Estoril, Cascais, Sintra and standing at the edge of the continent!

Standing on the edge of mainland Europe *Cabo da Roca)

Although the Portuguese Riviera can't be compared to the French Riviera it's still quite spectacular in it's own way..  The Portuguese Riviera, which is sometimes referred to as Costa do Sol is about 30 minutes outside Lisbon and is made up of the cities of Estoril, Cascais and Sintra.  Estoril and Cascais are directly on the coast, while Sintra is inland just a bit and sits up high above the coastline at an elevation of around 1,500 feet.

Striking a pose along the Portuguese Riviera!

Our hotel is directly on the ocean and there is a promenade that connects the two cities.  It's a five minute walk to the left and we're in Estoril.  A five minute walk to the right and we're in Cascais.  We've enjoyed spending a little time in Estoril but spent almost all of yesterday (Monday) in Cascais.
In it's early days Cascais was a small fishing village, however things began to change in the 1870's when King Luis I made the town the summer residence for the Royal Family.  Anytime royal families move into the neighborhood you can bet the price of real estate is going to go up.  Today Cascais is one of the wealthiest municipalities in Portugal.  In addition to the royal family of Portugal, King Edward VII of the UK, King Juan Carlos of Spain and King Umberto II of Italy have had homes here.
The majority of things to see and explore in Cascais are along the waterfront. They include several nice beaches tucked between rocky cliffs, a large marina, a very impressive fort called Forte de Cascais that was built in the 15th century.  Inland there is a really nice municipal park, a number of museums, huge houses with perfectly manicured lawns and gardens, and a bustling city center.  One of the most impressive sites in the city center area were the numerous cobblestone streets with unique patterns of black and white stones, so if you ever end up in Cascais don't forget to look down.

Pedestrian shopping street in Cascais

Plaza in front of city hall

Cascais Marina

Lighthouse at the Cascais Marina

Museum in the Cascais Municipal Park

Boca do Inferno

Along the ocean path from Cascais to Boca do Inferno

Chapel inside what is now a municipal park.  The original construction was 1708.

The inside of the fort is now filled with artwork and galleries

Me looking at me in the artwork

Cascais

Plaza near the Cascais City Center

Praia Riberia-Cascais

Today we enjoyed going inland and up a bit to another resort town, Sintra.  This UNESCO World Heritage Site has it's fair share of royal palaces and castles, including the Portuguese Renaissance Sintra National Palace, Pena National Palace and the Castle of Moors, just to name a few.  With so many palaces in one place and being so close to Lisbon, Sintra is a very popular destination.  Although it's not quite "high season" here yet, it was plenty busy and probably a place you would want to think twice about visiting during the summer months.  If you don't want to take my word for it, read this blog we ran across from another traveler...……….
Sintra-An Epic Fail
In spite of being busy it was nothing like what was described in her blog, and we had a great visit.
Getting to Sintra was easy and very affordable.  We took the #418 bus from Estoril Train Station to the Sintra Station.  We then took a tuk-tuk the rest of the way up to the Pena National Palace.  Once there we had two options, purchase a combination ticket for the grounds that included palace admission or one that was for just the grounds.  We've been in a few palaces before and had been warned that the lines to get inside were very long, so we opted for just the grounds pass (7.50 euros per person).  The grounds are huge and very impressive.  We spent several hours walking the shaded cobblestone paths enjoying the views of the palace, the Queen's Fern garden and the frog filled ponds in the valley of the lakes area.  The highlight of the day however was leaving the park.  Not because we didn't enjoy it but because we did the one hour hike along the Vila Sassetti trail back to town.  It was a great hike, that with the exception of one or two minutes, was all downhill. Once back in town we rewarded our efforts with a nice lunch at an outdoor café overlooking the historic center of the city before catching the # 403 bus to the end of the continent.

Pena Palace

Pena Palace

It wouldn't be a palace without a gargoyle

The "park only" ticket will actually allow you to go onto the terraces and in the chapel.  This was taken from the terrace walkway.

Pena Palace

In the palace park

Valley of the lakes frog pond...………….

no frog pond would be complete without frogs

This small castle in the middle of the valley of the lakes is home to several ducks

Along the hike down the trail

Surveying the kingdom...……..or resting for a minute

The National Palace taken from the Vila Sassetti Trail

Castle of Moors

The mainland of Europe ends in Portugal at Cabo Da Roca, which just happens to be a stop on the #403 route from Sintra back to Cascais.  Buses run every thirty minutes, so we hopped off and enjoyed walking along the windy high cliffs that are known as the western most point of mainland Europe.

