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Soifer family vacation to Southern Portugal and Spain - April 2019 Read more
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  • TravelerPortugal & Spain 2019
    Day 1

    Brooklyn, NY

    April 15, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    The girls have been SO excited for this trip it was really hard to get them through a normal day of school and gymnastics! I had us all packed up and ready to go when we found out that our flight got pushed from 10:00pm to 11:00pm.....Not a good sign. I got them home from gymnastics, showered, fed and in their pajamas when all of a sudden we get an alert that our flight is now pushed to 1:00am with the worry that it won't even go out at all. This would be bad for us as their are no direct flights to Lisbon on Delta the next day at all. Matt and I were scrambling to figure out what to do while the kids went bananas downstairs with pent up energy. We finally found another flight leaving at 11:00pm on TAP Portugal but we had to pay for it (we had booked our original flight with miles) and Matt as not too happy about that. Anyways, we got the kids together and grabbed a taxi to JFK where we were waiting and waiting (very nervously) for our tickets to be issued. Finally we got them (phew), got through security and headed to a restaurant to grab some french fries and a needed glass of wine. We got to our gate and - delay. Ugh. Luckily we had the stroller with us and the kids fell asleep at the gate. We finally boarded the plane around 11:30 and got everyone settled and back asleep but we were FORTIETH in line to take off because of all the delays at JFK and I *think* we waited another 90 minutes on the tarmac to take off. I was mostly asleep but felt us finally take off and we were on our way to Portugal!!Read more

  • TravelerPortugal & Spain 2019
    Day 2

    Lisbon

    April 16, 2019 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    After a very bumpy flight - but one where the kids at least slept the night through - we finally landed in Lisbon! Evie started complaining about her stomach as soon as we got off the plane and the, right as we exited the plane, vomited all over the jet way!! Of course. Luckily it seemed to be a one time thing...or so we hope! We finally got off the jet way (after leaving the puke) and made our way to the looooooongest line ever at passport control. Seriously. Thankfully a nice man found us and brought us over to the priority line where we got right through - the one bright spot on the trip so far - ha! We easily got our bags and grabbed a taxi (it was cash only and Matt had to pay a huge ATM fee at the airport - not pleased again) to our hotel - Martinhal Lisbon Chiado Family Suites. The kids quickly found the playroom while we checked in before going up to our room which turned out to be a super nice apartment with twins for the kids and a separate room for us. It is huge! We quickly changed our clothes and braved a walk with the stroller on the narrow, hilly, cobblestone streets. We walked over to the Time Out Market near the water which turned out to be amazing. There were so many good things to try. The kids got gelato and Matt and I got some meat and cheese and a much needed glass of wine. We hung out there for a bit and the kids got a kick out of the pigeons flying in and out of the market before heading across the street to the park. It was quite nice out, but the kids thought the park was too baby-ish so we walked on and up a HUGE hill to check out some views and play ball in the square for a bit. The hills here are no joke, but Hannah did really well with the walking. Afterwards, we put the kids in the stroller and continued to walk around the Chiado neighborhood. We stopped in a really old candle shop (the oldest in the Lisbon) to get some gifts and then finally made it back to the hotel where we got some wine and the kids had dinner at the cute cafe in the hotel (bonus points for the Mini Cooper in the cafe that they climbed in and out of with glee). We were all pretty beat so we came back upstairs to get the kids bathed and into bed which they didn't want to do (of course). We made ourselves stay up until 9:00pm and then....SLEEP!!Read more

