Portugal May 2024

We are headed back to Lisbon today and it was an early morning. Suitcases outside the door at 7:30. We set our alarm for 6:30 and started the day. Breakfast again in the hotel. I am really slowing down and can barely eat this morning. I am so saturated with food. I forced myself to eat an egg and I did eat a Portuguese cream tart, the traditional dessert that is everywhere. I didn't have to force myself to eat that! I love those things. I of course had my coffee too!  Back on the bus for the 3-4 hour drive to Lisbon. We had one quick restroom stop and drove straight through otherwise. Checked back in to the same hotel we had stayed at before in Lisbon. Barbara wanted to hang out in a local cafe and work on writing her book so we parted ways. Matt and I decided to take the Metro to the City Center again. It was really fun spending the afternoon together with no tours and just wandering around looking at things. We walked down the main street again and along the water. Stopped for lu...

Today is our one full day in Lagos. We had another beautiful breakfast in the hotel and I ate very little but the food is delicious. We are scheduled for a coastal cruise this morning. We had two motor boats for our group. The boat was a small motor boat but we enjoyed the ride very much. The boat wove in and out of the cliff formations. Very beautiful. After the boat ride, we boarded the bus and drove to the Cabo San Vincent Lighthouse. This is the furthest southwestern point in Europe. My, oh my. The views were jaw dropping with towering steep cliffs and the ocean waves crashing below.  We then drove to Sagres Fort. We went through the museum there. Portugal was instrumental in starting the discoveries in the world through ship travel and initiating the trade that changed the world. They were also the ones who started slave trade which then spread throughout the world. Not a pretty part of their history, or ours for that matter. More beautiful views here of the cliffs and ocean. ...

Of course, we got up early, put suitcases outside the door and had a hotel breakfast. Today, we are headed to south to Lagos and will stop at Silves on the way. It is about 3-4 hours on the bus. The weather was partly sunny in Silves but remains cool and windy as it has been everywhere we have gone. I'm trying not to hate this part of our trip and it is ok for the most part. I hate being cold and I've been cold much of the time.  Silves is a small village alongside a river. We had lunch there and Matt and I shared a pizza. It was good but not nearly as good as the pizza in downtown Lisbon. Makes sense. Lisbon is a big city and caters to many tourists. Silves is a small charming village with narrow winding streets and there are not a lot of tourists about. We walked to the top of the hill and looked at the Castle of Silves. It's believed that the first fortifications were made between the 8th and 13th centuries by the Romans or the Visigoths, making it one of the best preser...

We are headed to visit Sintra today and it will be an early all day excursion. Set the alarm for 6:45 and when it went off, I was in such a deep sleep that it took me a while to become conscious. Both of us had wakened at about 2 am in the night because the room was hot. I was worried I wouldn't get back to sleep but it wasn't a problem.  I woke up today feeling lighter and my heavy sadness has shifted, once again. I'm grateful. On the bus at 8:15 with our tour guide for the day. She talked to us about all the sights on the way and explained a bit about the Palace of Pena our destination in Sintra. This palace was built by a King 500 years ago for his bride who wanted to be someplace cooler and cloudier, like her homeland England. Sintra fits that need.  The Palace is extraordinary. And the sun gods decided to be nice to us today. We were awarded unbelievable views of the area. We walked through this incredible palace with our tour guide while she explained all the differen...

Out of bed, shower and head to breakfast....it is a theme. We are moving slow today and almost didn't get breakfast in before it was time to get on the bus at 8:55 am.  We started our tour of Lisbon in an area called Belem. The first places we visited were the Monument of the Discoveries and the Belem Tower. There was also a very interesting marble floor map on the grounds showing the discoveries of the Portugal people categorized by date. We then walked under the road through a tunnel and visited the Praca do Imerio - Empire Square. Here you can see the Monastery of the Jeronimos and the Maritime Museum. The gardens and the buildings are exquisite. The real treat was the pastries our tour director got us. There is a famous pastry shop near this area that makes the traditional Portuguese Custard Tart - Pasteis de Nata. She got some for us fresh out of the oven. They were truly delicious. We stopped here at the cafeteria and got a coffee and sat for a minute before boarding the bus ...

