Trip Summary:
2 weeks in Portugal. 2 days in Lisbon at the beginning and end of the trip. In between, we rented a car and drove south along the West coast, then along the Southern coast (known as the Algarve), then north along the Spanish border about half the length of the country, then looped back West to Lisbon. Ten days in the car - 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) covered.
Monday - A 5.5 hour evening flight from Moscow to Lisbon, plus a 3 hour time difference, plus a delay means we arrive rather late in the evening. They gave me a harder time at passport control than Marina. Asked for other picture ID (my passport is from 1993) and to show some credit cards. We got to the hotel around midnight. Then, we walked around our neighborhood, but not far because it was dark and late.
Tuesday - We get up for breakfast and make it down around 9:40. After eating breakfast, we find out that they serve breakfast til 9:30. Oops. Nice that they fed us anyway. We walked around the center, starting with Barrio Alto (an older section of town on a hill), then down to Baixa (lots of shops in a low-lying area with a grid of streets that constrasts sharply with the winding streets of the surrounding areas on the hills), then we went up (and I mean, up) to the castle. Lisbon is very, very hilly. A stairmaster would have helped in getting ready for the trip. We were on foot the entire day, so we were quite exhausted by the time we got home.
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Wednesday - A trip down the riverbank to Belem, a suburb of Lisbon where the the Tower of Belem and the Jeronimos Monestary are located. We got smart today and bought all day tickets for public transport, so we took the tram there and back. The tower and monestary both have beautiful stonework in the Manueline style (named for the king Manuel). After the sightseeing, we stopped in a cafe recommended by the guidebooks and had our first exposure to the cream cakes that are a standard in every cafe. Very tasty, they are indeed! In general, we were very happy with the sweets (pastries) that we found in Portugal. Portuguese seem to love coffee (espresso style). And there are cafes (called pastelaria) all over the place. Very often, the cafes only have counterspace or tables to stand at and the coffee and pastries are enjoyed standing up. Whether they have seating or not, they always seem to have cream cakes.
After touring Belem, we went back to the center, gathered some information from the tourism center (the tourism centers in Portugal are generally very helpful, but also very frequently closed. They're closed on Sundays and on the other days they generally only open during business hours. Lisbon's is at least open till early evening, but a lot close at 5. We found out where some Internet cafes were and went searching. Eventually we found a cafe and got to look at some of our wedding pictures posted on the web by our photographer (Vladimir Kryukov, www.rusimage.com).
Thursday
- Up in the morning to the rental car agency, where we get a Seat Ibiza,
a little 1.9 liter 4-door hatchback with a radio! We were very happy to have
a radio. As it turns out, Portuguese radio stations play a lot of classic American
rock music: Beach Boys, etc. It was like a blast from the past for me.
We drove south along the western coast towards the Algarve (the southern end of Portugal, where the tourists tend to gather). The roads were slightly inland, so we weren't right along the water. Saw lots of groves of cork trees. Cork is harvested every 8 years from the trees, but stripping the bark on the lower half of the tree. The tops of trees tend to be moss and lichen covered, the bottoms are orange when freshly stripped.
We
stopped in one small town called Alcosar Del Sol. This was the first of many
small towns with a fortress on a hill. White building with red-clay tile roofs.
The fortress here has been converted into a Pousada, which is a government run
hotel, usually 4 or 5 stars. We weren't staying there, so we did not go inside.
Walking around some of the streets we saw several cactus fences -walls of cactus
taller than I am.
We made our way further to Santiago do Cacem, with yet another fortress on a hill. Driving through the narrow streets, we made our way up and up to the fortress. There is a church beside the fortress and the fortress is now a graveyard. It was getting late, so we headed on.
