Portugal 2023

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Traveler Portugal 2023
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- May 1, 2023
- ☀️ 23 °C
- Altitude: 492 m
- Portugal Lisbon District Sintra (São Pedro de Penaferrim)Santa Eufémia Pena National Palace 38.787637, -9.39031238°47’15” N 9°23’25” W
Day 6
Sintra - Pena Palace
May 1, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
Sintra was going to be a whirlwind day. 3 stops, the first was Pena Palace. Thankfully Bailey did additional research for this one and realized that you need to build in an extra 30 minutes before your timed entry ticket to get from the entrance to the grounds up to the palace (and yes I mean UP!)
We caught the bus that does a loop of the main sites at the train station and wound our way up and up and up towards the palace.
Luckily we were there with some time to spare and did get a few minutes to explore some of the gardens but we didn’t want to miss our timed entry so really only saw a very small bit of the grounds.
Once inside the palace proper, we toured the inside of the palace building and then the castle wall before finishing up our visit.
Peña Palace is one of those “must see” kind of places as it’s so iconic. The colourful buildings and towers are beautiful. It is surrounded by gardens and woods that you could likely spend hours exploring. We did the very quick bucket list visit and I think that’s good enough for me 😉Read more
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Traveler Portugal 2023
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- May 1, 2023
- ☀️ 24 °C
- Altitude: 410 m
- Portugal Lisbon District Santa Maria Castle of the Moors 38.79227, -9.38827238°47’32” N 9°23’18” W
Day 6
Sintra - The Moorish Castle
May 1, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C
Just back down the main road from Peña Palace is the entrance to the Moorish Castle. Since it was a down trip we decided we could walk it. (This is the recommended order to do these 2 visits as the bus only does a one way loop 😉)
As we worked our way back down the road we came across a car and driver that had stalled out on one of the hills and the poor driver could not get the car started again. Luckily with so many people about, a dozen of us managed to push the car the 75 feet to the crest of the hill. I’m sure the backlog of traffic we’re happy too!
If you have a Fitbit or health tracker of any kind perhaps you’ve noticed the number of “floors” you’ve done in a day. This day in Sintra mine recorded 116! And I’m pretty sure half of those were at the Moorish Castle!
As I understand it, the castle walls we climbed are a restoration of the walls of what was a castle. They were truly amazing. The views from the walls of the surrounding countryside and villages were stunning and you could see all the way out to the coast.
So many stairs!!! It was incredible.
Once we completed the walls it was time to catch the bus and head back in to the city centre for some lunch. While we were most definitely not there at peak tourist season it was still incredibly busy and we were lucky to find ourselves a corner in a restaurant with the bonus of a view.Read more
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Traveler Portugal 2023
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- May 1, 2023
- ☀️ 24 °C
- Altitude: 280 m
- Portugal Lisbon District Sintra (São Martinho)Ponte do Almagre 38.794638, -9.39693738°47’41” N 9°23’49” W
Day 6
Sintra - Quinta da Regaleira
May 1, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C
After lunch it was time for another UP walk to get to the Quinta - oh my legs!
From my research I knew the Quinta was going to be a place that I wanted some time to wander and explore but the main goal was the Initiation Well. What we didn’t realize was that we would have to wait in line almost an hour to get to the well to start the winding journey down. Thankfully we headed there first and stood in line with all the others to experience this highlight. It was really very cool and on such a hot sunny day, the change in temperature was a welcome relief as we made our way to the bottom.
At the bottom of the well are a number of tunnels to explore and we wandered around exploring never knowing what we might find around the next corner.
We made our way back to daylight and explored some more towers and turrets until Kev called out to Bailey and I to see what he had found. We wandered back and wondered what he wanted. His simple explanation “I found a hole in the rocks and figured you guys would want to see what was inside” 😂
