and the kids worked really hard and made a sandcastle with a deep moat that would theoretically fill with water when the tide came in enough.
Day 6:
We packed up and left sadly left Salema, which we had really enjoyed. We typically try to pack in as much as possible on our trips so it was really nice to have a couple days that were dedicated to just relaxing and playing. But it was time to go so we drove about half and hour to Lagos, where we did some shopping, walked around town, ate lunch at a cute café, and got some ice cream cones to share. We didn't have a ton of time here, but we were happy with the time we did have.
We went back to the Lisbon airport, where we returned our car and got checked in for our flight home. We discovered that our flight was delayed and the terminal had insufficient seating so it wasn't the most comfortable situation, but we eventually got a set of seats together and some food so things worked out. We eventually boarded and had a very late flight home to the England.
*A version of this post also appears on our travel blog, Kimblers Abroad*
