Sintra- a real treasure that should be on everyone's "to see" list!

Sintra was not even on our radar until we started talking to this bartender who makes the best mojitos in all of Lisbon!  He told us to go to Sintra as it is filled with castles and palaces, and is a cute town. No kidding it is cute! There are about 6 different palaces/castles to see: we saw two- Pena and Queluz (K-Loozzzz).  AWESOME!!!!

Pena Palace is probably my favorite palace of any I have ever seen because it is so interesting!  It started as a monestary in the 11th century, then the order was dissolved by the king, and it stood vacant for a few centuries, then another king took it and built a couple other wings and over time, you have gothic, medieval, and renaissance characteristics!  Add 130 acres of grounds, and you have a palace! We spent about 5 hours there just walking around.  It really is a very interesting place!

 View from the bus stop as you approach the entry way.

 View of the castle from a hill on the grounds.

 Rich at the front gate

 Detail: bizarre, but cool, window

 Detail: bizarre but cool tile work

 St. George showed up in the stained glass window of the chapel!

 Rich on a rampart

 Us on a wall looking at the interesting part!

 View from below

King's bedroom

The next day we went to the palace of QueLuz which is between Lisbon and Sintra.  It is patterned after Versaille (aren't they all? LOL!).  It started as a country home owned by some nobles, and then bought by the king and expanded, so it has an old section and a new section.  A more familiar type palace, that we loved.  This palace is noted for the statuary placed around the well-tended grounds.

 Hall of Mirrors

 selfie in the hall of mirrors because....so many mirrors!

 Just another ball room:-)

 Rich in the tile room.  The tile scenes represent the 4 seasons, the continents, etc.  Quite beautiful, but too much to take in!

 The ambassadors meeting room where dignitaries meet the king and queen

 the "throne" room (check out the seats on these thrones:-)

 side entrance to the palace (and tour exit)

 the main hours of the old part of the palace

 one of many of the more unusual statues!!  (lol!!!  Nothing like goofing around when on vacation!  Especially when you can make fun of a historical monument- did I say that out loud?)

 Neptune Fountain in front of the new part of the palace

View of the new part of the palace

Douro River Valley- just plain beautiful!

So we took the train up the Duoro River Valley to the town of Pinhao.  It is not the end, but far enough for a day trip because today is our last day in Porto:-(.  The Duoro River is about 200 KM long in Portugal, and extends even further in Spain.  Our favorite Spanish wines come from La Rioja and Ribera del Duoro- now we know where that is!!!  Anyway, Pinhao was cute as can be for such a small town.  we had 2 1/2 hours there between trains, which actually was enough: we drank wine and took a boat trip!!  Plus, half the greatness was the view from the train as we came up.  Again, just beautiful!

 View from the train, about an hour outside Porto

 Gustavo, our boat pilot!  Great guy!

View from the boat 

 Rich at the train station

The town from the boat!!!!  So cute!!!

Porto: Part Deux!

So we really love Porto!  The past two days have been great!  Saturday (yesterday) started with us taking the Red Bus touring system of on-off thru the city to the city of Matosinhos, just north of Porto. This is the traditional home of the fisherman!  Cute little town, with 3 square blocks of restaurants, all BBQing fish!

 We found this one really cute restaurant!

 And ordered Salmon- Atlantic Salmon, don't ya know!!  It came with steamed veggies and boiled potatoes- with the skin still on.  Then it was drizzled with this great olive oil mixture:  olive oil, garlic, parsley, and salt.   It is mixed and sits for 3 days before being used.  It is my new favorite!!  Of course, we had wine:-).  The salmon was the best I have ever had!  But, we did have excellent Salmon in Lisbon as well.

 Then we went walking in the Atlantic Ocean!  And walked back to Porto, about an hour walk- all along the Atlantic!!!

 In the evening, we walked the port area, because it is so beautiful!!!  Here is an example of how creative Europeans are- they don't waste anything.  This restaurant is inside the arches of an old (like 400 years!) wall!

 Then we went to Aliados Square- the main square.  They were having this annual graduation for all the college students.  They dress up in black clothes and all wear black capes.  Then the bands come on- Fado!!!!!  Sadly, it started at midnight, so we saw about 20 minutes:-).  Then back to the hotel, but stopped off and had a Tropical Burger: hamburger, ham, chicken diced and cooked, held together with cheese, and put on a bun with a fried egg.  Then come the veggies- lettuce and shredded carrots:-)  Trust me- it is delicious!!!  We had another one tonight (Sunday!)

 Oh yea- we hit the street art museum on the way home- incredibly weird stuff, but I liked it- much better than contemporary art, which makes no sense to me at all.

 Today, Sunday, is Port Wine day!  So off to the other side of the river to Villa de Giaia, the main town of Port wine.

 Port wine can only come from the Duoro River region of Portugal, and must be aged in barrels and caves in Villa de Gaia.  Otherwise, like champagne, it is only a Port Method.  Here are the boats they use to transport the Port down the river.

