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Três Dos Meus Favoritos Excursões Português

@ daveNY37

Looking back, three particular trips stand out to me from my time in Lisbon.  For each one the idea of going excited me, while I was there I’d find myself thinking how awesome it was, and on my way home I would already relish the freshly-made memories.  A combo that potent attached to a certain experience can be rare.  You’ve got to savor that whenever it comes your way.

Night had fallen, the hostel was quiet due to low mid-week traffic, and I had just settled into my favorite bean bag.  I figured I was in store for a low key evening so I hopped online to see who I could find.  Not too much time passed before I was snapped out of my worldwide web-induced trance to the boisterous sound of my friend’s voice.  Ziva was one of my Slovenian buddies, and she had a knack for letting people know when she was around.  She informed me that Sergio was heading up to Porto bright and early the next morning, and he was extending an invite our way to tag along.  Nice!  I had heard it was supposed to rain, but that wasn’t going to stop me.  Sure enough, the next day I was on my way to explore a new city.

It wound-up being just Sergio, Steve, and me.  Once we got to Porto, we were going to check out the building which would soon be the new Yes! Hostel.  After that Sergio had to take care of some business in town and that would give us some time to explore.  It was a decent road trip, taking us about 2 ½ hours.  I enjoyed checking out the countryside as we flew down the highway (the Mercedes enjoyed going fast…), and it kind of reminded me of California.  Even as we pulled into town under grey skies I instantly liked Porto.  This town had character.  It wasn’t as posh or flashy as parts of Lisbon, but seemed to have even more of an old world charm.  Steve and I  definitely gave Sergio two thumbs up on the new Yes! location, and I’d love to see it after all the renovations are finished.  Afterwards we set off into 4 hours of exploring.

Porto. Photo by Josep Renalias.

First we wandered through the heart of town and down towards the Douro River.  We crossed, and the bridge gave a great view of the city.  On both sides were steep hills leading down to the water.  They were covered with buildings from top to bottom.  Depending on where you looked, it could appear to be 2010 or maybe a couple hundred years ago.  We made our way down to the river and wandered through the large wine-making part of town.  You’ve heard of Port right?  Well we had found it’s home.  Up next we made our way back across the river and discovered the many tiny, winding streets of the old city.  Even a Smart car would have a hard time driving down these.  After this we went back uptown and discovered one of the coolest bookstores I’ve ever seen.  If you’re a bookworm and love old bookstores to root around in, make sure you hit Livraria Lello if you’re ever in Porto.  Heck, even if you haven’t finished a book since you were forced to in high school, you should check out this place.  The décor was great, and the stairway in the middle of the building was gorgeous.  While in town I also had this amazing pastry with some kind of peach/coconut topping in it.  Great food makes any particular day even cooler…

Overall, Porto makes for a great day of wandering and casual exploring.  If you enjoy peeking around corners to see what’s next, strolling along a lazy river, and letting your eyes feast on a city that has kept a lot of it’s past intact…this is the place for you.  On the way up and back I really enjoyed getting to know Sergio better, and he proved to be a great tour guide as well.  He definitely knows his country and it’s history.  Hanging with a local who knows his stuff is always the best way to travel!

Ah, Sintra.  What a weekend this was!  We had heard from a friend of ours that there was a great day trip to be had, it was full of old castles and great views.  That’s all I needed to hear.  After breakfast that Saturday morning Astrid, Steve, and I decided to go check this place out.  Astrid had come all the way from Denmark and chose to spend her weekend hanging out with us.  Can you believe it?!  We walked to the train station and settled-in for about a 45 minute ride.  It was great to see even more of the sights outside of Lisbon.  Once in town we got ourselves a map and promptly set out to find ourselves a yummy lunch.  When that was taken care of it was time to take our full bellies and hike up to the castles.  It turned out to be quite a hike indeed, so maybe it wasn’t the best choice to chow-down before hand.  But we made it, and I thoroughly enjoyed the walk.  Along the way Steve and I ventured into this old tunnel just to do it.  I’m not quite sure what it was.  It was man-made and looked old, so that was enough for me.