My Portuguese isn't very good but it says something about the western most point on the mainland continent of Europe

Cabo da Roca

Cabo da Roca

Beth and the Atlantic Ocean

Fun with Pringles!

   

Porto Pointers

Yesterday we said goodbye to Porto and headed on to our next destination, Estoril/Cascais.  We arrived around 1:00 PM and so far it seems as advertised, "The Portuguese Riveria".  There'll be plenty on this area in future blogs.  I wanted to wrap up Porto with a few pointers that you might find helpful if it ever gets on your destination list.

• There is no language barrier.  Although Portuguese is the "official" language practically everyone speaks English.  
• They are very good hosts.  Everyone was friendly, helpful and seemed genuinely happy to engage in conversation or assist with directions.  Like most big cities, I'm sure there are places you wouldn't want to go, but the area where we stayed and places we visited seemed very safe.
• You won't need a car in Porto.  There is a very good Metro system and although we didn't use it there was a very extensive bus system as well.  We took the Metro from the airport and had to make one transfer to get to our hotel.  Driving in the historic center would be difficult (narrow streets and numerous one way streets that change direction during the day).  Parking in the historic center is also very limited.  
•  Driving outside the city looked very easy.  Although we didn't rent a car, I've driven in enough places to know what looks easy and what looks difficult.  Outside the city the roads were modern, well marked and the drivers seemed very courteous.
• Visit the Douro Valley.  You can book a tour or rent a car but by all means spend at least a day (preferably a couple of days) in the Douro Valley.  The scenery is incredible.  The two towns we passed through on our one day tour were Pinhao and Regua.  Both looked like they would be fun places to spend more time.  A one day tour is a long day and can involve a lot of time in a car or van, but it's worth it. 
•  There are options on where to stay.  We stayed in the historic center (Ribeira), which we really enjoyed.  There are hotels and/or airbnb options in the city, near the beach, in the suburbs and at the airport.  Our recommendation would be the historic center.  You are near many of the major sites, there are plenty of restaurants and the metro is very close.
•  If possible, avoid the "high season".  Portugal is becoming a very popular destination.  From talking to locals we understand that Porto gets very crowded in the summer.  It may not be possible, but visiting during the off season or shoulder season will save you some money and you'll avoid the biggest crowds.  Right now it's "shoulder season" and heading towards high season.  It was busy but not overcrowded.  In the three and a half days we were there we had high temperatures that ranged from the low 60's to the low 90's.  Pack a jacket and shorts!

It was ten degrees warmer than this on Sunday but it's going to be chilly this coming weekend.

•  Try a glass of port and a francesinha!  If you don't know what I'm talking about, read the previous blog.

Porto was a great place to spend a few days.  We would recommend at least a week if you have the time. 

Porto, Douro Valley and Foz do Douro

D'Origem Winery overlooking the Douro Valley

After a four hour drive to Miami, three hours at the Miami airport, an  eight hour flight to Madrid, a four hour layover and a two hour flight from Madrid we arrived in Porto!  Local time when we arrived was about 1:00 PM on Thursday.
Neither of us do very well sleeping on planes and these flights were certainly no exception.  We both got less sleep than we usually do when flying, so we arrived a little bleary eyed and in somewhat of a brain fog.  Our hotel, (Porto A.S. 1829) was just a few hundred yards away from the metro station which was fortunate since it was a little chilly and just starting to rain when we arrived.
Porto's population is just under 250,000 (about the size of Orlando, Fla), which makes it the second largest city in Portugal.  The city is located where the Douro River, which originates in Urbion, Spain, meets the Atlantic Ocean.  We're staying near the city center in the old town section which is called Ribeira.  This area is fairly compact with several "pedestrian only" streets lined with restaurants, bars and small shops.  There is a waterfront promenade area with more restaurants, bars and shops, as well as river taxi's and sightseeing boats.  Across the river is the town Vila Nova de Gaia, which is famous for it's wine cellars.  There are multiple bridges crossing the river but the most iconic one is the Luis I Bridge.  The project to build this bridge was originally proposed by Gustave Eiffel, who designed a fairly famous tower in Paris.  The bridge was actually designed by one of Eiffel's students, Theophile Seyrig.  This is something I'm sure the guy making the impressive run on Jeopardy right now knows!