We decided to stop in Milafontes (Vila Nova de Milfontes) right before it was getting dark. In the last of the daylight we walked to the beach to take a look at the Atlantic Ocean. We decided to stop for the night here and rented a room with kitchen (7000 Escudos). We then walked into town to search for food. It was late in the season, so things in town were very quiet. While examining the menu at one restaurant, a woman inside gestured for us to come in. She and her husband were from France and love Portugal. She told us what local dishes to order. I'm still not sure of what we ordered, but it was good. It was seafood, of course.
Friday - Up in the morning for breakfast and to go look at the ocean. We went to breakfast (tea and pastries) at the same place we dined at the night before. The owners recognized us from the night before and treated us to some of their sausages - really spicy! Then we went to the beach. This time the tide was in, so the rocky outcropping that we had seen the night before was almost gone. Other outcroppings were still visible. We didn't do any swimming, just got our feet wet and took some pictures.
Then
we hit the road and headed further south towards Cape San Vincinte (Capo de
S. Vincinte), the southwest corner of Europe. Along the way we passed a windmill
farm for generating electricity. Huge blades on thin stalks all in white. At
Cape San Vincinte, we trooped around with all the rest of the tourists and took
pictures of the lighthouse and cliffs. The western end of the Algarve shore
is mostly cliffs, while the eastern end (towards Spain) is mostly sandy beaches.
It makes for a nice contrast. We drove along the coast (out of sight of the
ocean) heading east. However,we didn't like the built-up, touristy feel of the
shore too much, so we decided to head inland into the mountains to Monchique
- recommended by our guidebooks. But before heading inland we made our way out
to the ocean at Alvor (which has a sandy beach) to watch the sunset (what there
was of it behind the gathering clouds.
When we headed towards Monchique is was already pretty dark. We arrived at night and, after some wandering around the mostly sleeping town, found the Residencial (a 2 star hotel), mentioned by Lonely Planet. Unfortunately, they didn't have any double rooms left, so we paid a bit more for a triple (I think it cost 9000 Escudos). It was quite spacious. We had tea in a restaurant across the street and went to bed.
Saturday - Monchique is in the mountains and we woke to a rainy day with clouds wandering down the street. By the time we got out of the hotel, though, the rain had stopped and the sun was burning through the clouds. We hit to road to Faio, which goes higher into the mountains and offers a view of rolling hills going down to the ocean in the distance. Quite pretty. At the very top of the mountain, we didn't find a town to speak of, but there were a whole bunch of antennas and the clouds were touching the top of the mountain. We came down via a one-lane road, that may have been two-way, but we never did see oncoming traffic. We did pass a shepard with a flock of sheep standing on the road, though.
We continued on through the hills towards Silves. Silves is built on a river and boasts a well-preserved Moorish fortress made of red sandstone. We had lunch (much needed) and then went up to the fortress. We made it in right before it closed. Museums and monuments tend to close early in Portugal - 5pm is typical. We took more fortress pictures and then hit to road for Tavira, located at the eastern end of the Algarve, not far from Spain. Up until now we had confined ourselves to secondary roads in order to see the countryside, but this time we decided to take the highway because we wanted to make to Tavira and find a place to stay before dark.
We got to Tavira just before twilight and, by chance, parked right in front of the Residencial recommended by Lonely Planet.. We liked the place and took a room for two nights. Tavira is built on the Asseca river, where it flows into the ocean (however, an island blocks it from flowing directly into the ocean). The river was very low at night and very rocky with some of the boats stranded on the shore - the next morning we would see the river flowing backwards and filling up as the tide came in. Besides the obligatory fortress, Tavira is famous for the Roman bridge that spans the river. After tea and pastries, we went to bed. One disadvantage of Tavira is that all the parking in town is paid, except on Sunday, so we were lucky with our timing. The towns we had stopped in up to this point had been too small to bother with parking meters.
Sunday - A lazy day. After breakfast (an omelet in a bun) by the river, we decided to hit the beach. The beach in Tavira is on Ilhe de Tavira, the island just offshore. We walked to the ferry (2 km or just over a mile) through not-so-nice fields where they seemed to have vats for holding water - we still don't know why. The ferry takes you the short trip over to the island, where the beach is. We laid out for a while, but the wind made it a bit chilly (the water was already too cold to swim) so we headed back in less than 2 hours. Despite suntan lotion, the walk to and from town did a good job of baking me. Marina came out better than me, as usual.