Our destination was set high up on a fairly large hill.  It gave a great view of the surrounding area.  You could see the Atlantic, and even all the way back to Lisbon.  There were two choices once you reached the top.  The first was an old Moorish Castle, way more of a fortress actually.  I believe it dated back to the 8th or 9th Century.  There wasn’t a whole lot left of the original structure, but there was definitely enough to make for an interesting visit.  A large outer wall remained, and stretched up along the edge of the hill.  We were able to climb up and follow it as it traced the hillside.  There were two major towers you could climb up to as well, which were attached to the wall.  Man, I loved walking along something this old, and imagining the hands that had built it.  Who were the last guards to have sentry duty up here?  Did they ever imagine a geek like me tracing the same steps in 2010?  We climbed up to the highest tower and stayed there for a bit, just taking it all in.  The great view also included the next castle we were going to hit.  It was gorgeous.  Scattered about in the area around the wall were a few more ruins.  A horseshoe gate, cistern, and chapel (built after the area was retaken from the Moors) were some of these.

Palacia da Pena. Sintra, Portugal. Taken by daveNY37.

Up next was the beautiful Palacia da Pena.  Built in 1839, the King at the time wanted it to reflect several different styles, and it all combines for a truly magnificent sight.  It was coated in many different colors, and every way you turned seemed to greet your eyes with a totally different perspective.  Sometimes it didn’t even seem like the same castle.  Towers jumped out everywhere, doorways led to mysterious locations, and narrow walkways took you on a precarious sojourn around the edge of the outer towers.  I loved it.  Every direction seemed to lead to a new place to explore.  My nemesis naturally reared it’s ugly head though…  Yep, large sections were blocked or roped off.  What we were able to see was absolutely great, don’t get me wrong.  But looking back there’s no way we even saw 50% of that place.  There was a section you could walk through on the inside that showed how the castle looked when it was last used by royalty.  That was great, but I wanted to see more!

It was quite a full day of exploring and hiking, and we were pretty tired when it was all said and done.  We didn’t know it at the time, but we missed out on another cool place in town called Quinta da Regaleira.  Hmm, I guess I’ll just have to get back there someday, and that’s fine with me!

As our last weekend in Lisbon approached, Steve and I had one more place that begged to be visited.  Cabo da Roca was the westernmost point in continental Europe and we hadn’t been there yet.  How could a geography nerd like me pass this up?  Unfortunately it was a grey and somewhat chilly day when we set out on this last adventure, but that wasn’t stopping us.  We had to do some train/bus-hopping along the way, and that got a little interesting, but we made it to our destination in about 2 hours.  Upon arriving I instantly knew that the trip was worth it.

Cabo da Roca

We got off the bus and were greeted by a large lighthouse off to our right.  A cafe’ and tourist information building lay to our left.  Off in the distance I could faintly hear waves crashing, but I definitely didn’t see a beach of any kind.   We walked to this monument that I figured was a marker for the official westernmost point.  As we got closer I realized we were walking towards a cliff.  Then the view hit me.  Gorgeous!!  The earth just stopped and dropped-off.  Rugged cliffs stretched to the horizon in either direction.  It captivated me.  The ocean stretched-out before us and crashed up against the rocks down below.  We just sat there for a while and took it all in.  I was right about the monument, this spot did mark the westernmost point in continental Europe.  All at once, it seemed as if the same thought popped into both of our heads.  We got up and began to slowly make our way down the side of the cliff.  I know I know, not the smartest thing.  It was climbable, but soon became way to dangerous for two guys without the proper gear.  We climbed back up, and I scared the life out of this one woman when my head appeared above the ledge.  Shortly though, we discovered that there was a much less treacherous route down to the water a little further south.  At this point our afternoon turned into quite a hike.  It was so worth it though.  We were able to make it down to this tiny section of beach, covered almost totally in these perfectly smooth and rounded stones.  A few large rocks jutted-out of the water in front of us, one with a beautiful arch created by years of ocean waves crashing up against it.  It was an almost perfect oasis.  I really didn’t want to leave.  Darkness began to creep in though, and I knew making that hike back up wouldn’t be a good idea if we waited much longer (especially this one section in particular…gulp!).

After the hike back up we rewarded ourselves with some of the best pistachio ice cream I’ve ever had.  From where we sat enjoying these tasty treats, we could see a good section of the terrain we “conquered” that day.  What a rewarding experience.  I really need to find a job that pays me to hike and clamber up and down cliffs with beautiful views…

These 3 examples of adventure were just like the icing on our Lisbon cake.  If the whole trip had ended for me at this point, it still would have been so worth it.  Travel!  Explore!  Experience!  Yes, you!  I just can’t stress this enough.