He had found one of the entrances to the Labyrinth Grotto and it was so much fun! Dark and damp and twists and turns (thankfully we had flashlights on our cell phones!) I think it was truly my second favourite part to the Quinta.
We could have easily spent hours at the Quinta (we really didn’t see so much of it) but the day was coming to an end and we were all exhausted.
Again the plan had been to try and catch the train back to Lisbon but we opted for the slight additional cost of an Uber straight back to our hotel - best decision ever I’m pretty sure.Read more
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- May 2, 2023
- ☁️ 27 °C
- Altitude: 13 m
- Portugal Lisbon District Prazeres Alcântara Porto de Lisboa 38.703119, -9.1788138°42’11” N 9°10’44” W
Day 7
A quieter day
May 2, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C
After the hustle of Sintra, Tuesday was going to be a quieter day. There were 3 Bordalo’s within an hours round trip walk from the hotel so Kev and I headed out after breakfast.
The Gecko sculpture has definitely seen better days, I think it must be one of his oldest ones and the Fish were easy to find.
We then headed off to the LX Factory and found the Bee 🐝
We wandered around checking out some of the craft shops and the very cool bookstore Ler Devagar and then headed back to the hotel for a quiet afternoon by the pool.
We returned to the LX Factory with Bailey for drinks and dinner that night as well.Read more
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- May 3, 2023
- ⛅ 23 °C
- Altitude: 7 m
- Portugal Lisbon District Socorro Bairro Alto Times Out Market 38.706947, -9.14584238°42’25” N 9°8’45” W
Day 8
The final Bucket List push
May 3, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
Our final full day in Lisbon had a number of must see stops.
We did Green Street, popped back to Pink Street for a few day time pics, then up again to visit the Carmo Convent.
I really have a thing for old churches and church ruins. The convent/church was mostly destroyed in the earthquake of 1755. But some of the building remains are still standing. I was a bit disappointed to see that the one end of the nave was behind scaffolding as they are doing restoration work but it was still very cool to see.
Then it was on to have binfanas at the best place in Lisbon and they did not disappoint 😋
As we walked the Alfama district I was so very happy that we chose our hotel location on the other side of the city. While Alfama is famous and very iconic it was just so incredibly busy. We did get to see one of the famous Tram 28 cars (there are lots!) but we didn’t bother taking a ride. Another Bordalo stop to see the Panda and we were almost done - last stop was Bordalo’s atelier where he does a lot of his work.
Online there was mention that it was “open” at 2 pm but we wandered the whole block and could not find anyway of getting in to see anything 🤷🏻‍♀️
We did however get to watch some of a new creation being constructed! I’m not sure if one of the guys doing the work was Bordalo himself but it was very cool to watch. Kev asked what the new creation was going to be and apparently it’s to be a mouse - can’t wait to see the final product!
The “mouse” did take up a lot of space in the yard so it was hard to see the monkey and the fish on the building wall but I’ll count those among my finds. We also found the Sapo da Lixo down the street as well 😁
We wrapped up our final day with dinner and drinks at the Time Out Market. And of course no trip to Portugal would be complete without a pastel de nata 😋Read more
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Traveler Portugal 2023
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- May 4, 2023
- ☁️ 9 °C
- Altitude: 160 m
- Canada Ontario Tay Valley 44.766857, -76.27808144°46’1” N 76°16’41” W
Day 9
There’s no place like home
May 4, 2023 in Canada ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C
What an amazing adventure. This return trip to Portugal was the ultimate bucket list trip - there were things and places I really wanted to see - and we did it!

A few things that summed up the trip:

Every day is “leg day” in Lisbon 😝
Walk down Uber up (it’s very affordable)
11 “new” Bordalo’s (9 planned ones and 2 bonus ones 😉)
Coloured streets
Franchesina - yummiest sandwich ever!
Grilled sardines 😋
The Quinta 😍

None of it would have been possible without 2 people that love me so much they put up with my wishes and help to make them come true ❤️

Love you Kevin and Bailey!!Read more
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Sintra - Pena Palace

Sintra - The Moorish Castle

Sintra - Quinta da Regaleira

A quieter day

The final Bucket List push

There’s no place like home