 And of course, we drank some!  Quite good!  I am getting a taste for it.  Still not my favorite wine, but I could get used to it!

Tomorrow, Monday, we are taking a train ride up the Douro river- everyone says it is incredible.  We shall see........

Lisbon- a city of grandeur and glory days

We are now back in Lisbon, after 28 years!  Last time we visited was 1986.  Hard to believe so much time has passed.  But what has really passed is our memory:-).  First impressions after all these years: Lisbon needs an Army- an army of maids to clean this dirty place; an army of painters to paint over the peeling paint; an army of gardeners to trim, mow, weed, plant; and an army of fix-it men to fix everything that is broken.  It is apparent Lisbon has seen better days!   Also, Portugese sounds so much like Russian with all the shshsh's and zhzhzh's in their language, just softer.

 Second impression- what a lovely city!  It is a baby Spain, with cute little plazas everywhere, nice people, great food and good wine and beer, lots of statues, and great tile.  It is such an endearing city!!!!  Plus we scored this bare-bones hotel (not even hangers in the closet or a sink in the room) for 20€ ($28) per night!

Lisbon is on the River Tagus, which empties into the Atlantic- an amazing sight!  Probably the widest river I have ever seen!  As we walked and sight-saw, we started to remember how much we loved this city.  It is old Europe in a nut shell!!  Visit it!!!!

There are 3 main areas we, as tourists and foreigners, care about: The Alfama, on the left hill as you look at the Tagus from Comercio  Square, the center of life in Lisbon.  This is the oldest area of the city, with the castle of St. Jorge looking over the city.  The Alfama is a series of small curvy streets, from the Moorish occupation.  The flat part in the center is the Baixa (Baizhzha) area- rebuilt in the grid pattern after the 1755 earthquake- great plazas, restaurants and beautiful buildings covered in tile. Most hotels and museums are in this area,  The right side is the hills of the Barrio Alto- grid pattern, with all the bars and restaurants.  Don't let this area fool you- it is packed with people, good food, good wine, Fado music, Jazz, and beer.  Oh- and tons of college kids.   It also has the best spots for sunset!  When it is not so busy, it looks like an area you would get knifed in!

Really, this city, despite having seen better days, has all the signs of revitalization and restoration, as it should!  It is a gem of a city.

I will stop the blathering now and here are some pictures!

 Commercio Square from the river cruise

 Commercio Square from atop the St. Jorge castle

You know how Rich and I always climb everything, despite the warning signs?  Well, it finally caught up with us:-)   (just joking!!!!  We didn;t really fall!)

 View of the castle walls from one of the tower windows.

 Commercio Square with the city arch, statue of King Jao, and the castle on the hill!

 Close up of the castle!

 across the river from Lisbon is this huge statue of Jesus, much like in Rio.  We took the elevator:-)

 Lisbon has busses and trams, and these cool cable cars- our preferred method of going up those grueling hills!

 The Alfama!

 Basilica of St. Vincent in the St. Jerome monestary in Belem

 the altar!

 selfie at St. Jeromes

 St. Jeromes from atop the monument to navigation (below)

 Front view of the monument to navigation!  Note the sword!

 Side view- check out the cool statues!  They are HUGE- much larger than life like.

 The Belem Tower!  There was one on the other side of the River Tagus, but it did not survive time.  These were used to have cross-fire across the river in case of invasion.

Me at the draw bridge of the Tower

Ramparts of the Tower- note the Knights Templar cross on each!

Porto! Our new favorite city!

So it is by accident that we are spending 4 nights here in Porto.  We wanted to be at the beach, but it is still too cold, and when we were on the bus from Seville to Lisbon, we stopped in Albufeira, a cute little fishing village we stayed in for a week in 1986.  Sadly, it is not a little fishing village any longer, rather beach condo hell:-(.  But, we didn't want to stay in Lisbon our entire time, so chose Porto by accident- I was looking for flights from Portugal to Italy, and Porto kept showing up, so we read about it.  Home of Port wine- how bad could it be?!  Been here just a few hours- our new favorite city!  But- you must have strong knees- this city is ALL hills! And they are serious hills!  So far, so good though. We shall see tomorrow!  Beautiful, though, great vistas!  BTW- we are not flying from Porto to Italy- we go back to Lisbon next week:-).

Porto is on the Atlantic, and has the Douro river running thru the middle of it.  All on hills, the UNESCO World Heritage city has tons to offer!

 View of the old town (Rebeira) river-side (Douro River) up to the castle

 Gustav Eifle designed this bridge!

 Selfie from atop the bridge at sunset.....yes, we climbed a million steps to get to the top of the bridge and walk across.  It was amazing!!!!!

 Sunset views of the cathedral domes and crosses

 Sunset view of the castle

Sunset view of the city as reflected in the waters of the Douro River!