Lisbon and the Algarve, Portugal

July 21, 2019

Lisbon and the Algarve, Portugal - Summer 2019

Next stop - Lisbon ! As we live in the 'Portuguese' suburb in Sydney (when we are there), we were super excited to visit Portugal and enjoy all it has to offer. Immigration on arrival at Lisbon airport, must be said, was a complete nightmare !! It took nearly 2 hours to get outside and in a taxi to the city. My plan to only wash a couple of times in our 3 weeks, meant that an Airbnb was our plan for Lisbon and our place had something we were in desperate need of by now - a washing machine. I was a washing 'machine' that first night and the poor Airbnb was looking a lot like a Chinese Laundry with clothes hanging everywhere. I think we were down to the last few items in the suitcase. While I washed, the boys headed off for some well earned Portuguese Chicken. They completely destroyed 2 chooks, chips and rice, and I think the locals had a sideways glance at these two young boys tearing up a chicken like animals. It was a small local place but the waiter made everyone feel very welcome and found a space for the boys even though it was packed. If in Lisbon, definitely try Casa de India (yes, that name is real !!) the food was sensational !

My holiday tradition continued with getting up earlier than everyone else and going for a long walk, and in this case, an extra long walk...... about 12 km all around the Chiado area, along the beach and then up in to the Graca area. I fell in love with Lisbon on this first day with its beautiful streets and buildings, people and again, the food was spectacular. Our first stop together as a family was a trip to Belem, and with it being a sunny, warm day, Lisbon was filled with tourists (locals seemed to be heading to the beach). I made a new friend on the tram to Belem - a lady from Armenia, who we have no idea how she and her family had managed to leave their home country as she treated me like I had a big blue “i” above my head and marvelled that I could work out magical things, such as maps and tram tickets! At every stop on the tram she checked in with me to see if she should get off........ I managed to ditch them at Belem, but I'm sure she is still in Lisbon looking for me to help her get to her next location :)

We headed to Belem Tower and it was very impressive and the adjacent park was lovely and widely used by tourists and locals alike. We continued the walk along the waterfront and felt we had a bit of a bond with the place due to Vasco de Gama - the India link, that is. Jeronimos Monastery was huge and very imposing along with the Santa Maria church next door. Public transport in Lisbon was so easy and convenient, and we even used one of the elevators to travel up one of the very steep hills to take in the awesome sights of the city from Castelo de San Jorge.

In the afternoon, we happened upon a local festival/celebration in the Chiado area and it was lovely to just sit and chill over a couple of drinks - and some cheese and jamon - and watch the world go by for a while. We had had such a fabulous experience with the Food Tour with 'Untour' in Barcelona, that we decided to try another one - we were lucky enough that they let us partake in a 'trial' run of the tour - as it wasn't actually starting until mid-July, after we had left. We met our guide Ellis - who has lived in Lisbon for over 8 years but originally from NYC - and started off on our tour. It was great - we enjoy all of the local delicacies, including pastries, Ginja (pronounced Ginjinja) which is a cherry liquor, more jamon, a Bifana (pork sandwich), glass of Port and a chocolate, a bacalhau lunch, some tinned mussels and sardines and finishing off at the market with Portuguese tarts. Again, this is another MUST DO if you get to Lisbon.

After spending a lot of time visiting historic sites, churches and other 'non-teenage' places, we challenged the boys to find something to do in the afternoon, and they decided that they’d like to try an escape room. I found one in central Lisbon, so for an hour as a family we tried to piece together the clues and hints and get our way out of the room. As a first time experience it was fun but we probably didn’t work as well together as a team as we could have but overall it was a fun afternoon.

Our final morning in Lisbon had us taking in more of the beautiful sights as we wandered around looking for a breakfast spot, and we then enjoyed drooling over the spectacular fresh produce at the Time Out Market. Yes, it is named/owned after the magazine, which seemed a bit weird, but the market is split into two halves, the produce and the eateries and appeared to be of high quality. The eateries section reminded us of the Foodhallen in Amsterdam - such a wonderful local creation - I am always happy to pay a little extra for wonderful produce and an enjoyable experience.

Our next transfer was catching the train from Lisbon to Albuferia in the Algarve for a few days of badly needed RnR. Upon arriving at the resort and checking in, the boys promptly headed for the beach and then pool until the sun had set and they were kicked out of the pool. We had started to find our Spanish/Portuguese feet by this stage and dinner at around 9 or later was not an issue for us or the boys.

The next few days were filled with walk, sleep, eat, swim, drink, eat, swim, drink, eat, sleep repeat! The ocean was quite cold but the boys enjoyed the waves and the lack of people to deal with on the beach. It was a lovely relaxing few days before we headed north again to Spain. Portugal stole my heart - I would visit again in a heartbeat.