Eurotrip

April - July 2019

Jumping around Europe for 4 months leading up to our wedding and honeymoon. Read more

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Vera and Tom Eurotrip
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- Apr 2, 2019, 5:47pm
- ⛅ 5 °C
- Altitude: 144 m
- England Hyde Chiltern Green Luton Airport 51.88103, -0.374851°52’52” N 0°22’29” W
Luton Airport
April 2, 2019 in England ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C
Here we go! Waiting to fly to Lisbon to kick off the first leg of our Euro trip. Vera eating her sandwiches before the journey even starts in true Hungarian style.
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Vera and Tom Eurotrip
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- Apr 3, 2019
- ⛅ 13 °C
- Altitude: 48 m
- Portugal Lisbon District Socorro Alfama Jardim das Pichas Murchas 38.7125, -9.1303238°42’45” N 9°7’49” W
Alfama, Lisbon
April 3, 2019 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C
Today we woke up full of energy to go out and start exploring on our first full day of this trip. We found a funny little local cafe and had a coffee and a chicken toastie for breakfast and then headed towards Alfama, a famous old district in Lisbon.
Alfama is beautiful and we happily spent hours just wandering around the winding cobbled streets and up and down all of the many many hills. We found some lookout view points, a convent, a castle, lots of cool murals and hundreds of little bars and cafes to go back to if we can remember where any of them are, the whole area is like a maze.Read more
Heather Palmer 😎
4/4/19Reply
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Vera and Tom Eurotrip
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- Apr 4, 2019
- ⛅ 10 °C
- Altitude: 209 m
- Portugal Lisbon District Sintra (Santa Maria e São Miguel)Bolavo MU.SA - Museu de Artes de Sintra 38.80287, -9.3816638°48’10” N 9°22’54” W
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Sintra
April 4, 2019 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C
Another big walking day. We cannot feel our feet but it was so worth it. Sintra is 40 minutes train ride from Lisbon. It is a "longtime royal sanctuary, its forested terrain is studded with pastel-colored villas and palaces" - quick wikipedia info. We had a quick wander around in this historic centre/main square area before we headed off to one of the palaces called Quinta da Regaleira. A gothic mansion from the 19th century and a big well which was drained and possibly used for cult ceremonies! The surrounding park is full of towers, lakes, waterfalls, palm trees and other weird features.
The second palace, Monserrate, and massive parque around was further away therefore less busy. Beautiful place with special rare species of plants and trees. The palace was designed with Indian and Islamic styles with many details and was funded by Sir Francis Cook, England richest man.
We ended the day in Sintra with a 1 pound soup which seems to be a common choice of the locals and can be found everywhere, good news for our budget :)Read more
Julie Boyle Beauteous!
4/4/19Reply
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Vera and Tom Eurotrip
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- Apr 5, 2019
- ☀️ 12 °C
- Altitude: 6 m
- Portugal Lisbon District Santa Maria de Belém Museu Nacional dos Coches 38.69625, -9.1975938°41’47” N 9°11’51” W
Belem, Lisbon
April 5, 2019 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C
Bought a 24 hour public transport ticket to discover a further part of the city (but also we just cannot walk anymore). Belem tower, Jerónimos Monastery, and great view to the Ponte 25 de Abril bridge with small showers all day. We have tried the 'best pastel de nata in the world' (the queue was long but it was worth it) and later in the evening we had the best sandwich in our lives, bifana (warm pork meat in soak bread, yumi). Bairro Alto is the party district on the top of a hill (of course) with many great cheap pubs. We drunk, danced and made friends with some Bangladeshian guys who told us that we are made for each other, great last night in Lisbon!Read more
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Vera and Tom Eurotrip
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- Apr 7, 2019
- 🌧 11 °C
- Altitude: 61 m
- Portugal Porto Santo Ildefonso Porto Monumento a Dom Pedro IV 41.14675, -8.6114841°8’48” N 8°36’41” W
Downtown Porto
April 7, 2019 in Portugal ⋅ 🌧 11 °C
Super rainy day so we decided to try a hop on hop off bus for the first time ever. Well the idea is great but in pratice it means a full bus with people standing so you can't see anything, condensation on the windows so again you can't see anything. We had a good laugh and made the decision not to do this ever again. Then we tried to find inside places such as train station (with blue and white tiles) and the Portugese Photographic Center (set in an old prison). For lunch we had a traditional Porto dish called Francesinha made with bread, cured ham, fresh sausage, steak or roast meat, and covered with lots of melted cheese and a hot thick tomato and beer sauce, served with chips (weird and filling!) Portugal seems to be the land of awesome sandwiches.Read more
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Vera and Tom Eurotrip
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- Apr 8, 2019, 11:41am
- ⛅ 14 °C
- Altitude: 9 m
- Portugal Porto Matosinhos Municipality Praia de Matosinhos 41.1743, -8.6902741°10’27” N 8°41’25” W
