Saturday September 13
Off to Portugal - We took an 11:30 am flight from Munich to Lisbon arriving at 1:30pm due to a one-hour time change (backwards). We called our holiday apartment to alert them that we were on the way and jumped into a taxi. Unfortunately our taxi driver could not find our apartment deep in the Barrio Alto (the old city) with it’s maze of narrow one-way and dead-end streets. Another call to the agent at our apartment sorted out the driver but then we got stuck behind a broken down garbage truck. Finally we were in our apartment around 3:00pm - up 4 flights of very narrow winding stairs - it was quite a chore to drag our luggage all the way up.
The agent gave us a quick run down then shot off as she was running late for other appointments by then. We set off to find a grocery store which proved to be a serious challenge - the Barrio Alto area has 1000’s of wine and tapa bars as well as up market and eclectic boutiques but the only grocery store we could find was a very crummy mini-mart. We bought some basics for brekky and sambos for dinner. We then walked around the area stopping at a square for a drink on the cool green lawn of a hotel watching locals dance to live music in the square along the waterfront. It was balmy evening - at least mid 20’s at 7:00pm.
We came back to our apartment and had sambos for dinner then off to bed. It was a very short night as by 11:00pm the noise from the local bars and restaurants really got going - think trying to sleep in the middle of a rock concert - it went on until 4:00am. We knew the area could be quite noisy but had no idea it would be this bad - I was ready to cut our losses and move out. We decided to wait one more night figuring that Saturday would be the worst night.
Sunday September 14
After a rough night we got up and made our meagre breakfast of fruit (pineapple, strawberries and a peach) and yoghurt; fortunately the apartment had a Nespresso machine with sufficient capsules for a few days - we’ll need to find a Nespresso shop - the agent told us there was one in the next district (Chiado). Dieter called some friends of Helmut and Maggie (Dieter and Teresa) who live in Lisbon 3 months per year. They were waiting for our call and we arranged to meet just a few minutes walk from our place at 10am. (Dieter is German and Teresa is originally from Portugal but has lived in Germany for many years). They had excellent knowledge of the local history and architecture which provided a great insight to the city as we did a walking tour of our area visiting a lookout and cathedral then took a taxi to the famous fortress at the top of the highest hill in Lisbon. It was a beautiful warm (high of 27℃) and sunny day - the tourists were out and about. We then had a very mediocre lunch at a cafe some 15 minutes walk from the fortress - the plans kept evolving. After lunch we gave our new friends a fond farewell then took a taxi to El Corte Ingles (a large department shop we knew from Barcelona with a wonderful supermarket and food hall). We bought a few things then walked back to our apartment - a good 50 minutes so not really a convenient place for regular grocery shopping. Totally exhausted, we relaxed on our rooftop terrace with a glass of vino then had an early dinner of more sambos - this time with a good selection of cheese. Fortunately it was not nearly as noisy overnight - not that I had a good night’s sleep.
Monday September 15
Up and at 'em - looked like a repeat of Sunday weather-wise even though it had rained a bit overnight. We set out for our own walking tour - through our local neighbourhoods: Barrio Alto, Chiado, Baixa and on down to the river front where there is the “largest” square (Placa do Comercio) in Europe, maybe the world. At about 11:30am and a rain squall moved in - we sought shelter until it cleared then continued walking. We had picked a place to eat - one of the many restaurants around the square - this one was a bit different that the usual tourist spot - Restaurant Chefe Cordeiro. We had a few tapas and a bottle of wine - not our usual lunch but the rain had turned into a downpour so we needed a bit of long lunch to see out the rain. Well just as we finished the rain cleared. We bought a 48-hour ticket for the Yellow Hop on/off tourist bus which included an historic tram tour. As this placa is the start of the tram we jumped on and set off on an 80 minute circuit of some of the sights of Lisbon. Back at the placa - we slowly walked home checking out bars, restaurants and boutiques.
For dinner we decided to go the the restaurant the LHW hotel (Barrio Alto Hotel) only a couple of minutes walk from our place. The prices were low and the food was excellent - a great evening - only issue is that the restaurant has a hotel atmosphere not your typical hole-in-the wine bar of many of the other local choices.
