Around the World in 180 Days: Lisbon and Porto, Portugal: May 27-31

We had originally planned to go to Santiago de Compostela, a city in northwestern Spain at the end of a pilgrimage route from Southern France, but the sleeper train was sold out….and there did not appear to be another affordable option to get there. Instead, we changed our itinerary and flew to Lisbon, where we spent three nights. The city is beautiful, and is reminiscent of San Francisco and Madrid.

After a beggar came up to us for money. "Sorry, I don't have much money myself..."

At the Castelo de Sao Jorge in Lisbon

One day we took the train out to a place called Sintra. It is a small town nestled in the mountains, littered with castles from many different centuries. We didn’t have much time so we only visitied one of them: Quinta de la Regaleira. The best feature of the palace was the grounds itself, including gardens, stables, ponds, waterfalls, and a Knights Templar underground “well of initiation.” We entered from the top and climbed down over 100 feet below ground. There are several passageways out of the well at varying depths, but because we didn’t bring a flashlight, we chose the one at the very end which was lit. Each passageway lets you out at points across the gardens: one behind the waterfall, another through a cave, another behind a fountain. It was a very cool experience!

A hole in a wall at Quinta de la Regaleira

View from inside the well

One of the secret exits from the bottom of the well

View from the top of a tower of the palace

Our last night in Lisbon, we went to dinner at a seafood restaurant across from our hotel. Everything was absolutely delicious. The oysters were HUGE, the calamari was the softest we’d ever tried, and the “medium” grilled prawns (about 7” long each…) were amazing. We felt like we were in a Red Lobster commercial…but you know, better food. The restaurant also had tiger prawns, which are nothing like the tiger prawns in America. They cost about 20 euro each and are the size of small lobster! Ridiculous.
The next day we took a train to Porto, where we stayed for one night. It was gorgeous! On one side of the river is Porto, and on the other side is Vila Nova de Gaia where they actually make the port wine. We stopped by the many big name port companies, but their tastings were a little out of our budget (15 euro for a tour and a half ounce taste of each of 5 port wines). Our guidebook had said that many places offer free tastings, or if not free, only cost 1-3 euro. Of course we couldn’t find any of those places. We did, however, find a wine shop that had free tastings. We tried about six kinds of port, and bought a half bottle to enjoy with chocolates and cheese later on. While we were being served, a short local woman came in asking our shop owner for help. Two skinny, old, clearly American men followed her, looking concerned. While the two women were trying to figure out what these men needed, one man took matters into his own hands and blurted the only three words he knew to relate what he needed: “Liquor?! Vodka?! Scotch?!” Our shop owner excused herself and showed the men a liquor store across the street. These men were clearly not interested in sampling any port. It gave us a good laugh.
After our tasting, we went back across the river to the Porto side and had a beer along the river. Later we sniffed out a place for good local cuisine, and got ready for our flight back to Madrid the next day.