After being shocked by the amount of tourists in Porto, we arrived in Lisbon and saw more of the same. At times it felt that the tourists outnumbered the locals. But, it is getting close to the end of the busy season so we were able to navigate the city by playing it smart and avoiding the busiest times of the day and searching out some different things to see. We also had been in Lisbon a few years ago so we didn’t need to revisit all the same tourist attractions.
Our first attraction was a soccer game which I was very excited about. I always search for what matches we might be able to see but lately they just haven’t been working out. I had bought tickets to see Benfica play on Sunday but they moved the game to Friday which was the night that we arrived. Not the ideal time to go see a match but we were glad we decided to make it work. The Lisbon stadium was huge and we arrived in the middle of the pre-game drinking fest going on outside the stadium. Shoulder to shoulder people crammed into a road filled with several stands serving cheap food and beer. I asked for a wine for Meg and they gave me a pint size plastic cup filled to the rim with red wine for just 6 euros (most of it got left behind, just too much to drink!). We eventually made our way to our seats and helped root on Benfica to a 2-1 victory.
The next morning we did start our normal tourist activities of walking around the city, seeing some churches, city views, a museum and a “free” walking tour. It is a another very vibrant city with a lot going on. A lot of fun old architecture and some more good Portuguese food. A lot of similar vibes that we got in Porto.
We stayed in a fun neighborhood on “Green Street”, on the western edge of the central part of old town. It was just a few alleys of restaurants and some very old apartment buildings. Our place was a comfortable one bedroom that looked out over the busy restaurants in the blocked off pedestrian street. There were a few other Airbnb’s there but it felt mostly like a real local neighborhood.
We took a train one day to see the beach town of Cascais. We walked around a bit to see the old mansions, new condos, and fancy restaurants along a beautiful beach before we met some Nomad friends for lunch. It had been a while since our last meetup and we remembered that we really do like talking to others instead of just the 2 of us. We still had conversations going so after lunch we found a nice bar to spend a couple more hours talking and laughing before heading home.
On our last day in Lisbon we took another day train trip to the town of Sintra. This town is a UNESCO heritage site that is filled with tourist attractions including palaces, gardens and fortresses. We had heard horror stories about long waits and crammed palace rooms so we decided to start with the gardens of Quinta de Regaleira before attempting to see the more famous palaces. Quinta de Regaleira has a well-like “upside down tower” that was used by the Knights of Templar for their initiation ceremonies. It was really cool to walk down the spiral staircase and then follow some tunnels to a beautiful garden with green water features. The entire grounds are whimsical and fun to meander and enjoy. Regaleira also had a palace that we toured before walking back to Sintra for lunch.
After lunch we wandered around the touristy shops in Sintra before taking the bus up to the Pena Palace at the top of the hill. We had decided to skip the old Moorish fortress on another nearby hill. We can’t see everything in one day. Our Pena Palace tickets were for 4:30pm which ended up to a very good plan. This place is infamous for being overcrowded that many people try coming in the morning. Sometimes being later is the best plan.
Pena Palace is absolutely breathtaking on the top of the hill with its multicolored different towers. We took way too many pictures. It is kind of similar to Neuschwanstein castle in Austria in that it really isn’t that old and has been designed to “wow” visitors with its fanciness. We toured the fancy inside rooms but really enjoyed taking pictures of the building from the path’s and courtyards on the outside. I understand why it is so popular and we are glad we didn’t scared away by the scary crowd stories.
I don’t think I have put this many pictures in a post for a long time…. I better stop. Next stop is eight days of relaxation on the beach in the Algarve region of Portugal. It will be nice to not have so many tourist attractions that we HAVE to see when we are in the town of Portimao.