Me with a photographer growing out of my head and the Luis I Bridge in the background

Feeling somewhat refreshed and almost human again Friday morning we took off on foot to explore.  The weather had also improved, although it remained overcast and in the low 60's throughout the day.
During the day we covered a lot of territory on both sides of the river.  We crossed over the top span of the Luis I Bridge to the Monastery of Serra do Pilar.  The monastery, which is no longer operational sits on an outcrop overlooking the river and historic center of Porto.  The Monastery, Luis I Bridge and Historic Center of Porto were all designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1996.  The views were fantastic, and being high up, it was a great place to get oriented to both Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia.

Another view of the Luis I Bridge

That's Vila Nova de Gaia on the left and Porto on the right (and us in the middle)

A small part of the monastery  

Porto from the Vila Nova de Gaia side of the river

Porto is famous for it's wine production, specifically Port wines.  They are sweeter than those served with meals and are commonly referred to as "dessert wines".  The grapes are actually grown and processed about 100 miles from Porto in the Douro Valley (more on this area later).  Many of the wineries transport their wines downriver for storage in cellars which are mainly on the Vila Nova de Gaia side.  We happened to be on that side of the river, the cellars happened to be on that side of the river, so off we went.  We visited one of the largest and oldest wine companies in the region, Real Companhia Velha.  The company was founded in 1756 and they actually have a bottle of wine on display in one of their cellars that was bottled in that year.  Carlo, our tour guide shared with us that if you drank it now it would taste terrible and probably kill you, but it was cool to see.  The wine tasting was fun, although I'm not a big fan of Port wine.  Some of the aged Port's tasted pretty good while others reminded both of us of cough medicine.

Real Companhia Velha Winery  They have a steel barrel tank at the far end that holds over one million liters, which is enough for every citizen of Portugal to have a small glass!

Tasting Time!

After a fun one hour boat ride on the Douro on what is called the "Six Bridges Tour" we crossed back over the Luis I Bridge on the lower level and explored some of the historic center of Porto.  One of the feature attractions is the train station.  The inside walls are covered with hand painted ceramic tiles that tell the story of the history of the city.  Most all of the interesting sites in the city center such as the museums, churches, market and main plaza are in easy walking distance of each other, making it an easy and fun area to explore.

Inside the train station.  The history of Porto in painted ceramic tiles

Yesterday (Saturday) we booked a tour to go to the Douro Valley which is an amazingly beautiful and very large (over 61 thousand acres) region of Portugal where the vineyards are located.  There were four couples, two from Canada, one from Denmark and us along with our "fast and furious" driver Felipe, who was very knowledgeable on all things wine (or at least he was very convincing).  We've been in numerous wine regions around the world and I think it's fair to say, this was the most spectacular.  The vines are grown on terraces all along the rolling hills and most are still harvested the old fashion way.  Each cluster of grapes are hand cut from the vine by the women. They are then placed in baskets that when full weigh up to 80 pounds and are carried by the men up or down steep and uneven stairs to the wineries.  Many of the small wineries still crush the grapes the old fashion way as well, by stomping them for hours.  One of the winery tour leaders assured us that the filtration and fermentation process got rid of any undesirable foot nastiness and that the stomping process left your feet feeling extra clean and exfoliated!  Below are some pictures from the Douro Valley:

Over the course of the day we visited two wineries, tasting numerous port as well as some very nice table wines.  We had a nice lunch at a restaurant high up on a hillside over looking the valley and the Douro River.  We also enjoyed a one hour boat ride along the peaceful river in a boat fashioned after the boats that were originally used to transport the wine from the valley to Porto.
It was a long but very fun day with some incredible views all along the way.  It was a fun group that we enjoyed meeting.  As these group wine tastings tend to go, the group gets more lively and talkative as the day goes on...…….I wonder what causes that?
It's now Sunday evening.  We enjoyed the entire day in Porto seeing much more of the city than just the historic center.  We took a streetcar line that runs along the riverfront from near the hotel to the end of the line at the mouth of the Douro River.   This is where the beach begins.  There is a long beachfront promenade that goes for several miles.  Along the way we stopped at one of the  numerous restaurants overlooking the beaches and ocean for breakfast with a view.  The beaches were somewhat crowded and a few people were in the water, but based on their reactions when they were getting in I think the water must have been pretty chilly.

Riverfront Street Car   The ride from the City Center to the end of the line (Beach) takes about 20 minutes and currently costs 3.50 euros

Where the Douro River flows into the Atlantic Ocean

A selfie along the beach!

Old Man and The Sea...……..Portugal style!

Instead of taking the streetcar back we opted to walk along the river and through several of the many parks along the way.  One park had a small craft fair going on as well as a couple of Putt-Putt courses.  We challenged each other to a Putt-Putt duel.  I got trounced by 5-6  shots.  Beaten soundly, fair and square.  I was trying my best even if it was Mother's Day!

