Day 26 - Heading Home - Wednesday, March 1, 2023

As is typical, I set the alarm for 6:00am yet woke up at 5:50am and shut it off before it had a chance to ring. I showered, dressed and we ate yogurt and granola for breakfast before checking every nook and cranny for things we might have left behind. Sally realized this morning that we had two bags at Erica’s yet she only brought one to dinner last night. We racked our brains trying to figure out what was in that errant bag. It was too early to disturb Erica. Since we hadn’t missed the items last night when we packed, they couldn’t be too important. We exited our room at 6:55am, ahead of schedule, checked out at the front desk and walked the 100 yards to the Avenita metro stop. Our Via Vigem cards each had less than 2 euro left on them. When we swiped them to enter the subway we were down to 45¢ on them, perfect use of the cards.

We rode the blue line to Sao Sebastian station where the blue and red lines share a station, walked to the red line and got on. We rode this line to the airport.  Total time needed-35 minutes. Total cost-€1.35. Why can’t the US get its public transport system together like most of Europe has?

We made it through security. I sat in the terminal writing my blog while Sally did some window shopping. Soon, along came Rob and Caroline. We knew they had a flight about the same time as us and here they were. They walked by a little distance away. I couldn’t run after them because I had to watch our packs and they didn’t hear my yells. Sally returned a few minutes later and I chased after them, finding them on the other side of the big open area, also window shopping. We returned to Sally’s location, chatted for a while, determined our gate assignments and walked toward them, still being quite ahead of schedule. We had tea and pastries before parting. When Sally and I reached our gate, the line was gone and they were announcing the last call for boarding. We were the last ones on the bus out to the tarmac to enter our plane.

A smooth and uneventful 3 hour flight to London Heathrow in which I wrote a couple blog posts. Now the fun began.

We landed at 1:35pm. Our direct flight to Portland left at 2:45pm, giving us just over an hour to deplane, find the next gate, go through security and board. Everyone we talked to associated with British Air said we would have no problem. However, the security lines were a little long, they had to unpack my pack to inspect the Portuguese tiles I was carrying. Their security equipment flagged them for some reason. Then we had to load into a subway car to take us to the correct outlying terminal. The car was late in coming. A big crowd had gathered. We all piled in when it arrived, then it sat there for over 10 minutes not moving. Sally accidentally bumped the call for help button, a voice came on the adjoining speaker and then suddenly the doors closed and we got underway. Was the operator sleeping until Sally woke him up?

We got to our gate at 2:40pm.  As we approached we wondered if they had closed the boarding gate. We turned the corner and saw a big crowd. They were late in beginning boarding and we had time to seek out a bathroom before we got on the plane.

Luckily, we were in a three abreast seat in the middle of the plane with no one in one of the seats. We had plenty of room for this 9 hour flight. I watched 3 movies, determined not to sleep so I could begin my time zone shift back to the west coast.

We landed a bit late as we had left late. Bill and Pat were there to pick us up and take us home. We walked in the house about 7:30pm, which is 3:30am Lisbon time. To bed.

What a great trip. Great hiking. Amazing coastline and scenery. Amazing people. Great cities to explore. Totally awesome public transportation. The best travel companion in the world.  Good to be home, but will miss the freedom of travel.

With Rob and Caroline at the Lisbon Airport 

Day 25 - Lazy Day in Lisbon - Tuesday , February 28, 2023

This being our third day in Lisbon, we were having trouble motivating ourselves as to what to pursue. We settled for walking around town, looking for a gift for Erica. On our first day with her, we had ice cream cones at an amazing ice cream shop, then we walked down the street and she had pointed out some glassware she really liked. We had taken an Uber that day and we weren’t sure what part of town we were in, meaning we didn’t know where the glass shop was. While lazing in bed I searched the city on mapping programs for ice cream shops, hoping I would recognize the name or some element of its location. I was coming up dry.  I remembered the nature of the street it was on; it was not at right angles to its cross street, but even that didn’t help. I remembered we had taken a photo at the ice cream shop, but we did so with Sally’s phone. We had turned off all cellular data to all her apps, so the phone had not mapped the location of the photo. Darn! 

When Sally awoke, she mentioned something about the ice cream shop and that maybe the name of it was in the photo. Duh!! I brought the photo back up and zoomed in. Sure enough. Nannarella.  A quick map search and we had our location. We needed a walk today and that became our destination.