After catching some rays, we were sleepy and ended up vegetating in front of the TV (there were a few channels in English) for the afternoon. Before dark, we decided to do a bit more sightseeing and headed up to the castle. We wondered around the castle and climbed the walls as the sun went down. Once the castle closed, we did a bit more walking and then thought about dinner. But before dinner, I wanted to find a parking space that we wouldn't have to pay for the next morning (Monday). We drove around town a bit and ended up parking in exactly the same spot that we had left, which meant that I would have to get up early in the morning to start paying the meter. For dinner, we found a restaurant on the less-touristy side of the river populated by locals and low in price. We ordered Arroz de Marisco - rice with shellfish. There were a bunch of shellfish - with shells. The pile of shells on our plates got pretty high and interfered with eating. Overall, a tasty, filling meal.
Monday - We got up and ate breakfast by the river at the same cafe as the day before. Again, we enjoyed watching the river flow backwards and waited for a bouy to be swamped by the rising tide. A fisherman was walking around in the river and setting traps while waiting for the river to rise enough that he could take his boat out.
We checked out of the hotel and hit the road again in the direction of Vila Real de St. Antonio, the last town along the coast before Spain. Along the way we stopped at a beach (Pria Verde) one last time, since we were heading inland from here. We played in the surf and gathered shells, while trying not to get wet, since neither of us had put on a swimsuit. An hour and a half flew by quickly.
We hit the road again, but decided not to drive into Vila Real de St. Antonio, but did stop in Castro Marim, just outside of town. Castro Marim is situated at the base of not one, but two fortresses. We walked around one of them. From the walls, you could see salt ponds and the Guadiana river that divides Portugal and Spain. The towns on the Spanish side were also visible. From here we headed north, more or less along the border, through the town of Alcoutim, to Mertola.
Mertola
is built on a steep hill at the confluence of two rivers and is topped with
a fortress. It was already late in the day, we still had ground to cover and
restaurants were looking scarce, so we bought bread, lunchmeat, and milk in
a grocery store and had dinner at 100km/hr driving through scrub land. Along
the way, we stopped to photograph the sunset and full moon.
After dark, we decided to head on towards Evora. Along the way, we changed our minds and headed towards Monsaraz, a walled hilltop town. The roadsigns pointed to Reguengos de Monsaraz, so we headed there, but found that it wasn't a hilltop town at all - the hilltop town Monsaraz was a bit farther on over back roads that were under construction in some places. We're not sure if we missed the main road in the dark or if the roads are just bad, but we were surprised how bad the roads were leading up to a sight so highly recommended in the guidebooks. As we approached, we could see the town glowing on a tall hill in the distance. The road wound around the plains to eventually reach the back side of the hill on which Monsaraz is located. We parked outside the walls at the main gate and went inside the town, which was tiny. Around the main square, we found a house with rooms to rent (a small room, bathroom shared with another room, breakfast included, 5500 Escudos) and went back in to car to drive it in and get our bags.
There weren't many streets in this town, but we ended up the very steep, cobblestone one with a low wall and a very long drop behind us. The motor died and we were a bit stuck. By gunning the engine and only partially letting out the clutch, we managed to make it up the hill. After that all was well.
Tuesday - The house in Monsaraz where our rooms were was not built for tall, sleepy people, who were made sleepy because the bed was too short. When I got up in the morning, I hit my head on the lamp in the hall on the way to the bathroom. When I went in the bathroom, I swiped the shelf inconveniently placed by the door and could feel and hear things falling. Marina heard the crash of glass and came running. I had knocked down a glass shelf with a glass on it. The glass fell on the floor and smashed. I managed to trap the falling shelf between my hip and the wall - so it was safe. At breakfast we mimed to the owner that I had broken a glass (she didn't speak English). She waved her hand that it was OK.
