…that would be Portugal! In fact, “no” in Portuguese means something like “on the” (in the masculine form). In feminine, it would be “na”, as in the delicious bacalhau na brasa (not to be confused with bacalhau à brás, which I did mistakenly order but ended up enjoying a great deal anyhow!). Ah, the pleasure you can get from clitics… (no, I didn’t just say a naughty word!)
We were in Portugal for eight days at the start of December — four in the coastal area south of Lisbon (around Setúbal), the remaining four days in Lisbon. We rented a car for the first part, then were glad to return the car to spend time in Lisbon on foot and on the great (and inexpensive) public transit.
- One day around Setúbal — we stayed in a little cottage in the trees, with a view of the coast (from overhead you don’t get a sense of the hills!) at a great place called Há Mar ao Luar. Our cabin isn’t shown on their website — maybe you have to ask about it specifically — but even better would be to stay in the old mill if you can! In town are all the traditional restaurants with grills out front on the sidewalk. It was pouring rain but the poor chef was out there (under an umbrella) with billowing (and tempting, fine-smelling) smoke all around.
- One day through the Serra da Arrábida and out the peninsula, through Sesimbra to Cabo Espichel. It was grey and rainy, but the clouds parted for a beautiful sunset over the monastery and lighthouse as we arrived at the Cape.
- One day south along the coast to Sines, Porto Covo and Vila Nova de Milfontes. The huge Atlantic waves crashing in to shore was the highlight here; I could watch all day and not get bored.
- Drove into Lisbon in a hurricane-like storm…powerful winds and grey-out rain conditions greeted us as we drove over the 25 de Abril bridge (designed by the same folks as the Golden Gate in SF — turns out this is not the only thing Lisbon has in common with SF…also beautiful hilly streets, cablecars, rain and fog, great food, trendy people, open-minded population). Large branches were scattered all over the grand avenues from the storm. Bridge note: we drove out the incredible Vasco da Gama bridge on the way down to Setúbal from the airport…at 17km, this is the longest bridge in Europe!
- Took the train to the town of Sintra (first centre of European Romantic architecture and a UNESCO World Heritage site) to see the Castelo dos Mouros and Palácio da Pena. The Palácio is like something out of a dream or a fairy tale, colourful and dramatic and quirky. Definitely worth a visit (though I’d skip the “tour bus” that you have to pay to ride up the road to the palace…the driver told us it was a kilometre uphill, but in fact it was less than 5 minutes walking).
- Another day we took the train to Queluz to see the Palácio Real. It was not as amazing as “Pena”, but it was great that we had it to ourselves, since it was a rainy December weekday morning.
- On our last day we say more World Heritage, in and around Lisbon (the Torre de Belém and Monasterio de los Gerónimos). While in the area, we made sure to have some delicious Pastéis de Belém (cream custards). The Monasterio was worth the visit…more than could be said for the Castle in town, which was too busy and a bit of an anticlimax after all the other cool stuff.
Right now I’m in Edmonton (sans laptop), so can’t post any pictures yet…but I figured it’s been too long since I promised something about Portugal, so I whipped up this quick description. Obviously this only skims the surface of the week there.
I found Portugal really great: people were super-friendly and spoke English (and understood Spanish) very well; food was delicious (many trendy bars and restaurants); history, buildings and landscapes were impressive; great (cheap) public transit; though they’re on the Euro, it’s generally less expensive than, say, Barcelona; polite drivers (almost no horn-honking…people seemed a much more laid back than in parts of Spain or Italy, for example).
A few negatives included: too much rain (at that time of year, anyhow) — every day we had at least some rain…sometimes a lot; the cubiertos (where restaurants bring you food you didn’t ask for and then charge you a fortune for it) — the good news is you can refuse it when they bring it, but you need to know to do that in the first place! On the other hand, no need to tip at restaurants (like in Spain); train windows that were so pitted or dirty that you couldn’t see a thing (not all trains, but it was true for the one to Sintra/Queluz); silly cropped-at-the-knee jean fashion that all women seemed to be wearing…almost as silly as those mullets in Spain! The good news is that people generally are very good looking, so at least the silly jeans look as good as they possibly could…