Portugal
Setúbal (Santa Maria da Graça)

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    • Day 119

      Gert

      December 11, 2022 in Portugal ⋅ 🌬 18 °C

      On the ferry to Tróia I meet Gert, who is also heading south. He rides a Gazelle road bike, which bends quite a bit under the weight of his luggage but holds up bravely. Unlike me, he has managed to keep up his hobbies - accordion and knitting are stowed in his bags.
      We ride together for a while and exchange stories over coffee before parting ways again.
      You always meet twice in life. 😊
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    • Day 304

      Capueira im Park

      April 30, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ 🌬 24 °C

      es ist noch zu heiß für einen Stadtbummel durch Lissabon. bei rund 30 Grad wollen wir nicht den ganzen Tag in der Stadt schwitzen. daher verbringen wir die nächsten Tage noch etwas außerhalb in kleineren Orten mit schönen Parkanlagen und viel grün.
      heute sind wir in Setobal und bestaunen Capoeira-Kämpfer im Park, die süßen kleinen Gassen und eine wunderbare Sonntags-Pizza!
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    • Day 5–8

      Setubal, Portugal

      November 11, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 66 °F

      It's pronounced SHTOO ball. I would never have guessed. It's only an hour away from Lisbon by car or public transportation, including a ferry if you want. And that's why it's appealing to us. We're not going back to Lisbon, but this might be a good place to hunker down eventually.

      We are staying in an apartment for 3 days in the old part of town, not far from the port. I've got a good felling about this place. It's at times gritty, but it's also charming. I feel like our neighborhood is what the New Orleans French Quarter used to be like in the 50's. The streets in our hood are narrow and cobbled. There are a few apartments for rent, but it's mostly locals. You can barely drive a car down the street, but it's allowed. Clothes hang on lines. If we walk out on our balcony, the neighbor doing laundry is about 20 feet away. Small shops line the graffiti'd streets. A few blocks East is the Praca de Bocage, the central plaza. I'm writing this now at a sunny cafe with the requisite glass of wine. It's surrounded by pedestrian streets and shops that sell one thing only: shoes or purses or men's clothes, etc.

      Or maybe Setubal is the poor man's San Diego. It's an active port, there are lots of beaches nearby, cafes are abundant, and there's a beautiful national park just down the coast. Parque Natural da Arrabida is the hilly area that hugs the coast and goes up, up, up from it. We drove around it yesterday, on a Sunday. That's motorcycle day apparently. It was a perfect day and place for them because the roads are narrow and winding. It was fun for me to drive a stick shift on those roads too. We stopped for the amazing views of the Atlantic and the city of Setubal. And we relaxed at a beach for a few hours. It hit 70 that day, so that's beach weather for us.

      Another thing that reminds me of San Diego is the Troia peninsula across the bay. It seems like Coronado, which is also accessed by a ferry and has expensive hotels, a golf course, and nice beaches. Maybe it's just because I was just in San Diego that it seems like a cheaper SD.

      We had a bit of a problem with checkin. The maid hired by our host was a no-show and the room wasn't ready. Petra, the hostess, was aghast, as this had never happened before. She offered us 40 Euro and walked us to a free parking area. We really didn't mind that much, but it was a nice gesture. She said we're the first guests she's met in person in over a year! Lucky us, because she pointed our her 2 favorite restaurants in town. She's half Portuguese/ half German and lives in Estoril, a western suburb of Lisbon. Places here are so cheap in the offseason, her discount was basically 20% off. We'll definitely give her a good review. Oh, and those restaurants? Both were fantastic. One waitress spoke English, the other place had 3 staff that alternated working our table, but between smiles, pointing, my poor Spanish and poorer Portuguese, we got by.

      On Monday, we drove out to a different Bacalhoa winery museum and tour. It was just out of town. But the website didn't state which tours were in English and we were a little late and besides, the English tour wasn't until 3 pm and we were there at 10. Scratch that. We went back to town to just walk around and soak up the sun and sites. It was cafe culture day.