  • TravelerPortugal & Spain 2019
    Day 3

    Lisbon

    April 17, 2019 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Our first full day in Portugal! And boy did it start early...the kids were up for a solid hour beginning at 4am. Evie was coughing a bunch and then she saw a ghost!! I finally got them all back to bed and we slept until 9am when the doorbell rang and our breakfast arrived! We were all still pretty tired. Evie and I decided to go exploring and climbed up a big hill to grab some snacks at the Chiado Cafe. We had delicious croissants with the strangest payment system ever (they gave us a card which told you how much money to put in a slot machine to pay). Evie had a blast running down the slippery, cobblestone hill back to the hotel. The weather wasn't great - lots of rain, so we decided to scrap our plan for the park and took at taxi (an Uber actually which are super inexpensive here) to the Lisbon Aquarium. Apparently all of Lisbon had the same idea and it was PACKED. Luckily I had bought tickets the night before so we were able to skip the outside line, but we still had to wait in a massive queue to get inside the actual museum. The kids probably ran up and down the ramp 100 times before we could enter but at least we were out of the rain. Once we actually did get in, it was pretty cool and a great place to spend a rainy morning. Evie got tired half way through so I carried her, but Hannah was running all over and super excited to see the fish. After we saw everything we took an Uber back to Castelo Sao Jorge and thank goodness we did because the hill was ENORMOUS! We bought tickets and walked through in the drizzly rain. The views from the top were bonkers - you could see all over the city and to the bridge and the guy with his arms out on the hill. Hannah had a blast "leading" us all over the castle and up and down the stairs to see all of the cannons. We were all getting hungry so we walked down some cute cobblestone streets to lunch at Lisboa Tu e Eu. The restaurant was teeny, but delicious. We had 2 euro glasses of wine, cheese, cod fritters and the girls ate nothing at all. They are being not so adventurous with food this trip and all they wanted to do was play in the fountain outside the restaurant. It was a bear shaped fountain so I get it. It had been so rainy and drizzly all day but it really warmed up during lunch thankfully so the kids could play outside where we could see them. After lunch we walked down to the water and the big square before slowly making our way back to the hotel. Hannah did such a good job with walking the entire time. The kids wanted ice cream but we were too tired to get it so went upstairs to our room and watched Doc McStuffins in Portuguese for awhile instead. Later in the evening we took the kids down to the Kids Club for dinner and play and then had a sitter bring them up to bed while Matt and I went to dinner at Cantinho do Avillez nearby. It was delicious (and so nice to be on a date!) but the real standout was the wine which was wonderful and so cheap! After dinner we stopped for a quick drink at the wine bar next to our hotel for another delicious/cheap glass of wine before heading back to bed!Read more

  • TravelerPortugal & Spain 2019
    Day 4

    Sintra

    April 18, 2019 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    Hannah woke up at 3:00am because of a runny nose. Ugh. Luckily I got her back down and then Matt woke me up at 9:00 (for some reason) and the kids were still asleep too! I guess we all needed the rest. We had a quick breakfast in our room and then grabbed an Uber to Rossio train station for our day trip to Sintra! The drivers here are not keen at all to take children, but luckily ours did (begrudgingly). He had to go the most round about way ever to get to the station because of the hills and I think we would have been better off walking. We finally got to the train station and found there was a massive line to buy train tickets (we should have arrived about an hour earlier - whoops). We finally got our tickets which was a very confusing thing to do - we had to buy them one at a time for some reason and the attendant had to help us purchase the girls' tickets - but we just made the next train to Sintra. We walked all the way to the back of the train and finally found seats in the very last car - phew! The kids colored for the 40 minute ride and we got off into the madness of the Sintra train station. I'd planned to take a tuk tuk up the mountain but the kids were too young so we grabbed a taxi instead. Our driver was super nice and incredibly knowledgeable about the area even though we could probably only understand 20% of what he was actually saying. There was some traffic going up, but we managed to make it to the top and enter Pena Palace grounds. We stopped at the toilet and grabbed a snack (only ice cream for the girls of course) and then started hiking up the hill to the top. Hannah was a trooper but Evie was in the carrier - punk. We finally got up to the main gate after hiking through a gorgeous forest and finally saw the castle - it was unreal. Yellow, red and pink tile everywhere with the most intricate detailing. It was like a Portuguese Disneyland. The kids had a blast exploring the grounds (we didn't get tickets for the inside and the line was massive but the grounds were more than enough for us). You can walk all along the wall (scary) and all through the ramparts on the castle with views all the way to the ocean and back to Lisbon! After exploring we walked back down the hill and found the entrance to the Moorish castle (from the 1100s!!) which we were super excited to explore. It was a 400m walk to get to the castle from the entrance through a pretty forest. The kids were pretty tired so I pulled out the superhero capes I had brought and it was like they had a second life! They turned into superhero explorers and wanted to climb all the way up to the top of the castle and literally ran all the way back down. So fun. We made it back to the entrance (even Evie walked) but weren't sure how to get back down the mountain. There were police at all the park entrances and we knew how strict they were with kids in Ubers. I spotted a bus line so we shoved our way on and took it the two looooooong stops back to the train station. A train was pulling in so we rushed and hopped on - only to find out it was the wrong one! Luckily we were able to communicate via hand gestures with a very nice Portuguese lady and transferred at the next stop to the proper train. We finally made it back to Rossio station pretty tired and grumpy and had a taxi/uber/walk moment before settling on a crazy taxi driver who zoomed us back to the hotel. We finally got back to the hotel and were starving so ordered some food and drinks while the girls played with some other kids in the cafe. It is so fun to watch them play regardless of the language the other kids are speaking. We came back to the room for a little rest before taking the kids down to Kids Club for the evening. We changed and went across the street for a drink with my sister and Kyle who had arrived that afternoon (after their own crazy flight delay adventure)! We hung out for a little there having the best wine and then walked up the street to a teeny tapas bar we had put our name in at earlier in the day. It was delicious and we had more insanely good/cheap wine. We didn't eat until 9:00pm so got back pretty late to our room. Such a fun day all around! And I wanted to mention also that we got the BEST weather in Sintra. It was so sunny and warm which was great as I had read it was usually overcast/cloudy!Read more

