Getting Lost in Lisbon

Before heading to the airport to go back to Spain, Elizabeth and I tried to squeeze one last adventure in: Jardim do Ultramar - Lisbon's tropical gardens. We searched high and low, asked multiple people, and went in circle for quite some time before coming across a small park that we thought (more likely hoped) it was the Jardim do Ultramar.

It was in fact not the tropical garden we were looking for but for our own sanity we like to think we found the tropical garden that day and enjoyed the quite beauty of the small park.

Even though we didn't find the tropical garden we did run into another jokester. There was a man dressed in a very nice suit passed out on a park bench who was woken up by a police officer passing by--who was already rounding up the homeless people. It was quite a scene: A very well dressed man, clearly hungover, had quite the night (possibly kicked out of his girlfriends house) prior and was struggling that morning as we watched from afar. Nothing like a bunch of Portuguese jokesters to brighten your day. Moral of the story: you don't need to see a tropical garden in Portugal, any park will do and Portugal is full of jokesters you are certain to run into at least one no matter what the situation may be.

Last Night in Portugal

After a perfect day of sightseeing Elizabeth and I closed out our Portugal trip with traditional Fado music-dinner performance. Fado music is traditional Portuguese ballad songs, often tragic love songs performed at local restaurants. Though more expensive than a typical dinner because of the performance it was totally worth it.

There was one more thing Elizabeth and I knew we had to try before we left Portugal...Jinja a Portuguese dessert port/wine.

A little sweeter than expected, Jinja was still a perfect nightcap for our last night in Portugal.

1,000 Ways To Cook Cod

When we first arrived in Portugal our cab driver told us that Portugal had over a thousand ways to cook cod-fish, and he was not kidding. I tried as many cod-dishes as I could throughout our stay in Lisbon and was not disappointed at all...

So many cod dishes not enough meals to try them all!

Cacais

After a great tour by Annibal Elizabeth and I took a train out to a beach town, Cacais, for a nice stroll and a little bit of sun.

It was a total tourist area with a ton of hilarious British-themed restaurants, but coastline views were totally worth the train ride.

Sidecar Tour

On our last full day in Portugal Elizabeth and I went on a sidecar tour around Lisbon and a small neighboring town, Belem. We happened to see someone else enjoying a sidecar tour earlier in our stay and knew we couldn't leave Portugal without trying it ourselves!

We woke up bright and early drove around the gorgeous cobblestone streets of Lisbon with our amazing and adorable tour guide Annibal.

First Annibal took us to a very old church that was affected by an earthquake in the 1700s. The earthquake unfortunately hit while mass was going on so many of the members did not make it out alive. There is a monument outside of the church in remembrance of the people who died from the earthquake.

Down the road from the church is the Santa Justa Lift, which happened to be designed by the same man who designed the Eiffel Tower in Paris. At the top of the lift you can see beautiful views of the lower/newer areas of the city of Lisbon. The Tagus River used to cover most of where Lisbon's main squares are located today, but after the earthquake the Portuguese were forced to rebuild the city and decided to extend it's land by putting wooden stilts into the ground and building new squares over top. It's crazy to think that more than a quarter of the city is built on top of wooden stilts!

We made a quick stop at the oldest coffee shop in Lisbon--A Brasileira--over 125 years old and still contains all of the original architecture, signs, etc.

Belem, is a small town right outside of Lisbon, is most known for the Tower of Belem monument and it's delicious Pastry de Belem. We were lucky enough to grab a seat at the Paseis de Belem which makes more than 23,000 of it's famous Pastry de Belem pastries each DAY!

I'm usually not a big pastry person, but I must say the Pastry de Belem is the perfect pastry.

A flaky pastry with creme filling and topped with cinnamon and powder sugar, the pastry de belem is probably my favorite pastry in the world! The Pastry de Belem is a top secret recipe; only three pastry chefs know the family recipe at one time. They work in shifts and cannot ever hang out with each other just in case some kind of natural disaster or poisoning were to occur. Ten or so years ago someone figured out the recipe and tried to start selling knock off versions of the pastry which of course made the owners extremely angry and they quickly got that shut down. We ended up eating two, because the Portuguese always eat two ;)

After a delightful mid-morning snack we roamed around Belem to see the Tower de Belem and other monuments.

This is just a portion of a giant monastery that was built after Portugal acquired a new colony. Let's just say Portugal used to make it rain way back in the day.

We eventually made it back to Lisbon where Annibal showed us his favorite place in the city. A small lookout with gorgeous views overlooking the entire city. Lisbon is one of the most breathtaking cities I have ever been to. The skies are always a cloudless perfect blue contrasting perfectly with the white buildings and clay roofs.

What an incredible tour. I highly recommend doing the same if you happen to visit Lisbon any time soon--you definitely won't regret it!

Portuguese Beaches

After a morning full of castles Elizabeth and I ventured to a small beach town on the coast to soak up some rays and stare out into the endless Atlantic Ocean. The beach was far from crowded but absolutely gorgeous none the less.

Sintra: The #1 Manufacturer of Castles

Sintra must have some kind of record for most castles within city limits. Elizabeth and I ventured through two castles during our day-trip to Sintra (and saw another from afar) but there were at least three other castles we could have visited!

 The Moors Castle is believed to date back to the 9th century and was used as a military fortress.

 Parque Pena Castle: A 19th Century Portuguese Romantic Castle with Spanish & Arabic influences

The town of Sintra was a small little town with cute little trinket shops, windy roads, and no trespassing areas that of course we just had to explore ;)

America, step up your game and start building castles!