Travel Day

 On Sunday, we had breakfast and spent a few more hours in the neighborhood including stopping in the giant Zara to buy pastel de nata to bring to London. We had a driver bring us to the airport and managed to make our way through to our gate without major lines or incident. Checking in and tagging your bags for TAP in Lisbon is like using a self check out at the grocery store. You even scan in your bag and put it on the belt. We got through security and then stopped in duty free and grabbed sandwiches. Once our gate was announced we went through passport control. There wasn’t really a line to use the kiosk but it didn’t take Mom’s info so we had to go through the manual line anyway. All the horror stories we saw on Instagram did not come to pass for us at least. The flight was mostly uneventful and then arrival in London was also relatively smooth. We took the Elizabeth line to our hotel which was crowded because parts of the underground were not running. 

Our hotel is really cute and the staff is really friendly. We stayed in the hotel for dinner because we were so hungry and then settled in for the night. For dinner we had, chicken paillard, seared trout and truffle fries and carrots. 

Lisbon Day 3- Cascais & Sintra

 Saturday morning, we met our guide Isabel at our hotel and walked to our car nearby. From there, we drove along the coast to Cascais which is only 20 minutes or so outside of Lisbon. It was once a town for summer homes but now is a treated like a suburb of Lisbon and people commute into the city to work. It was a cute seaside town and Isabel mentioned that American ex-pats have taken to the town which made sense. We saw the marina and walked around a little before getting to visit the Saturday craft fair. 

From Cascais, we headed to Sintra which is usually less crowded in the afternoon (vs the morning). We went to Quinta da Regaliera which was beautiful. The property has a palace and really cool gardens. Isabel was great at knowing where to take great photos. The house was built by a man with a lot of interests. Wikipedia describes him this way which sums it up nicely: António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro (1848–1920) was a Brazilian-Portuguese businessman, collector, bibliophile, entomologist and Freemason. 

After visiting the Quinta da Regaliera, we had lunch in the town of Sintra and popped into a few shops. We then went to the Pena Palace. You can’t enter the palace with a private tour guide and tickets this year cost 75 euro a person so we only visited the grounds, kitchen and chapel. I think spending more time at Quinta da Regaliera was a better choice. For Pena Palace, it’s up on a hill so we took a bus up but walked down. It was also beautiful with a lot of tile work but a little crowded.

After Pena Palace we drove back to Lisbon and said goodbye to Isabel. We then went out to do some last minute Portugal shopping before dinner at Can the Can. Dinner was great and the fish was really fresh. Despite all the walking we did yesterday we still walked back to the hotel for our last night. Heading to the airport soon to go to London. 

Lisbon Day 2

 On Friday morning, we met our guide Leonor in our hotel for more touring of Lisbon. We met our driver in the next plaza over (Paula had told her I am allergic to Jacarandas) so they chose the pick up location in the plaza without them. We drove to the Belem neighborhood and Leonor pointed out some sites along the way including the presidential palace. In Belem, we went to the maritime history museum. The museum starts with the Portuguese explorers and goes until more modern day. It was really interesting to go into more detail about the explorers. There’s also a room like a small airplane hanger that has actual ships from various eras and usages. It was really cool. There is a monastery connected to the museum but the line is always really long and it doesn’t seem to be worth it so we stayed outside the monastery but did go into the church next door. The church was beautiful and it had the tombs of the most famous/important Portuguese poet and Vasco Da gama. After the church, we walked to the bakery that claims to have started making Pastel de Nata. That was one of the best ones we had so far. After the bakery, we went closer to the water to see the monument celebrating the explorers and the Belem tower. 

After our tour, we got dropped off at a park with a cafe that is near a botanical garden that was built into the area that used to be a quarry in Lisbon. We visited the botanical garden after lunch and it was beautiful. After visiting the garden, we took a taxi to a shop that was like an artists co-op. And then walked back to the hotel from there. 

In the evening, we took the subway to a chef’s apartment for a cooking class. We made mushroom, toasted almonds, sea bass, scrambled eggs and a custard we caramelized for dessert. We gas a really good time and left very full.