Portugal

Bom dia

We arrived in Portugal on Sunday morning (took the night train). Our hotel here is in a great location. The old building has been remodeled in a funky pop art design, each floor a different theme. We have a pink room with an Andy Warhol quote on our bathroom wall along with hot pink toilet paper. The city if full of pedestrian squares. In these two pictures see if you can find the MacDonalds in the first and the Hard Rock in the second. You can't get away from it anywhere. Hint...the M is between the tree and the bus. Hint..the Hard Rock is in the right corner at the top of the square.

We did a walk from our guide book and ended up in the middle of a catholic services in one of the local churches. The next spot on our guide book took us to the "oldest beer hall" in Lisbon.

Monday we took this amazing tour to Sintra, Portugal. We went to a place up a mountain on a tour bus, and yes there were mostly two lane roads with drop offs. Half the fun was getting there. We went to a palace called Pena.


This magical mountain top palace sits high above Sintra. Built in the 19th century by German born Prince Ferdinand, cousin of Bavarian's "Mad" King Ludwig of Neuschwanstein Castle. Anyway, the castle was vacated in the early 1900's and much of it is the same today, including the furnishings. It even has a padded velvet bidet.

Next we went to a village called Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in Europe and again, only double lane drop off the mountain roads. If you want to pay for it you can even get a diploma as "proof of being here".

Then we went to a village called Cascais and Estoril that used to be fishing villages and are now mostly for the rich, but said to have great seafood.


When we got back to Lisbon, we decided to take you all to dinner at a popular local restaurant. It was highly recommended by our hotel and our guide book. It was called 'Restaurante Solar dos Presuntos'. Pick your pleasure...

Hint....click the play button.




You will not believe what we ate. Here it is, black rice that is made black by squid ink and has stuffed scallop, prawns,mushrooms and mussels. We have rated it the best meal we have had in Europe. The place was packed, mostly with locals, and very Portuguese.

Adeus

Nancy

Miles 10,471
Countries 10