Lisbon is really hilly, and our walk took us up and down as we traversed stairs and streets. We found the ice cream shop. It was before 11:00am, so it was closed. But, down the street and to the left was a row of businesses, including the glassware shop we had floating vaguely in our memories from 4 weeks earlier. Sally and I had been snooping in Erica’s house as to what gift she might need or want. Sally had taken photos of two glasses Erica had hanging from a rack. Those were green and blue.  We purchased red and yellow one that matched the design.

With that mission accomplished, we started walking back with the intent of skirting around the base of the Alto district, saving the climbing and descending of the hills. Along the way we saw a trolley go by and realized we had not ridden on one. We hoped to get on line 28 as it went into the Alfama district and wove through that tightly packed area, but each car that went by was jamb packed with people. We hoped for a emptier car, but all were stuffed. Perhaps we should try another line. We walked up the hill to another line on Apple Maps. This one was also packed with people. If you can’t get a seat and have to stand, your head is above the windows and you can’t see anything. We wanted to get a seat if we were going to ride. We noticed another line, line 24, and were right at its turnaround point. We walked to the first stop after it was emptied and turned around, meaning we would be first to board and thereby could get a seat. This worked and we rode the line to its end where we were required to exit while it turned around.  We could have just boarded again and rode it back, but it dropped us within a couple miles of our hostel just off Avenida Liberidade so we walked back to our place.

What walked down to the underground grocery and fast-food restaurants just down the street from our hostel, the same ones we had visited when last in town. We bought some food for the flights home and had lunch, Sally a big green and pasta salad and I a bowl of soup.

Back at our room in the hostel we found we were pretty tired. I am embarrassed to say I slept the rest of the afternoon. Sally slept part of it. We were meeting Erica at 7:00 at RD’s Nepalese restaurant about a 35 minute walk away. We left at 6:45, allowing us time to saunter there.

Erica has some great restaurants and they are always in a part of town we have not visited and mostly off the tourist track. It makes it very fun to walk to a new part of town. 

We arrived before she did and entered, got a table (it was really small, only seating about 18 people indoors) and waited for Erica. She arrived about 10 minutes later. Great food, great company, great meal. Tofu with a thick green sauce, Nepalese version of pot stickers and a crispy something that had the color and texture of onion rings but the shape of a small contorted lobster. Delicious all.

We walked back with Erica. Her route was decidedly better than the route we had used to get there, laid out on Apple Maps. Outside her building we gave her the glasses, she gave us the stuff we had left at her place while we played tourist the past two weeks in Porto, Coimbra, Fatima, Nazare and Sintra. We parted company about 9:00pm.

Back in our amazing hostel room we packed our bags for home. Our flight took off at 10:45am tomorrow. We would ride the subway to the airport, catching it a little after 7:00am, giving us plenty of time to adapt if something went wrong.  And with that, our days in Portugal came to an end.

Our room at the hostel

Erica’s two goblets

The four goblets

Lisbon’s trolleys

Day 24 - Pèna Palace, the Park and back to Lisbon - Monday , February 27, 2023

We usually like to get up early and be ahead of the roads, but with a timed entry to the Pèna Palace at 10:30am there wasn’t much point in arriving terribly early. Still, we can get there early enough to walk some of the gardens before our tour, but, breakfast at the hostel didn’t begin until 8:30am, so an early start was out of the question. 

We packed up, preparing a day bag for our trip back up to the top, then headed downstairs to the dining room for breakfast. Breads, rolls, muffins, meat, cheeses, yogurts, cereal, milk-a typical continental breakfast. After eating we stowed our packs in the same closet they occupied yesterday and headed out the door. Today, we are riding the bus up, partly to save time, partly to save our energy for walking the palace and the grounds. We have to be back to the hostel by 3:00pm to retrieve our bags. We planned to walk down again. 

We boarded an empty bus and got two seats just before a tour group filled it to capacity. I mean SRO and squished. Across from us sat a delightfully talkative man, a professor of English at a small college outside of Pittsburgh. He made the ride go quick. 

Once out of the bus we got in the que for the entrance with a massive mob of people. No wonder we like an early start. 