The winner of the Portuguese Open Putt-Putt Championship!

Maybe I should have been watching the ball!

A Sunday Craft Sale in the Park

As we continued back towards the hotel we stopped at the Gardens of the Crystal Palace.  These multi-level gardens sit on a hillside overlooking the river.  There was a really nice Rose Garden as well as numerous other gardens and some nice benches in the shade, which is always a Tucker favorite.

The Gardens of the Crystal Palace

Taken from the Gardens of the Crystal Palace

We finished the day exploring an area close to the hotel but one that we had not walked through previously.  We passed the University of Porto and the Livraria Lello Bookshop.  A former faculty member of the University named J. K. Rowling is said to have written some of the early pieces of  Harry Potter while sitting in the bookshop and that the Hogwarts Library is actually modeled after the bookstore.  Having never seen the movies, I guess I'll just have to take their word for it.  It must be true because the bookstore has become so popular that you now have to buy a ticket just to go inside!

The Livraria Lello Bookshop

Clerigos Tower...….. Inaugurated in 1763, it's the most visited monument in Porto.  225 Steps to the top!

In case you don't like what one pastor is saying...…..this is actually two churches.  Igreja dos Carmelitas on the left and Igreja do Camo on the right!

It's been a really fun three  and a half days in the Porto area.  It would be quite easy to spend a week or more here without running out of things to see and do, but for us and for now, it's getting time to head to our second destination.  Tomorrow morning we'll be taking the train to Estoril, which is known as the Portuguese Riveria and playground for the rich and famous.  I hope they don't mind us crashing their party!

Codfish Croquettes (Tasty)

It's called a Francesinha.  It's a traditional sandwich of Porto.  There is ham, pork roast and fresh sausage between two pieces of bread.  Cheese is melted over the top and it's then covered with gravy.  It was really good but probably not too good for me.

Pork steak with fries, salad and rice.  Unlike mine, at least Beth had some roughage on her plate!

Back to where it all started!

Salamanca, Spain...…...Where it all began!

It's almost packing time again.  On Wednesday we'll be driving over to Miami to catch a flight to our next destinations, Portugal and Spain.  We'll be splitting the time pretty evenly between the two countries, first in Portugal and finishing up in Spain.
Beth has spent a little bit of time in Portugal with her mom and sister Debbie on one of their "old lady" adventures. It will be my first visit to mainland Portugal.  We spent some time last year on Terceira, which is one of the islands that makes up the Azores, and Madeira Island.  Both of which are a part of Portugal. We're looking forward to exploring a few places in this country of around ten million people.
Size wise, Portugal is one of smaller European countries (19th).  It's bordered on the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean and on the north and east by Spain.  It's a country that has been getting a lot of attention in recent years as it has continued to develop it's tourism industry, especially in the capital city of Lisbon and along it's 1,115 miles of coast line.
We'll be spending time in Porto. which is a coastal town in the northern part of the country.  It's the second largest city in Portugal known not only for it's close proximity to nice beaches but also for it's narrow cobblestone streets, numerous bridges and architecture.  Oh yeah, it's also known for it's port wine!
Porto
After Porto, we'll be taking a train to Estoril, which is located on the Portuguese Riviera.  Then we will be heading over to Lisbon for a few days in what is the countries capital and largest city.
Estoril
Lisbon
From Lisbon we'll be taking an overnight train to Salamanca, Spain which I guess it's fair to say is where our passion for travel began.  In 1979 a group of around 12 young people from Polk County, Florida ventured across the Atlantic Ocean to spend the summer in a study abroad program.  Most of these ambitious young students were graduates of Mulberry High School.  Beth and I happened to be two of these students. Other than a few short cruises to the Bahamas it was our first trip out of the country.  We were already dating so we had been bitten by the "love bug" and I guess it's where we were bitten by the "travel bug"!  Thirty seven years together now and over eighty countries visited, I guess we were bitten pretty hard.
We're looking forward to exploring the area around the University of Salamanca, which is where we made a feeble attempt to learn Spanish, as well as the Plaza Mayor which is where we spent most evenings.  We'll be there a couple of months shy of forty years from the time of our first visit, I'm sure that just like us, it hasn't changed much!
Salamanca
We'll finish up this three week adventure in Madrid.  We've passed through the Madrid airport a number of times through the years but it's been forty years since we've spent any time in the city.  It's time to get year number four of this Traveling Idiots adventure underway.
Madrid

No, it's not James, but it is one of the funniest pictures I've seen in a while.  I'll bet that will make the other team think twice before sliding into second base!