  • TravelerPortugal & Spain 2019
    Day 5

    Lisbon

    April 19, 2019 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    We heard from the sitter this morning that Hannah refused to go to bed and then she woke up at 3:00am again complaining about her nose. Ugh. We were all tired again today. Despite being tired, we all (except Kyle who wasn't feeling well) headed out via taxi to Belem after breakfast in the room. We started at Jeronimos Monastery which was amazing (and huge!). We walked into the church and then just wandered around the outside for a bit. The weather was hit and miss - some sun, some rain so it made it a bit hard to plan. Matt ran to get egg tarts for us at Pasteis de Belem while Rin and I took the girls to a nearby playground. They had a blast playing, but did not like the tarts for some strange reason. The grownups did though! After our snack we walked over to the big monument to the discoverers and then along the water to the Tower of Belem. The kids were getting tired and it was starting to rain so we didn't make it to climb the tower and instead caught a taxi to LX Factory for lunch. Even though it took forever to get seated, we ended up having a great lunch (despite the fact that Hannah didn't want to eat her burger and threw a total fit....grrrrr). We tried to explore a little but it started to pour so we got an Uber back to our hotel. The driver gave us a really hard time about the kids again! We went back to the room to rest for awhile and when the sun came out we decided to go on a walk to get ice cream and a drink back at the Time Out Market. This was a mistake as it was really crowded and the girls were NOT well behaved at all. Matt took them outside to the park and they had a much better time playing on the seesaw and chasing pigeons in the sun. We walked back to the hotel, got them ready and dropped them off at Kids Club for the evening. Matt and I met up with Rin and Kyle and we walked over to Petisqueria Conquistador near the castle. It was nice out so we decided to walk. It was so hilly that thee was an actual elevator built into the street to get us up!! Dinner was amazing - lots of small tapas. Our server was a bit of a mess - spilling, dropping and breaking things - but at least the food was excellent. (Note - do not get cocktails in Portugal - they don't know how to make them). We decided to walk back downhill but the elevator was closed so we got a bit lost. Overall a really nice last night out in Lisbon and we are off to start our road trip adventure tomorrow!Read more

  • TravelerPortugal & Spain 2019
    Day 6

    Evora

    April 20, 2019 in Portugal

    We woke up this morning at 8:30 for the first full night sleep since we arrived! No one woke up in the middle of the night! We feel amazing. We had breakfast in our room and then Matt took the kids down to the Kids Club to play while we packed up the room. Then we were off! We took a taxi to the airport to pick up our rental car (we had a manual transmission so didn't feel like making Matt come all the way back into the hilly city). They somehow messed up the carseats so the kids are in boosters - not ideal but we are making it work. We got a little lost coming out of the airport but finally found the road and were on our way to Evora! After about an hour and a half we arrived at the old town of Evora which is stunning. Beautiful white washed houses, cobblestone everywhere withe huge aqueduct running around the entire city. We were hungry but all the restaurants were packed and the kids were acting up a bit. We finally found a place that had a tour group cancellation and could seat us. We got a litre of much needed wine and the kids were (reasonably) well behaved for once. We waited for ages for food but once it came it was unbelievable. We got chicken stroganoff and I think it was the best we have ever had - so good! We got some more wine and hung out for a bit before putting the kids in the stroller and heading to walk through Evora. I wish we had more time to explore as the town was truly lovely. We saw old Roman ruins and walked over to the Osso Chapel (chapel of the bones) but didn't have time to go in. The kids literally ran through the town on the way back to the car. Then it was off to our next destination in Alentejo!Read more

  • TravelerPortugal & Spain 2019
    Day 6

    Monsaraz

    April 20, 2019 in Portugal

    We arrived at our next destination in Monsaraz in the Alentejo region of Portugal in the afternoon. We arrived down a long gravel path and came up to our next hotel - Sao Laurenco do Barroncal. It is stunning! The resort sits on a working winery with a cobblestone path running down the middle and white washed buildings on either side. We are staying in a huge, three bedroom cottage and it is SO nice. Each room has a bathroom and there is a large living area downstairs. The property is massive with bikes, two pools and even a kids play area. Of course the girls wanted to go in the pool straight away so we changed and walked over. It was super freezing so they didn't stay long but I'm glad they got to get in the water at least. After the swim we changed into clothes for dinner (pajamas for the kids - of course) where the weather was nice enough that we could eat outside. The set up was perfect because the table was right next to an enormous lawn with all of these rocks formations to climb on so the kids were able to run around while we had some drinks and hung out. The girls made a cute little Dutch friend who they played with for the next couple of days. We ordered a cocktail which took ages to come and were sort of strange (of course). The food was delicious so it made up for that. We had grilled pork which was insanely good (even the kids loved it) and the kids had a massive appetite from all that running around. At 9:30ish (they are staying up so late here!) I took the kids back to the room and put them to bed while everyone else finished dinner. They came back with a bottle of wine for a night cap and we spent the rest of the evening hiding Easter candy!Read more