As we moved along we had a question about the gardens. We got the attention of one of the park personnel that had her back to us. When she turned around we recognized the same delightful woman that helped us at get our tickets yesterday. She smiled warmly when she recognized us and became our personal tour guide and delighted in helping us plan our day. Such kindness. 

We were early for our entry to the palace but not early enough to wander too far afield. We explored the area around the base of the palace, visited the water closet, then got in the line marked 10:30. A wonderful couple from the Detroit area were behind us, Steven and Adrienne. They were 31 and 33, both optometrists, having met in school. We spent the next hour chatting with them as we entered the palace and moved through the rooms. 

There were A LOT of people here. It was a conga line through the palace. Wall to wall people. You moved at the line’s pace. Really lessened the experience. 

Once back outside we could move freely across the terraces. Much better. 

Our tour guide had pointed out a distant outcrop of rocks on the map at the far end of the ridge called the chapel. We spent the next two hours walking to it, climbing it for fun and view and walking back. The grounds are spectacular. 

We returned to town the same way we did yesterday arriving at the hostel about 2:45pm. Along the way we learned there was a rail strike. When the railroad worker strike, they don’t cripple the country by closing all transport. It is more like a slowdown. So instead of a train every 15 minutes, there was only one an hour. We saw we had about 50 minutes until the next train, retrieved our packs and sat on the platform waiting for it to arrive. While waiting, an English man and his wife arrived inquiring about the trains. We got to talking with them and ended up spending the rest of the afternoon and evening with them.  Rob and Caroline, both retired doctors from Bristol, England although they moved to Cambridge after retirement to be close to their daughter and grandkids which they watch two days a week. We rode the train and subway together and they walked with us to our hostel. Here we parted, they heading to their AirB&B while we checked into our hostel. We exchanged emails and phone numbers and agreed to meet for dinner in a few hours. 

Checkin took about half an hour due to the line, but we were in our room and relaxing about 5:00pm. I found a recommended restaurant about halfway between their lodgings and ours on Rossio Square and we arranged to meet at 6:00pm. 

Had a great dinner and time with them, then parted and headed back to our room, stopping for groceries along the way. Another great day. Interesting people, places and things. Must be a noun day. 

Our personal tour guide. She was wonderful

The entrance to the Pèna Palace

Part of the palace from outside

The King’s dining room

The conga line of us tourists

Lisbon in the background 

On our walk after the Pèna Palace tour. A lot less people out here. The palace is in the background. 

Exiting our hostel. 

Dinner with Rob and Caroline

Day 23 - To Sintra and the Moorish Castle - Sunday , February 26, 2023

I wake up before Sally and usually before the alarm. I tend to use this time to write about the events of the days before or to research and plan the coming day’s activities. I am so tired at night (probably because I wake before the alarm) that trying to concentrate on anything is impossible. Put me out of my misery and let me sleep. But mornings?!  Let’s go. 

This morning I checked the path of our walk to the bus depot. Last night we were allowing ourselves half an hour to traverse town. Mapping showed it to be a 10 minute walk. And most of it was on the streets I had walked last night during my grocery quest. Then I started looking at how to get to Sintra from the Sete Río bus depot. Using my partial knowledge from out two previous stays in a Lisbon I figured we would ride the blue metro line to the Sao Sebastian stop, take the red line to the  Oriente stop and board the train to Sintra. Simple. But as it turned out, way to complicated. More on that later. 

Hard boiled eggs for breakfast and out the door. On the way to the bus depot we passed the open public market and stopped in for a quick look. Fruits, vegetables and breads everywhere. It is hard to pass up a good looking pastry, so I bought a roll with raisins sticking out of it to munch while waiting for the bus. Delicious. 

At the very small bus stop Sally and I were waiting inside. A young man came out of the bathroom and as he walked out the door to the outside he exclaimed loud enough for us to hear, in English, “I have diarrhea!”  Sally couldn’t let that stand. She had anti-diarrhea pills in her purse and like the good mother/grandmother she is she went out to offer them to him and his parents. They were thankful for the offer and accepted. 20 minutes later as we boarded the bus they thanked her again. 

After an uneventful hour plus bus ride we disembarked at Sete Rio station, a conjunction of rail, metro and bus lines. Still operating on the plan concocted earlier in the morning we started making our way to the metro. As we did Sally noticed a sign to Sintra. A Scobie Doo whaaaaattttt?  We asked a ticket seller and he confirmed we could catch the train to Sintra right here. 

