Portugal

Curt and I recently went to Portugal.

Some people are beach vacation type of people (and don't get me wrong, I like a good beach), but my vacation love language is amazing architecture and sweeping views.

By that measure this vacation was a resounding success.

There were some drawbacks like rain and a few of the places I wanted to visit being closed, but we got to see so much beauty!

We flew to Madrid overnight on Friday, November 8th, then took a short morning flight from there to Lisbon.

It was off to a slightly rocky start when we got to our home base apartment and no one was there to let us in to drop off our stuff and it was raining on us and then when we got into our place we found the hot water heater was broken and wouldn't be fixed (cold showers for the duration, what can you do?).

But, we went to Castelo de Sao Jorge and looked over the foggy city and all was well.

 {our bus from the airport dropped us off in at the Praca do Comercio where we got a little bit of sunshine until we got to our apartment}

{Lisbon has these adorable trolleys that go all around the city}

The next morning we got some pastries and then went to the Rossio train station to go up to Sintra for the day.
Sintra is a mountainous area outside of Lisbon where a bunch of palaces and estates were built.
To get to the palaces we took buses and it was absolutely insane the small windy roads that they were able to go up...mad props to the talented drivers.

The first place we went to was Quinta da Regaleira.
It had these magical grounds with caves and grottos and statues everywhere.
We went down the 'Initiation well' which leads to tunnels at the bottom going to other places, one of them being a waterfall grotto.

The next place we went to was Monserrate Palace.
It was maybe the smallest that we went to, but man, the details! I just couldn't get over it.

 {on the grounds were several of these absolutely giant aloe vera looking plants}

We went back to the town center after that and had lunch, then went on a different bus loop to the Moorish Castle.
This is the oldest structure, and is an archeology site because they're still finding even older things.
The views were amazing and I think this ended up being Curt's favorite place of the day.

The last place we visited in Sintra was Pena Palace.

Pena has a lot of hype and I think is the most visited, but it was my least favorite of the bunch.

That said, still really neat to see.

After Pena it started raining in earnest so we took that as our signal to take the train home and relax for the evening.

 {view of Pena that we could see from the Moorish Castle}

On Monday we took a small commuter tram/train thing out to the Belem area of Lisbon.

Here we ran into poor planning on my part, all of the sights were closed for the day so that left just seeing their (still spectacular) exteriors.

{out getting pain au chocolat and other pastries for breakfast before getting started}

 {at the Monument to the Discoveries}

 {Jeronimos Monastery}

{Curt with a huge anchor outside the Marinha Museum}

 {Belem Tower}

{we went to this pastry shop in the area, boy was it good}

{this may not look that exciting, but it was one of the best samosas I've ever had}

It actually turned out to be probably a good thing that all those places were closed because my knee was starting to give some problems and we ended up shopping for souvenirs, going back to our place to rest, and then just riding a couple of the larger trolley loops...which was a very fun way to see a swath of the city.

 {I adore all the exterior tile used throughout Portugal}

 {the only way I feel comfortable, clutching a map so I know where I'm going}

 {the place we stayed in Lisbon were the three windows above the blue awnings, great central location}

 For our last leg of the trip we took an early morning train up to Porto.

And Porto is stunning.

I'm including way too many pictures of tiled buildings, but know I have a hundred more that I love too. 

It was drizzling the whole day but I didn't care because it was such a pretty place to see.

 {the Sao Bento train station that we arrived at}

We stopped by our hotel to drop off luggage and then went out to explore.

 {a hallway in our hotel...give me all the high ceilings and trim work}

 {Igreja do Carmo...a church with amazing tile along it's side}

We went to a bookshop that was inspiration for some of the stuff in Harry Potter.

If I was doing this over I'd skip this place. It was a cool shop, but you had to pay to get in and there were still too many people there. 

 {look at that selfie-ing crowd...of which we were a part}

{it has a really unique staircase}

We went a few doors down for some gelato.

Curt got lemon and passion fruit, and I got a dark chocolate cheesecake combo.

Very yummy.  

We went down to the river to see check out the Luis I bridge.

It has a road on the bottom and a metro line and walkway up top.

{the views of the city from up on top of the bridge are great}

We then went to the gorgeous Porto Cathedral.

{climbing up one of the towers, best views we saw that day}

We went to a late lunch/early dinner to get a Porto specialty, Francesinha. 

This was an interesting sandwich thing with Portuguese sausage, mushrooms, beef, gravy, fries, an egg...so many things.  

We went to bed early as we had to get up very early Wednesday morning to get to the airport by 5:30 to catch a flight to Madrid.

 And then from Madrid, home.

{leaving Madrid}