Easter holidays 2016 - From Porto to Lisbon and back

-
Since I am not travelling so much abroad recently, at least I wanted to share some impressions from our short road trip in Portugal over Easter.

It's been a long while that I've flown with Ryanair, but it was the most feasible price and times for this trip; even though we needed to go to Frankfurt Hahn first - like 120km away from Frankfurt. But the rest was fine: No check of our so carefully packed baggage, not much of a line for the check-in and for a short flight not too uncomfortable. Anyways, if you don't check in on-line, it is 45€ per person, so for the return flight we needed to find a place to print the tickets in Portugal.

After arriving in Porto, we picked up our rental car, drove to our AirBnb and dropped our stuff to go for a walk in the city. We found Porto very cute and lovely with all its unstructured streets and colourful houses. Especially the area Ribeira down at the Douro river is particulary stunning. On the way we walked through narrow passages, churches and historic buildings everywhere and heaps of street art (e.g. paintings, ceramics). 




In a small little wine bar we found a peaceful and romantic table to try Porto wine and local "delicatessen" like different cheeses, canned fish and cured meat slices. In some restaurants alongside the way we've seen plenty of seafood and freh fish dishes, which we got to enjoy throughout the whole trip. A dessert called pastel de nata is als a highly reccommended try.

The AirBnb experience was a great one, the family which hosted us (mother and two sons) made us feel really at home, we had dinner together one night and went out for a cocktail. We were very thankful for this amazing hospitality and also enjoyed playing with their two cats a lot ;)

On the way to Lisbon we took several stops and explored a Unesco World Heritage site, the Alcobaca medieval monastery (Mosteiro de Alcobaca):


Next was two days in Peniche where we were supposed to surf a bit. But due to typical spring weather (very chilly as soon as the sun is hiding behind clouds) and a riptide it turned to only one afternoon. But it is easy to imagine that the area around Peniche, Baleal and Supertubos is a gem for surfing in summer season, just an hour north of Lisbon.

The capital itself is a nice and lively city, with all its cobblestone roads, the churches and cable cars! Based on several mountains you get to climb quite a bit by walking around, but it also gives you the chance for stunning vistas from the tops.

 


Lisbon's most monumental and historical area is Belem. Many of the Portuguese explorers, like Vasco da Gama or Ferdinand Magellan embarked here on their voyages of discovery. 





The most impressive part about Lisbon was the near-by palaces of Sintra located in some mistical hills just a few kilometers out of town. The entrace fee are quite high, but what you see is worth the money. The photos speak for themselves:





In the end we had a relaxed few days looking into Portugals rich history, indulging in tasty food - reasonably priced seafood in particular - and just being outside in a different country. Most days were sunny, we found the Portuguese open-minded, easy-going and hospitable folks and getting around in English was no problem whatsoever.

Cheers,
Sebbo

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galápagos Islands - all in one place like nowhere else

-
Image
Before embarking to the Galápagos islands I had one night in Guayaquil, Ecuador‘s second largest city and gateway to the islands. I stayed close to the airport, stocked up on   insect repellent and sunscreen and tried to mentally prepare myself (=calm myself down) for my upcoming first ever dive aboard experience. The next morning, despite arriving at the airport with plenty of time, I almost missed my flight as the procedures at the Guayaquil airport are extremely  inefficient;  I had to argue my way through skipping  both horrendous lines at the tourist card desk as well as the baggage drop after taking forever at the faulty self-check-in terminals.. Phew, my diving boat would not have waited ! After a thorough baggage check by the K9 dog unit at Baltra airport I was picked up by the boat crew and met the rest of the divers: a group of 6 Americans, a French couple, 2 Spaniards living in Panama and another American who I shared my cabin with as we were the only solo...
Read more

Travel destinations and preparation

-
Image
Have you decided upon where to go next? And how do you prepare the trip once you found a destination? At an early stage, I learned that the more you travel the longer your list of places you want to see becomes. You'd think your bucket list would become shorter, but in the contrary - it grows longer with every trip you take ;) If you're looking for ideas and inspiration on google for instance, you usually find lists and recommendations from Lonely Planet , Tripadvisor or National Geographic . Usually when I travel, I talk to other travellers to be inspired by them, their travels, experiences and stories. Following a fellow traveller's personal reference is never disappointing, more often than not rewarding. Of course I also get inspired by places and things I see on TV, in documentaries or in blogs and forums, but in my opinion nothing beats the advise of a fellow traveller who has already been there. What do you think? How do you pick your destination(s)? When...
Read more

Bosnia - an emotional trip to the 90s

-
Image
For some reason Bosnia and particularly Sarajevo was the place I was most curious about in the balkan region. Maybe memories of what I heard about the Bosnian war in my childhood, maybe the little I knew about it but few stories... First realization when we arrived in Bosnia was that Euros are widely accepted, almost as common as the Bosnian Convertible Marka (based on the former German Mark). Secondly, we noticed the coexistence of Islam and Christianity - mosques and churches are located right next to each other.  Due to the conditions of ever winding roads and long distances, we decided to focus on two destinations - Mostar and Sarajevo including surroundings - and whatever immediate interest we draw to places on the way. Thus, we took a half day to explore Trebinje, its old town and ancient Arslanagić bridge. When arriving to Mostar we had some trouble to find our guesthouse: in Bosnia guesthouse means a private room in or next to a locals flat/apartment, so...
Read more