London Day 2

 Tuesday there was a tube strike which shut down most of the underground. After breakfast, we got a cab to the Victoria & Albert museum (we had ordered the cab the night before). We got to the museum early to allow for traffic with the strike but luckily could shelter from the rain under the overhang. We had been to the V&A briefly on our last trip to London but mostly walked through the shop and had lunch. The museum is incredible. We had tickets to the Schiaparelli exhibit which was really cool. They had a lot of pieces she had designed mixed in with pieces of the current director who seems to really be continuing her vision. I knew they did really creative and structural designs but it was interesting to learn about how she was a pioneer in fashion. 

After the exhibit we took a quick break at the cafe in the courtyard and then went to see the furniture and ceramics. The way they display everything is different than other museums I’ve been to. They just have so much stuff. We took a lunch break in the really pretty cafe. We made sure to get cakes from the cake & hot drinks bar. After lunch we went to the 2nd floor to see the silver, the mini mosaics and the theater and performing arts section. The performing arts section reminded me a little of the Museum of Broadway. After a shop visit we had to wait a few minutes before leaving the museum because the rain picked up to look like a wall of water. We took the bus back to the hotel because of the tube strike but it got us directly to our neighborhood. 

After a brief pause at the hotel, we went to head out to Walthamstow for our show. We knew we could get the Elizabeth line train from the station closest to us, but we had trouble getting into the station. When we got down the escalator there was a giant crowd of people not moving we suspect because there wasn’t room on the other side of the turnstiles. It looked like a panic at the beginning of an apocalyptic movie. We quickly pivoted to a bus to an overground train. Those services were running as usual also but a little crowded. We made it to the pub next to the theater with a few minutes to spare. After dinner, we walked a few buildings over to the Soho theater to see End of the Rainbow starring Jinkx Monsoon. We had amazing seats and were within a few feet of Jinkx at two times during the performance when she was singing from audience. After the show, we got on a bus that took us directly back to the hotel. 

Today is our last day of the trip. 

London Day 1

 On Monday, we only had dinner plans so it gave us the flexibility to wander around the city. We started out after breakfast in the covent garden neighborhood which is near our hotel. We went to our favorite tea shop and did some other shopping. After dropping packages at our hotel, we went back out via Underground to Harrods for more shopping. After Harrods, we walked through Hyde Park and had lunch at a cafe in the park We had really good chicken and chips (fries). From the park we walked to the opposite side to go to Marks & Spencer’s Sainsbury’s and Waitrose to explore the fancy grocery stores we had heard about but not visited before. In Sainsbury’s, we stopped at a restaurant inside that I believe is NYC inspired. They had corned beef & pastrami sandwiches but we just had tea and scones. They called the corned beef salted beef which we hadn’t heard of and they claimed it was NY famous but a quick google search told us it was corned beef by another name. After food shopping we took the tube back to the hotel to rest before dinner. 

For Dinner we walked to J Sheekey’s we were told it had the best fish & chips from an author we follow. The restaurant was busy before all the west end shows started but calmed down significantly at 730. We had great food: oysters from Northern Ireland, roasted scallops and of course fish and chips. For dessert, we ordered a lemon tart with lemon ice cream and a scoop of chocolate ice cream. They also had take away chocolate truffles on the menu so we ordered those as well. 

We were exhausted and it turned out we had walked over 9 miles yesterday. Today we are heading out in London again and there’s a tube strike so it should get interesting. 

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.