  • TravelerPortugal & Spain 2019
    Day 7

    Monsaraz

    April 21, 2019 in Portugal

    Omg what an awful night. Hannah had been fighting a cold all week and woke up coughing at 4:00am - croup. Coughed alllllll morning. It was so painful to hear and none of us slept. Definitely not the way we wanted to spend Easter morning. We went straight to breakfast so that I could give her her steroid medicine - I remember being on the phone with our pediatrician in NY (at 3am no less) sobbing on the phone. Sigh. On the plus side the breakfast was wonderful! After breakfast we came back to the hotel for the egg hunt. Hannah was feeling a bit better as the steroid helped her breathing so they searched for eggs and opened their baskets. They were so excited. We let them watch a little tv while the adults power napped and then put them in the stroller and went for a walk on the backside of the property. I had hoped that Hannah would fall asleep since she was so tired but of course she didn't. The plus side was that the walk was gorgeous and the day was beautiful - the wildflowers were out and fields were filled with yellows, purples and white flowers. The path was a little rough for our beat up stroller but we made it work :) After our walk the kids REALLY wanted to swim so we put on their suits and headed to the pool. The water was super cold but they had fun jumping in and out and it was sunny enough for the adults to lay out in their suits! Matt got a cheese board for lunch/snack and it was nice to eat by the pool in the sun despite poor Hannah's constant coughing. We stayed at the pool pretty much all day. After pool time we decided to take the kids on a bike ride as they had some bikes with kid seats on them. We started the ride which was super gravelly and almost slipped and fell over a hundred times - nerve wracking! Finally we made it through to the trail and it was gorgeous - wildflowers and birds everywhere. We rode past a lake and saw a pack of wild horses!! The girls were ecstatic. We got a little lost on the way back but eventually made it to the hotel bar for happy hour and snacks and played cards for awhile before heading back to the room to get ready dinner. The kids were understandably cranky and tired so we fed them and they played for awhile before Matt put them to bed. We watched them on the camera so the adults had their own dinner! It started to get a bit chilly so we moved inside for dessert but it was nice to have some adult time. Hoping we get a good nights sleep!Read more

  • TravelerPortugal & Spain 2019
    Day 8

    Monsaraz

    April 22, 2019 in Portugal

    It was NOT a good night sleep after all :( Hannah woke up at 1:30am with a coughing fit and woke Evie up. Evie came in to sleep with me and Matt stayed with Hannah who finally stopped coughing around 4:00am and we were all able to sleep a bit. Double ugh. We woke up and dressed for a final bleary breakfast at the hotel (delicious) and then the kids wanted to do a treasure hunt. The hunt turned out to be super fun - they had to follow clues all over the resort before they could get their prize! Afterwards, they got to take a donkey cart ride all over the property and even got to the hold the reins! They were very excited about that (even though poor Hannah was coughing the whole time). After the donkeys we packed up the room and then headed out to make our way over to Spain !!Read more

  • TravelerPortugal & Spain 2019
    Day 8

    Aracena

    April 22, 2019 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 15 °C

    The road we took to into Spain (following our GPS advice) had to be the twistiest, curviest almost all dirt road that I've ever seen. Woah! We thought we would have to pass through border patrol but there was nothing when we crossed and then we were in Spain! We finally arrived in the small town of Aracena in the Andalusia region of Spain but completely forgot about the one hour time change and arrived much later than anticipated. We had planned to go to the caves, but it was too late so we found a nice cafe by a playground and had lunch (pork of course) and beer while the kids played. It was really nice. The town was cute and it even had a bull ring! The people are incredibly friendly (even though there is not much English spoken here) and it is just gorgeous. After lunch we headed over to hotel - Molino Rio Alajar - in the teeny town of Alajar, Spain. It was more twisty roads and one SUPER narrow driveway before we got to our "rural casa". The hotel is a series of cottages surrounded by the gorgeous Andalusian mountains. We are staying in El Conejo which is two stories with a huge fireplace and kitchen and lovely patio. Monica - the owner - shopped for us and made us a massive dinner (Alentejo chicken, gazpacho, salad - just a ton of food) which was perfect as the shops are quite far away. We sat outside with some snacks they had bought for us and drinks from the honor bar and watched the kids play on the lawn with some German kids next door. They ended up playing for hours - tag and hide and seek - and it was so fun to watch. It started to cool down in the evening so we decided to move inside for dinner. The kids ate and I put them to bed before the adults sat down to eat at our table. Dinner was wonderful, but still lots of coughing from Hannah. Here is hoping to a good nights sleep (finally).Read more

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