Porto: River Duoro and beach
April 8, 2019 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C
Our second day in Porto and the weather was much more friendly for exploring. We wandered along the river, looking down on the little houses below and across at the huge bridges, some of them two tiered because of the really steep banks.
We enjoyed a nice al fresco lunch to soak up some more sunshine and then had a look at the cathedral, called Sé.
Our hop-on hop-off tickets were still good from yesterday so we hopped on and rode up to the north of the city to see the castles on the coastline and walk back along the beach. Finished off the day with a bottle of port and a chocolate salami, fancy pantses that we are.Read more
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Vera and Tom Eurotrip
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- Apr 9, 2019
- 🌧 10 °C
- Altitude: 363 m
- Portugal Braga Vilar da Veiga Geres 41.72598, -8.1640641°43’34” N 8°9’51” W
Geres
April 9, 2019 in Portugal ⋅ 🌧 10 °C
A travel day today. First up a train from Porto to Braga which turned out to be really good. We usually prefer trains to buses when we can because they are more comfortable and this one was brilliant. It was a kind of high speed intercity service with very posh carriages and a mini cafe on board. It was almost a shame to get off after the quick 50 minute journey.
We saw only a tiny bit of Braga between the train station and the bus station, firstly because it was raining again but also because we'll be back in a couple of days for a proper look around.
At the bus station we managed to find a bus company with services to Geres quite easily, with a little help from a friendly lady to translate. After a short wait with a coffee and custard tart we were on our way to Geres.
More April showers in the evening but we got lucky with our hostel and were happy to find a nice warm bedroom and an open fire in the common room. We briefly ventured out into town for dinner but will save the real exploring for tomorrow.Read more
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Vera and Tom Eurotrip
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- Apr 10, 2019
- ⛅ 9 °C
- Altitude: 674 m
- Portugal Braga Vilar da Veiga Geres 41.72069, -8.1535241°43’14” N 8°9’13” W
Geres Nacional Park
April 10, 2019 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C
The rain has finally stopped and we were so ready for a big hike in the Geres National Park. The tourist office lady pointed us in the right direction for a 5 hours hike clearly marked by signs (well we still managed to get lost once). The first part up the hill was tough but up on the top we saw beautiful views to a lake, interesting rock formations and snow capped mountains. Sometimes it was pine forestish, other times it reminded us of a desert or the wild west, always different and fantastic. Well deserved drinks at the end.Read more
Jess Boyle How come you got all the sun!? Lovely photos of you both - happy beer faces!
4/10/19Reply
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Vera and Tom Eurotrip
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- Apr 11, 2019, 10:03am
- ☀️ 13 °C
- Altitude: 174 m
- Portugal Braga Museum of archeology D. Diogo de Sousa 41.54545, -8.4265141°32’44” N 8°25’35” W
Braga
April 11, 2019 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C
Today was a big travelling day, crossing from Portugal to Spain but let's start at the beginning.
After a lovely breakfast at our hostel in Geres we got on a bus to head back to Braga. The journey through the national park was very different to a couple of days ago when we arrived in the rain. This time we had beautiful sunshine and a chance to see all the spectacular scenery.
We then had a few hours to look around Braga, a very nice little city with flowers everywhere and some very grand architecture. We've started noticing lots of holy week related 'semana santa' decorations around so we'll expect even more when we get to Spain and closer to Easter.
Our bus from Braga to Santiago de Compostela was very quick and breezed across the border at about 100km/h. We passed Vigo along the way and some other coastal cities which looked cool but no time to stop on this trip.
Finally in the evening we arrived in Santiago, our first destination in Spain, the second country on the trip. Managed to get a few drinks and some tapas before heading back to the hostel for an early night, ready to go and meet Julie and Jess tomorrow.Read more
Julie Boyle Looking forward to seeing you and Santiago x
4/11/19Reply
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Vera and Tom Eurotrip
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- Apr 11, 2019
- ⛅ 9 °C
- Altitude: 265 m
- Spain Galicia Santiago de Compostela Sede Afundación Santiago de Compostela 42.87821, -8.5448442°52’42” N 8°32’41” W
Santiago de Compostela
April 11, 2019 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C
We arrived in Spain in Santiago de Compostela. We spent a very laid back day exploring and enjoying our first proper tapas of the trip, there is something very satisfying about free food, it seems to taste better.
Santiago is a really interesting city, every corner has beautiful old buildings and the cathedral square is amazing. We felt a bit like fake pilgrims but didn't bother letting anyone know that we hadn't actually walked there.Read more
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