Of course!!  The train from the Oriente station passes through this station!  We would have taken two subways to get to this train and then ridden it right through this very station. We walked up stairs to the train platform, sat on a bench and waited 10 minutes for our train to arrive. 

Once in Sintra we headed to our hostel to drop off our packs so we could head up to the hill top castles. Our hostel was only half a block from the station and we were there in less than 10 minutes. We knew we were super early, but we had read that they would let us deposit our bags early. The house was walled in and had a gate at the street level. We pushed the buzzer and the gate unlocked. At the top of the stairs we were greeted by a young woman who showed us a closet to put our packs in. We were out the door and headed for the National Palace half a mile away to buy our tickets to enter the Moorish Castle today and the Peña Palace tomorrow morning at 10:30am (they have timed entries to help control the crowds).  

Rick Steves’ directions said to turn left out of the trail station. This is not correct. There are three choices, left, right or straight. Straight is the correct way to go. Once we had that sorted we walked around to the main town center, met a wonderfully kind lady at the palace ticket booth and entered to purchase our tickets for entry. She asked if we wanted  to buy a bus pass. We said no, we were going to walk up and also could she please give us the senior discount.  She gave us a friendly stink eye and asked for our birth year.  Apparently, walking up to the castles is not something people our age do so we must be younger than 65. She warned us of the distance and elevation gain to reach the top, but we insisted we were going to walk. We enjoyed our banter with her. 

Once back out on the street we stopped at Cafe Piriquita for a grilled ham and cheese and Sintra’s legendary pastry, then headed out the door and up the street to the beginning of the trail. 

The grounds around the castles are called a park. On my map on GaiaGPS on my phone I saw many trails leading up the hill. In my mind I saw dirt trails switchbacking up the hill, braided by many feet cutting switchbacks and blazing their own routes. The reality was very different. I had forgotten who had these trails built. The rich royalty over 150 years ago. They were all paved with cobblestones and nearly manicured. Just as we started up a Tuk Tuk driver told us the trail was closed about a third of the way up due to downed trees. Sure enough. We eventually hit detour signs and were guided out to the road. The next hour we hiked next to a constant stream of cars, busses, TukTuks and vans climbing to the pass between the Peña Palace and the Moorish Castle. It took us about an hour and a half to get there. 

We headed over to the Moorish Castle. It was amazing!!  We walk all the parapets from one end to the other as they climbed and descended this bouldery landscape. 

I has something happen at the coffee shop that is very unusual and made me laugh. I am so accustomed to no one having Pepsi that I just ask for Coke when getting Sally her fix. I asked for a Coke Zero and the man behind the counter replied, “I’m sorry, all I have is Pepsi and Pepsi Max.”  I haven’t heard that phrase this whole trip. 

After delighting I the Moorish Castle we descending the opposite side of the ridge from our ascent. The “trail” was perfect. Wide cobblestones and steps all the way back to town. It was nearly dark when we reached the hostel and retired to our room. We had spied a Chinese restaurant across from the train station on our way back. We went out after dark, partly to see the castle lit up at night and partly for Chinese dinner. 

Our room was the lowest we have had. The bed was okay for comfort, but the sheets and pillow cases were threadbare with a hole now and then, no art on the walls and the bathrooms were funky and tired. Yet, the price and location were perfect, as was the person running it. Plus, we got a breakfast with it. It is fun to see these houses more than a hundred years old with electronic key codes entries, LED lights and modern vinyl windows. A great day with excellent exercise, travel and sights. 

Our hostel in Sintra

Sally on the “trail” up to the castles


This is what trails for royalty look like. No mud on their shoes. It is now a public park and is well maintained 

Part of the parapeted walls of the Moorish Castle

Sally in one portion of the Castle, the keep. 

Up on the walls with the Atlantic in the distance

Steps on the walls heading over to the other part of the castle

The town of Sintra below the castle

The Péna Palace seen thru the parapets of the Moorish Castle

Climbing to the high point of the castle with Sintra seen below

Part of the courtyard within the walls with the Atlantic beyond. 

Descending the “trail” back down to Sintra. 

The Moorish Castle at night from Sintra