Got up and did the regular, showered and put our suitcases by the door and headed down for our hotel breakfast. Today, we will travel to Lisbon. Breakfast was the usual and I ate very light. I need to slow down with the food! The weather is still cloudy and cool. We saw a beautiful peacock on the hotel grounds before we left. He had his wings spread and was obviously in his mating call. On the bus, we headed to the cork factory, also located in Azaruja. We heard about the cork harvest and manufacturing process. A young man was the head of this tour and he loved to tell jokes. It was entertaining. And of course, back on the bus! It is about an hour and a half to Lisbon from here. We had a quick stop for bathrooms and lunch for those who wanted to eat, which was not Matt and I. I bought a coffee and some cashews and ate a few more nuts out of my bag. I am so tired that I simply cannot keep my eyes open on the bus. No matter how much coffee I drink, the fatigue is ever present.  Arriv...

 Our tour of Evora was not scheduled to start until 9:30 am so we had a leisurely morning. Didn't rush at all and got down to breakfast at around 7:45/8:00. Breakfast was very similar to the hotel breakfast in Porto. Still very good and so enjoyable. We ate breakfast with another couple on tour - Terry and John - very nice people and we enjoyed chatting. After breakfast, we headed out on tour and saw many of the things Matt and I had seen the day before. The first stop was at the church we had only seen the outside of yesterday. This is the church of St. Francis of Assisi. Of course, more gilded gold and such ornate pictures and architecture. Somehow, I do not think this is what St. Francis had in mind in his vision of helping the downtrodden. We then went to see the Chapel of Bones. Yes, this is exactly what it sounds like. This chapel is built with the bones of poor people who could not afford to be buried in the church The walls are all decorated with bones and skulls. A little ...

We are leaving Porto today and had to have our suitcases outside the door on 7 am. We set the alarm for 6:15 and it woke me up out of a dead sleep. Again, Ativan helped. We will probably do this at least one more night. Another delicious hotel breakfast. I am enjoying the Portuguese breakfast in the hotel. Mushrooms and oven baked tomatoes are always part of the fare. And LOTS of bacon. They love their pork. Lattes are abundant too which makes me happy. And they remind me of Italy. Not very strong and you can drink them all day long.  We were on the bus at 8 am and on our way to Evora with a stop in Coimbra. The drive to Coimbra was about an hour and a half. Our main stops there were the university and the Cathedral of Coimbra. It was rainy and cold and we definitely needed umbrellas. The University is one of the oldest in the world and was founded in 1290. Truly remarkable. The library was simply astonishing in its grandeur and the number of old books. There are rare books dating ...

We slept through the night with a couple of minor wakeups, thanks to our friend Ativan. Felt almost normal when we got out of bed. Showered and headed downstairs for the hotel breakfast. The food was really very good and the coffee was good too, even though it was a machine making the latte. We boarded the bus at 855 and started our tour of Porto. Much of this city is under construction and traffic was pretty intense. But we made our way through the city with our tour director explaining the sights as we went. Porto is a charming city shouldered by both the Douro River and the Atlantic Ocean. The buildings along the water are all different colors and their are multiple magnificent bridges. The weather was not beautiful; it was cloudy with occasional rain but we made the best of it. After touring the perimeter of the city on the bus, we stopped at the train station. The station is a work of art with tiles on all the walls telling stories of the times. And of course, it is an active trai...

This is my first trip to Europe without David and I'm feeling sad about it but am also so happy to be with Matt.  As with most trips to Europe from the West Coast, we left SF on May 11 and arrived in Portugal on May 12. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 5:10. Matt came to my house and parked his car. Avi picked us up and took us to Fruitvale BART. Taking BART to the airport is a first time experience for me but Matt likes to save money, so I'm following his lead. We made it uneventfully to the airport in plenty of time. Matt and I had dedicated some effort to keeping our bags within the weight limits TAP Portugal requires so we headed straight to the gate. Lines were fairly uneventful and we settled in to wait. I headed off to get a salad and coffee and of course, Matt wanted nothing but ended up sharing with me. Barbara was unable to check-in on line and ended up waiting a hour and a half to check in and they made her check her bag. That ended up not being a good thing as w...