It was a bit cloudy when we got out, but the sun started to burn through a bit as we walked around Monsaraz. There were nice views in all directions looking down on the surrounding plains. We walked around a bit, took a good many pictures, then headed for Evora.
Evora
is a mid-sized town, whose ancient walls still stand. The entire center is surrounded
and we parked outside the walls. The holiday weekend was approaching and we
had trouble finding a hotel with a room (with a bathroom) that was in our price
category. At least we spent a long (hungry) time wandering around town (even
after we found a map at the tourism office), before we finally settled on the
Santa Clara hotel (2 stars, but looking and costing like a 3 start hotel - 10,300
Escudos per night). We then headed back to the car, very tired and hungry. On
the way we decided to stop in a pastelaria (a coffee shop) and it turned out
to be really nice with tasty sweets from some of the local monasteries (or maybe
they were convents). We headed on to the car in a better mood and with more
energy. We brought the car a bit closer to the hotel, brought our bags in, and
crashed for a while. Then it was time to look for dinner. We checked out some
of the restaurants listed by Lonely Planet, and settled on one. Between all
of our searching for hotels and food, we managed to cover a good chunk of the
city. Dinner was nice and we followed the tactics for ordering that we had developed
by this point: one salad per person and split the main course. After dinner
we took a slightly roundabout way home, but didn't walk for long, because we
were both tired.
Wednesday - We ate breakfast at the hotel. Marina wasn't feeling too great, so we decided to take it easy and just stroll around town. First we went to the Church of St. Francisco and its Capela do Ossos (Chapel of Bones) - a small chapel whose walls are made of stacked up bones. Rather gruesome, but very effective at what it does-reminding you that you are mortal. While leaving, we noticed some construction beside the main church. The sidewalk was torn up and just a foot below the sidewalk was a thin layer of bones being excavated.
We
walked on the university, then past the Roman-era Temple of Diana, then to the
main Cathedral de Sta. Maria. We decided to head home from here, since Marina
wasn't feeling well, but I wanted to take a few more pictures. Marina said that
she would wait for me. After taking pictures, I tried to find Marina and couldn't.
I assumed that she had already headed back to the hotel without me, so I rushed
out to catch up. When I got to the hotel and still hadn't found her, I really
started to worry. When I got back to the cathedral, I found her waiting and
wondering where I was. She had been sitting down and a tour group came in and
sat around her, so I hadn't seen her. We headed back to the hotel to relax for
a while.
After resting a bit, I headed out on my own, leaving Marina to sleep in the hotel. I walked to the old aqueduct and stopped at a square to watch kids from a kindergarten at play. Both boys and girls are dressed in a kind of apron-dress (on top of their regular clothes). Then I headed back to the hotel.
We decided to get a bite to eat at a pastelaria, and ended up at the one that we were at the day before. This seems to be a habit with us when we're on the road - if we find someplace we like, we keep going back - it makes life easier. Along the way, we also bought me a shirt. It was getting towards sunset and I wanted to take some pictures in the late light, so I ran back to the hotel for the tripod and Marina and I met around the Temple of Diana. Evora turned out to be poorly lit for night shots, so I only took a few pictures. For dinner, we hit the same restaurant as the night before. Along the way, I showed Marina the aqueduct. Marina tried a Portuguese wine from Borbo. She liked it, but we couldn't find it in the stores later.
Thursday - 2 week anniversary. On the road again: In the morning, we walked around searching for a coat for Marina, but couldn't find one we liked (not entirely true, we found a nice fleece for 350 bucks, but decided against buying it). Then we hit the road.
We drove to Arraiolos, famous for its handmade wool rugs. We stopped in a few stores and bought a pillow cover in the style of a rug and then headed for the obligatory fortress on the hill. This time we drove right into the fortress, turned around, and then drove on.
