Wednesday October 3rd, 2018
The flight is early in the morning, we land on time, but we have to wait 1 hour to get our luggages (really slow). We will cross the Portugal from Lisbon to Porto during this trip.
Then we buy the daily ticket for the public transport and go to our hotel. The room is not yet ready, so we leave the luggages, and go around to explore Lisbon. The hotel is near the Square Marques de Pombal, so we walk down the Avenida da Liberdade till Praca dos Restauradores and Praca Rossio. We would like to take the Elevador da Gloria, but it’s full and there are many people waiting for the next one.
We decide to go on, and maybe take it at another time. Also at Elevador de S. Justa there is a long queue, but we decide to wait. After a long time, we can finally take it, go up till the terrace and see the landscape over Lisbon (first one of many viewing points). We pass near the Convento do Carmo (an old church without roof, now a museum).
We stop for lunch near the Igreja S. Roque (we visit it after lunch) and then by walking we go down the lower part of the city till the big Praca do Comercio. We go up to the Sé (the cathedral) and after the visit, we take a tram to the castle, where we spend some time and relax. After walking on the walls of the castle, we reach Miradouro de S. Luzia with its azuleios. It has been a long day, so we need a break at the hotel, and then we go to dinner near it.
Thursday October 4th, 2018
Today we reach by bus Belem area. When we pass in front of Mosteiro dos Jeronimos, we see a long queue, but we go on till the Tower. It’s ealy and both of them are still closed.
We wait for the opening time (the queue at the Tower is not so long) and after a short time, we can buy our tickets. We get the combo tickets with Tower and Monastery (it’s not discounted as price, but it will let us skip the queue). After visiting the Tower and going up to the top, we walk along the river till the Padrao dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the discoveries) with its white sculptures.
Then we reach the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos and enter it without waiting (the queue is still long, we are lucky to have the ticket). We have lunch a bit later so we finish the visit, and stop at Pasteis de Belem (famous for its sweets). At a little distance we go up the MAAT (museum), a modern structure with view over the river. We stop for 2 others “Miradouro”: Miraduro S. Catarina and Miradouro Nossa Senhora do Monte and then to the churches in the area: Igreja da Graca, S. Vicente de Fora and S. Engracia (Pantheon). While we walk down we find an area full of restaurants, so we stop for the dinner (nice place, good food). We finish the day with the enlightened monuments: Sé, Praca do Comercio and Elevador de Santa Justa.
Friday October 5th, 2018
We are leaving Lisbon today, so we rent a car (near our hotel) and go to the Aqueduto das Aguas Livres, cross the Ponte 25 de Abril and go up to the Santuario de Cristo Rei.
We start our path to the North of Portugal. So we drive to Queluz, where we visit the palace (very nice) and we have lunch. In the early afternoon we reach Sintra. It’s a national holiday today, and there are a lot of people around, it’s difficult to find a parking for the car. However, after parking the car and a short break to the hotel, we go to visit the palace, with it’s 2 white chimneys.
When we finish the visit it’s almost the sunset. We take the car and go to Cabo da Roca. It’s the eastern point of Portugal and continental Europe. Also here there are a lot of people. We are just in time to see the sunset over the ocean. Beautiful. Back to Sintra for the dinner and a few pictures.
Saturday October 6th, 2018
The breakfast is pretty late, so we take the car and go up to the Palacio Nacional da Pena (we see it just outside). After breakfast we move to Obidos.
Also here there are many people. We walk in the main street (really crowded), stopping for some churches and at the end we reach the castle.
Next stop is Alcobaca for its monastery (there is a wedding). We visit it and have lunch in the square in front of it. Then we stop in Batalha (another monastery). Here we see only the church (too many monastery in 1 day… and we have one more today).
We arrive in Tomar, and we see we are on time to visit the monastery here too. So we go directly to it and we visit it. Around 6pm we reach our hotel, but we discover it doesn’t exist anymore. It seems it was shut down in the last week due to legal problems. We booked it through Expedia so I call them. After a while we get a new accomodation (in Fatima, more or less 30km far).
Due to the national holiday all the hotels are full and it’s not possible to find anything near. We are forced to go to Fatima, and around 7.15pm we finally get into the apartment (it’s huge and new). We are tired, we have wasted more than 1 hour due to the problem with the hotel. So we go to dinner. Then a short walk till the Sanctuary (there are many people praying with torches). We go to sleep.
Sunday October 7th, 2018
A short visit to the Sanctuary and then we head to Coimbra. We park near the old cathedral (we cannot visit it now, because there is a Mass). So we reach the new Cathedral and the University. It’s Sunday but there are a lot of students around (with typical dress). There will be a ceremony for the starting of the academic year. Then we go back to the old cathedral (now we can visit it). And to the lower part of the city with the main pedestrian street and the church of S. Cruz.
Last city of our trip in Portugal is Porto. We start from Torre dos Clerigos (we see it only outside) and its church. Then we continue to the cathedral and the bridge Luis I, we cross it, and walk along the river. We cross again the bridge and walk on the opposite site, where we have dinner. Back to the car and to the hotel (in front of the airport).
Monday October 8th, 2018
We wake up at 4.30am to get ready, return the car and go to the airport (flight is early). It’s time to leave Portugal. Before lunch we are at home.
Before this trip, I was in Portugal only one time, when I went to Porto (for just 1 day) in 2008. You can read about Porto here.
