Our trip involved two legs, one in Lisbon, and one in Porto. Below is some of our experiences in Lisbon.
After a many hour flight with Turkish Airlines and a brief layover in Turkey, we had finally arrived in Lisbon. A quick disembarkation, easy customs pass through, and short wait later we were on our way to the hotel.
On the way to the Hotel we briefly stopped at the Mariners museum for a brief tea and cakes with a wonderful view of the Jeronimo's Monistary. Our first taste of Pastel de Nada had me hooked. Once the tea break was done we continued on towards our Hotel, the Penha Longa Resort.
The resort is a magnificent golf estate with many things to see if you take a walk through the premises. A beautiful chapel, rose gardens, roman bath, and old shrine are just a few of the things that one can see. The resort also had several great restaurants where almost any kind of food can be eaten. The poolside bar is a great place to relax with a cocktail or two or one could lounge around at the inside bar where style meets comfort. The rooms were well designed with a nice balcony overlooking the golf course
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| Penha Longa Resort |
After a quick lunch at Il Mercato, we decided to stroll through the resort before getting ready for a surprise event... A wedding! One of the couples on the trip with us had decided that this was the perfect opportunity to tie the knot. Neither of the couple's parents were still with us, and all their friends had managed to make it on the trip.
After the Nuptuals it was on to our first official dinner... and boy was it one hell of a party. I must say this about Portuguese wine and beer, its extremely light and easy to drink.
I would love to go into detail about each and every day's itenary, but to be honest I just can't remember it all. However it wouldn't be much of a blog post if I didn't at least share some of the experiences.
One of our first stops was the famous Jeronimo's Monastery, the final resting place of Vasco De Gama. Before this I had never seen such detail on any church. Each sculpture was unique and beautifully crafted. It was truly a blessed experience.
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| Jeronimo's Monastary |
After this we navigated the narrow streets of Lisbon in Tuk-tuks and saw some beautifully tiled houses. Unfortunately many houses were missing tiles, some buildings were starting to fall to ruin and one could not imagine the amount of grafiti everywhere. Onwards and Upwards we went until we reached the Castle of St George. The views over Lisbon were magnificent and well worth a few Selfies (I myself am not a great fan of selfies).
Through the next few days we also managed a trip to the quaint traditional castle town of Obidos (where their cherry liquor had me wanting more), a late night stroll past the Tower of Belem and the Padrão dos Descobrimentos (we almost missed the last train home for this), the Lisbon Dungeon (for which I am still asking L for forgiveness), and the Santa Justa Lift (we never ended up going up due to long queues).
Our last day in Lisbon will be remembered to me for two reasons. Our engagement and the farewell to Lisbon dinner.
Whilst every woman loves an engagement story, I will spare you the gory details (I never could tell the story well anyway). I popped the question at the Moorish Castle, and she said yes. After which we went on to the Penha Palace and then finished off with lunch at a great restaurant in Sintra, Casa Porteguesa (where the owner gave me one of his recipes). One of my only regrets is that we did not get to Quinta de Regaleira. The farewell dinner was at Kais Restaurant, which was amazingly decorated and served what I believe to be some of the best food on the trip.
Finally it was time to depart Lisbon and head on to Porto by train.