Tuesday September 16
We used our Yellow Bus ticket to go to Balem - home of the Portuguese fleet - it is a real tourist hub with various museums, a fortress, and many restaurants. We visited many of these, had a pizza lunch then took the bus back to the city. We stopped at the LHW Barrio Alto hotel roof-top terrace (which claims to have one the best hotel terrace views in the universe) - we stayed for a quick drink enjoying the view then left mainly because it was extremely windy. We stayed home for a dinner of cold cuts and cheese.
Wednesday September 17
We both had a great night’s sleep - I got up early to run some loads of laundry as they need to line dry as there is no dryer - only problem is there is no “line” so I setup a make shift Chinese laundry around the apartment - locals (even in very snazzy apartments hang their laundry off their balcony a la Hong Kong. We used our Yellow Bus tickets to go out to the old Expo site (1998) which is now a very modern and trendy residential area with a huge exhibition centre. We walked around then took the subway back to the city at Dieter’s insistence (I was worried about pickpockets - there are warnings everywhere). Anyway the trip was uneventful; in fact the line to the expo site (same one continues to the airport) was extremely modern and clean with huge stations. Back in the city, we stopped for a wonderful lunch at Aprazivel - a court yard restaurant in the heart of Chiado on the border with Barrio Alto. After lunch, again at Dieter’s insistence, we hired a Go Car (3 wheeled electric scooter for 2 persons side-by-side) - with a GPS directed tour - we got lost and rained on but eventually found our way back to the rental office - just needed to go the wrong way up a one-way street.
On the way back to the apartment, I tried a gelato from Santini (one of the famous gelato bars in Lisbon which is usually lined-up out the door) - it was about a 7 out of 10. We finally got back to our apartment at 4:30pm - so lots of action ironing the morning’s laundry, packing and showering before relaxing with a vino then heading out to a hole-in-the-wall wine bar for dinner (Grapes and Bytes) - with live music - all pretty good - atmosphere 10 out of 10 - food 7 out of 10 (shared tapas - which seems to be the national cuisine of Portugal).
Thursday September 18
Off again - up early - coffee and brekkie, final apartment clean up, final packing - then into a taxi around 9:10am - believe it or not our driver could not find the rental car depot (Go Rent) near the airport - after a few cycles around a few long blocks we finally got there - 20€ instead of 15€. We collected our Portuguese version of rent-a-dent and off we went towards Evora - even Tom knew the way even though he could not pin-point our hotel, Convento Do Espinherio, some 5k’s outside of town. With little ado we arrived just after mid-day to a warm welcome - we checked-in and drove to the old town for a walk around with the first priority being finding somewhere for lunch.
No sooner had we parked the car just outside the walls of the old town and started walking towards the center, than the skies opened - much like a fire hydrant. Fortunately we had our gortex jackets along and we sheltered under an awning while we waited for the cloud burst to pass. It did, but then all the nice outdoor cafes were totally wet - we found a pizzeria with indoor tables and had a quick lunch of a shared proscuitto pizza - washed down with .25L of white wine for 3€ and a .5L beer for even less. We walked around checking out all the churches, fortresses, acquaducts, museums etc until around 4:30pm when we headed back to our hotel for their 5pm tour of the convent (really a monastery and church) followed by a wine tasting. The hotel is part of the Sheraton Luxury Collection and is housed in a 15th century restored monastery.
In between the tour and the start of the wine tasting we stopped at the bar for our free drink (compliments of SPG) - a French Champagne for me and a beer for Dieter. We had dinner at the hotel - very nice but a little exxy (think 25€ main courses).
Friday September 19
We got up at 7:30am and on opening the curtains found it to be very overcast with a hint of drizzle - the forecast as best as we could tell from the hotels very flaky but free internet was for a high of mid-20’s with a 50% chance of rain and possible thunderstorm - sounded a lot like the previous day.
Breakfast was excellent - make your own Nespresso coffee, lots of fruit, wonderful goat’s cheese, parma hams, smoked salmon, pastries and make to order eggs. My only complaint was the yoghurt was not very cold.
Dieter had worked out a bit of a driving tour of the area with the concierge. It was a very nice day - the sun came even out. The highlight was Monteras an ancient city / fortress.
We went in to town for dinner at a restaurant (Cartuxa) - highly recommended on TA as having excellent food and being much cheaper than the hotel’s restaurant. Well cheaper it certainly was but we both agreed the praise stopped there - the food was lacklustre - poorly presented and mine in particularly was almost cold.