      We ate lunch at a tiny restaurant across our street/alley. It got good reviews for its set lunches. We weren't disappointed. I had Peixe Espada (Swordfish) and Deanne had the Dourada (Bream). Again, these set lunches include a half liter of wine (2/3 bottle), olives, bread, the seafood entree, potatoes, a dessert, and espressos. It's really too much for us, but it's not acceptable to split a set menu meal. The cost is slightly more than a fast food meal in the states. Actually, I walked by a restaurant here serving a burger and coke for about the same price! We're starting to skip meals because of this. We shop for groceries first thing in a town to get breakfast food. And with meals like this, we tend to just eat one late lunch out and then we eat snacks for dinner. We're still full at 8 at night because the portions are so big. But man, that chocolate mousse alone was worth the cost of lunch.

      Tomorrow we set off for Tavira in the Algarve, the southern coastal region. It's right next to the SW corner of Spain. We were there on our first trip in 2007 and want to go back. We have a couple days to kill before meeting up with friends. Madli and her daughter Naiara are from Estonia. We were quarantined with them and a motley crew from around the world in Ecuador during the Covid crisis. And Louie is meeting us again. He's a pilot from NYC with the ability to take trips on a whim. We all met up in Ecuador last winter and now we're meeting again in Lagos in a few days. We can't wait.

      Photos and videos are here! https://photos.app.goo.gl/DrRR8vposBDYP2Ns5

      And if anyone wants to learn about Portuguese seafood, there was this amazing display on this street we found on our first night. I'm studying this before we go to restaurants. It's awesome. Choco Frito is the local specialty here. That's fried cuttlefish.
      https://photos.app.goo.gl/9ftcCKghyyrTFzYZA

      A walk through the local market is here. https://photos.app.goo.gl/XnYY1h3McAnAaSmZ8
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    • Day 6

      En sista provning och avslutningsmiddag

      September 28, 2018 in Portugal ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

      En rundtur på Setúbal, en provning av Moscatel de Setubal och en väldigt bra buffé på Dona Isilda fick avsluta denna dag och resa. I morgon är det väckning kl 5 för transfer till Lissabon AirPort.
      Chauffören Ben avtackades med insamlade pengar och även guiden Martin fick ett stort tack för sin insats. Det har ju varit en stor grupp, 43 personer. Vi var 20 från vår vinklubb.
      En kul vecka som gått väldigt fort!
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    • Day 6

      Setúbal, Portugal

      July 11, 2018 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

      Bevor es am Abend zurück mit der Fähre von Troia nach Setubal ging, schlichen wir uns im Design Hotel ein checkten die View aus... Fürs nächste Mal ;) . Nach einem kurzen (es war gegen alle Erwartung plötzlich kühl und windig) Bummel durch die Stadt fanden wir ein niedliches und preiswertes Restaurant am Rathaus. InSado.Read more

    • Day 6

      Fátima och Setúbal

      September 28, 2018 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

      Sista dagen! Ett lunchstopp i Fátima, som är en vallfartsort för katoliker. Tre barn fick uppenbarelser av jungfru Maria här 1917. Det blev en stor händelse i den katolska världen. Och nu är det en imponerande plats dit många vallfärdar.

      Nu är vi i Setúbal söder om Lissabon.
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    • Day 11

      Campanile Setubal

      March 29, 2019 in Portugal ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

      Bevor es dann ins Hotel ging, fuhren wir noch kurz nach Sesimbra, da von dort auch Delfin-Touren starten sollten.
      Leider fanden wir keine, aber fragten zur Sicherheit noch in einem "Diving-Shop". Und tatsächlich arbeitet die Schwester von dem Besitzer bei einer Firma, die Delfin-Touren macht.
      Er wählte die Nummer und auf einmal hieß es dann, Morgen um kurz vor 10 startet die Tour.
      Mega geil! Endlich hat das geklappt. Wahnsinn.
      Somit wird Morgen ein sehr geiler Tag, mit Delfin-Tour und Fussball in Lissabon (der Länderpunkt ruft endlich!).

      Mehr als froh machten wir uns dann aber auf den Weg ins Hotel.
      Dort angekommen, wurde man super empfangen und das sogar auf Deutsch.
      So konnten wir noch einfach ein paar Fragen, zu der Fahrweise der Einheimischen stellen, da diese gefühlt immer verrückter wird und es Morgen ja nach Lissabon geht, wo es am schlimmsten sein soll!

      Das Zimmer ist auch super. Da wir Morgen nun früh hochmüssen, heißt es entspannen und den Urlaub genießen!
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    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Setúbal (Santa Maria da Graça), Setubal (Santa Maria da Graca)

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