After Arraiolos, we headed for Estremoz. We drove up to the fortress, with its tower of Menegem. From the direction we drove in, it looked like Estremoz was little more than a village, but it turned out that the main part of the town was on the other side of the fortress. Inside the fortress the tower had been turned into a Pousada - a ritzy, government-run hotel. It looked quite fancy. We drove down to the main town, where we parked the car and I took a little hike to find the tourist office and obtain a map, while Marina waited in the car. Find the office took a while, because the main square is really large (it's a parking lot now). Once we had a map, we drove around a bit and stopped at one of the old city gates (the walls are gone but a few of the gates have been preserved).
Then we headed farther north towards Marvao (near Portalegre, which we skipped). We took a secondary road recommended in the Polyglot guidebook, passing through Sousel, Alter do Chao, and Crato - really nice, small towns. We got lucky in Sousel, too - their tourist office was right by the road and had a map for Marvao, where we were heading. Having a map was invaluable in Marvao, because the town was dark and it was late when we got there.
Marvao is a small, walled town high on a hill (reminiscent of Monsaraz) The residencial that we tried was already full, but she suggested we try the neighboring house, where there was a room that we might take. The room was available and had its own separate entrance onto the street. It was already after 8pm when we headed out to find dinner. Choices were limited to two hotel restaurants and 2 cafes. We opted for one of the hotel restaurants. After dinner, we went straight home and to bed.
Friday - In the guidebooks, Marvao is described as having amazing views. We can't tell you whether this is true. When we woke up in the morning, it was cold, cloudy, and raining. Because Marvao is on a rather tall hill, "cloudy" meant that we were IN the clouds. Visibility was around 30-50 feet. The rain fell down and blew sideways, so getting wet was guaranteed.
After
breakfast in a local cafe, we decided to take a look at the town a bit despite
the weather. Because of this, we would be drying ourselves out for the rest
of the day. The "special effects" of being at cloud level made us want to take
pictures anyway. Unfortunately, we had not taken an umbrella, so we had to rely
on our raincoats. Since Marina's coat isn't as effective as mine (Teflon coating
vs. GoreTex), she stayed in the city's museum while I ran to take some pictures.
Then we both walked around together. We stopped in a store with local pottery
and bought some gifts. Once we were close to being soaked, we decided to call
it quits and made for the car.
As soon as we drove out of Marvao, we also drove out of the cloud cover. There was still a bit of rain, but mostly it was just cloudy. From here we drove to Castelo de Vide, built at the base of a hill and flowing up the hill. As is to be expected, there was a fortress here too, but because I was still raining and we couldn't find parking near enough, we didn't get to it. We did drive a bit around town through some very narrow medieval streets. Always rent a small car in Europe!
It was close to 3pm and we were hungry so we started to look for lunch. As it turns out, every restaurant in Castelo de Vide serves lunch to 2:30 and then closes until dinner. Luckily a nice local (who had run across the same problem in the past), directed us to a roadside restaurant that has normal hours. So we headed back in the direction of Marvao to the restaurant. After lunch our moods and the weather were considerably improved.
Next we headed west for Tomar, halfway back to the coast. Departing
from standard practice we used the superhighway in the hopes of getting there
before dark. We didn't have a map for Tomar, so we knew it might be complicated.
On the way into town, we passed a roadside map, stopped and got out bearings,
which really helped in our search. We drove to the historic center and came
out the other side a bit to quickly, but this allowed us to drive up to the
Templar monestary on a hill overlooking the town. We 
did
not go in, but decided that we would definitely come back in the morning (the
guidebooks recommended it). Morale had fallen by the time that we found a parking
space, because the historic center looked pretty dark and we didn't see many
signs of hotels, but after a short walk we managed to find the Residencial Luz
just off the cathedral square. We had a snack and tea in a pastelaria, moved
the car closer to the hotel, and then took the tripod out for some night shots
of the cathedral square and a short walk.