Saturday September 20
We left Evora around 10am for this estimated 3 hour drive to Coimbra, an ancient university town. We went via secondary roads for about 1/3 of the way then took the toll-way - making it to the outskirts of town before 1pm - all good. At this stage we were only about 3k’s from our hotel but it took us and Tom some 45 minutes to locate it. We finally checked-in around 1:45pm and found we were upgraded to the Presidential Suite - amazing - too bad we were only staying one night. By this time the foggy and cool morning had made way for sunny and warm skies - mid 20’s.
We headed to the hotel’s informal restaurant for a quick lunch which turned into a bit of a marathon due to the slow service. At least the food was good. We then took a taxi to the old town - the university high up on a hill (we could have walked but now we were pressed for time as the day was slipping away). We took the sights and meandered back down to the edge of the old town on the edge of a river then across the river back to our hotel. We made it back to the hotel just as the late afternoon showers set in - seems to be a distinct weather pattern in this area. We showered etc then went to the bar for our free welcome drink - a half glass of local sparkling wine - not too impressive. From here we went to their formal dining room for dinner - they offered 3 menus: 50, 70 and 95€ so we opted to go a la carte - still very exxy - we were tired and even though the food and service were excellent we left a bit too full - then we hit the sack.
Sunday September 21
A wonderful clear and mild day - started in the high teens and went up to about 26℃. I started the day with a Nespresso coffee in our suite’s separate living room - it was still a bit too cool to sit on our huge terrace. We had a quick and very mediocre breakfast then set off before 9:30am for the Duoro Valley and the Aquapura Hotel.
We drove part of the way on secondary roads to see the local scenery then took to the freeway. At Dieter (and Tom’s suggestion) we exited one exit early for our destination. From here Tom sent us on an amazing wild goose chase - up and down the mountain side on “white” roads - some 45 minutes later we finally got our bearings and found the hotel. (Note if we would have gone one exit further and followed the hotel’s directions we would have arrived 30 minutes sooner . By the time we checked in at 1:45pm we decided it was too late for lunch so we went to the bar for a drink and a snack (our room was not quite ready). The hotel is built in a vineyard high on a hill sloping down to the Duoro River - the outlook is fantastic.
We a snack and a drink for lunch on hotel bar’s terrace enjoying the wonderful sunny afternoon. We took a walk around the extensive hotel gardens and got back just as the”regular” afternoon shower set in.
We had dinner at the hotel which was nice but a bit exxy - not as bad as Coimbra however. We were both getting a bit tired of big dinners out and were ready for some lighter fare.
Monday September 22
Unlike the previous few days we got up to a very rainy morning. We toddled off to breakfast which was OK - about a 6 out of 10 - they certainly could do better - the additional 10€ add-on for custom eggs was quite OTT however we weren’t interested in any case.
Around 10am the rain had slowed to drizzle so we set out to do a roadie to some of the local wineries - we stopped at the local town (Peso de Ragua) to get some tourist information (which the hotel could not provide) and got a bit of a mud map so it was off we went - on more windy mountain roads. In search of one of the few wineries which permits visits without reservations we headed up a very very mountainous road towards the town of Tabuaco - we reached this amazing town without finding the winery we were looking for (Quinta do Panascal) so we turned around and retraced our steps (so to say) - back on the “main road” (route N222 which follows the Douro River) we found Panascal about 50 meters along - although it’s driveway was 1.5 K’s of tricky driving (basically narrow enough for one car but 2-way). We had a very interesting self guided audio tour the vineyard which only produces port then a quick tasting. They did not serve any food and as it was now well past 1pm we continued onto the town of Pinhao - in the heart of these wineries. It turned out to be a nowhere place - we had a quick byte at a cafe at the train station.
We made our way back to the hotel and decided to eat at the hotel as the option we had identified in the local town of Peso de Ragua seemed a bit in the “too hard basket”.
Tuesday September 23
Yikes another rainy morning - well we were off to Porto today so we had an early breakfast and left by 9am - a bit of a record for us. From the hotel to the tollway to Porto was an hour’s drive along a very interesting “yellow” road - very mountainous and narrow with endless serpentines - with the possibility of a bus or truck on every blind turn. With a little help from Tom we made it our hotel, the Intercontinental around 11am. It is right in the center of the old town - we felt we had made the perfect choice - the hotel’s location combined with 5* elegance and service.