Saturday - In the morning, we walked around the center of Tomar and along the river. A wedding was starting at the cathedral on the main square. We saw the bride being driven up to the church. Marina waited to watch everyone gathering in preparation. The groom was late. We gathered our bags and drove up the hill to the Templar monastery. It has been nicely restored and we ended up spending a good bit of time walking about and taking pictures. Overall, we were pleasantly surprised by Tomar. We had planned it as a little more than a roadside stop on the way back to Lisbon, but ended up finding a lot to like there.
Our original plan was to swing through Sintra, Mafra, and the Cape of Roca (the westernmost point in Europe), but we decided to trim our goals, since it was already past noon. We headed straight for Sintra on the highway.
Sintra is a beautiful town set at the base of a wooded hill with a palace and ancient fortress on the hill. In town, they are overrun by pedestrians. On our first run through, we shot through town and out the other side. The roads became narrow and twisting as they went up the hill outside of town. Traffic was two-way even when the road was only wide enough for one-way traffic. Eventually we managed to turn around and head back to town. We searched for parking for a good while and as soon as we found it, the rain started. However, it stopped in a few minutes and we made our way cautiously into town.
Sintra and the area surrounding it was long favored by royalty and it is, indeed, beautiful, but also completely overrun with tourists (maybe it would be more tolerable on a weekday). We clearly hadn't set aside enough time to see the town and I was completely sapped by the drive in, so we decided to get lunch. After recharging a bit, we decided that we would walk a little bit around town, but that our main focus should be the palace on the hill.
When we drove up the hill to the palace, it was already closed. They sold us tickets to the Moorish castle instead of the palace, since the palace was closed (it was already after 5pm). When we walked to the palace and found this out, we weren't happy. Marina silently thrusting the tickets back at them and my polite explanations coaxed a refund out of the ticket lady - I think Marina's expression was the deciding factor. After that we decided that we'd had enough of Sintra.
There wasn't much time for before nightfall, so we hurried on towards the Cape of Roca (Capo de Roca). The road went over and through the mountains towards the sea. It was narrow, twisty, and two-way. Every time a car came from the other direction, you had to hit the brakes and swerve to the edge of the road. Luckily there wasn't a lot of traffic. We made it to the cape right as the sun was going down. Unfortunately, cloud cover meant that there was no dramatic sunset. The cape is a rocky outcropping standing above the Atlantic Ocean. We had reached the westernmost point in Europe.
It was completely dark by the time we left the cape and made our way back to Lisbon where a hotel was waiting, conveniently situated near the rental car agency. It was a relief to not have to search for a hotel. When we got into town, people were honking their horns and making noise. Portugal had just qualified for the European Cup (soccer) and everyone was celebrating. For some reason, we were given a room with 3 beds. It's always nice to have somewhere to throw your clothes.
Sunday - A lazy, sleepy day. We decided to stroll around Lisbon more, but not to try to do too much. We tried to visit an Internet-cafe, but after both of the ones we tried were closed, we gave up on that idea. We rode the trams a bit, searched for presents, sat at cafes, ate dinner, and generally tried to take it easy. When we got back to the hotel and turned on the TV, we found out that the US had started bombing Afghanistan.
Monday - After breakfast, we packed our things, checked out of the room, but left our bags at the hotel. We had a full day ahead of us before our 11:00pm flight. Luckily the bus to the airport passes right by the hotel, so we wouldn't have far to travel once we did get our things.
We walked around town, did our last shopping, relaxed in a cafe, took an elevator to a viewing platform, ate dinner in a restaurant (we were the only customers for most of dinner), and called home. We went back to the hotel, changed clothes in anticipation of Moscow's colder weather and headed for the airport. We had to show tickets and passports just to enter the airport building and the airport itself was full of guards with automatic rifles. The flight was delayed leaving, so it was after 11pm when we lifted off for Moscow, but we still got into Moscow on time (or thereabouts), early on Tuesday morning. We dumped our bags at home and went to work.