As we could not check-in until 1pm - we took a walk around - down to the river checking out some of the sites. We shared a toastie at a river front cafe then went back to the hotel to settle into our room - a really beautiful and large room with 2 windows overlooking the square.
We a 48-hour Yellow Bus ticket and took a city tour in the afternoon. Back at the hotel we got ready for dinner at DOP, a famous restaurant which was a “treat” - all aspect just perfect.
Wednesday September 24
Our only full day in Porto - it was a very nice sunny mid-20s day. We walked over to Graham’s at the suggestion of hotel’s concierge who also gave a ticket for a free tour/tasting. It was excellent so we stopped at their outdoor cafe for a very small lunch of a few tapas. We walked back tot he city side of the river and took a 7-bridges boat trip - all a bit touristy. We walked back to the hotel for fives’es at the hotel bar/terrace. After much agonising we decided to got to Forno Velho in a wonderfully renovated hotel right at the water front (Hotel Carris Porto Riveira) - the dinner was pretty good but not up to the standard of DOP but cost 30% less.
Thursday September 25
It was off early this morning to drive to Cascais where we had extended our stay by one night - i.e. arriving one day early for a 3 day stay. The 3 hour drive was almost all freeway so was pretty easy - Tom even found the hotel, Pousada de Cascais with only one U-turn required. The hotel is modern and funky but housed on an ancient fort overlooking a marina (and the ocean) and only a few minutes walk from town. We were able to check in on arrival (around 1pm) after which we headed over the the marina for a quick bite to eat.
After lunch we walked around town checking things out and trying to locate a restaurant for dinner - there are 100’s of touristico cafes lining the streets and squares but we finally spotted Gulli a upmarket pasta/pizzeria in a hotel where we made a booking. This turned out to be a great find/idea as the dinner was excellent and the place was packed out. We re-booked for Saturday night. We stopped for fives’es at an Irish Pub overlooking the main square (O’Niell’s) - a great spot for a beer and humongous G&T while people watching.
Friday September 26
Day-trip to Sintra - amazing place - more palaces than you can possibly visit in one day. It was really busy but we got our bearings and saw a couple of the biggies including the palace/castle at the highest point. We shared a sambo for lunch at a trendy sidewalk cafe.
We returned to our hotel and walked into town for fives’es at our favourite Irish pub (O’Niells). After agonising over what to do for dinner we caved in and ate at the hotel’s restaurant - to our surprise it was pretty good fare - fine Portuguese dining at very reasonable prices.
Saturday September 27
Last full day in Portugal, in fact, in Europe. We did a mini roadie in and around Cascais visiting Cabo da Roca - the most western point in continental Europe and another palace and gardens near Sintra when we had a very light cafe lunch. At one point there was a tremendous thunder storm which we just missed getting soaked.
We also got our ‘rent a dent’ washed and self-vacuumed as we had been told on pickup that if the interior of the car was not clean on return we would be charged 20€ which was a complete ripoff as the interior was quite dirty on pickup. Also Dieter had managed to put a very light scratch all along the passenger side when driver too close to some bushes so we thought a wash would minimise the impact of the scratch - it seemed to work they did not comment on the condition of the car when we returned it the next day.
We returned to Cascais a bit early (3:30pm) as several of the sites we planned to stop at had no parking to speak of - so it was back to O’Niell's for a farewell drink. For dinner we returned to Gulli (see Thursday night) for another cheap but good and trendy dinner - sitting on a terrace overlooking the sea.
Sunday September 28
The long haul home started today and continued for the next 3 days. We left early 9:30am and drove to the Lisbon airport - or at least the off-airport depot for Go Rent which we found on the second lap of the oval so to day. Drop-off and transfer to the airport was seamless and we were all checked in and sitting in the TAP “Executive” lounge by just after 11am - with a bit of a long wait for our 2:20pm flight to Frankfurt where we were overnighting at the Sheraton prior to catching our TG First Class A380 flight to BKK with connection service (747) to Sydney.
The TAP lounge is so daggy it is worth a special mention - sets a new standard in rock-bottom for airport lounges.