Europe > Exams: Lisbon & Going Home (Days 10-11)

Hola todos,

Wednesday (Day 10)

This was Kaitlynn's last morning—she went back a day earlier than the rest of us. We woke up early to send her off with a breakfast espresso, but the place right underneath our Airbnb was closed and didn't open until 9AM! For my American standards, that seems so ridiculous for a coffee and pastry shop. Where do the early birds get their caffeine? But no matter, we ended up walking one block to another local coffee place that was good. We sipped our espresso and helped her catch her bus.

Palácio Nacional e Jardins de Queluz (Queluz National Palace)

Lisboa Card savings: 1.85€ bus, 1.85€ metro, 1.5€ entrance

Then, the rest of us decided to go out and explore yet another palace in the area. It was a bit further to get to—we had to take both a bus and a train to get there. But it wasn't complicated. There was also a bit of a walk to the Palace from the metro stop, but we arrived at the Palace just a few minutes after it opened. There was no line, thankfully!

We got access to the palace and the gardens. It is a very large complex, so there was a lot to walk through a see. This palace was essentially a rural "retreat" for the royals, so it was a lot less ornate than the other palaces we've seen. But, it is still beautiful.

The throne room/receiving room (left) and the ballroom (right). And this was the more casual property!

There was more of a focus on the decorations of each room, as opposed to the architecture, and there were a ton of wall frescoes and other paintings. The rooms and paintings have been beautifully preserved and gave tourists a great idea of the layout of the home. The views are all of the palace gardens... so picturesque!

We also explored the gardens, which are expansive. There were a lot of fountains and hedges, kind of like a maze. There were also two full sets of gardens-- one internal, smaller set, and one external, larger set. We also saw horses in the royal stables! We got to pet them. We didn't ask to, but we weren't told not to... fortunately, no international incident ensued.

The lighting isn't great on this pic, but this is a sample of the exterior architecture. It is actually the church across the street from the Palace, but they look the same.

As we left Queluz to go back into Lisbon, it was around lunchtime. However, no restaurants or cafes in the area took credit card! They were all cash only. So we had to wait until we got back into a more touristy area to find a place that accepted card.

Praia da Rainha (or, Tina finds another beach)

Lisboa Card savings: 1.85€ metro, 1.85€ bus, 2.25€ metro to, 2.25€ metro back

We grabbed a quick lunch and then headed out to Praia da Rainha, one of the more popular beaches near Lisbon. It is about a 30-40 minute train ride out of the city, but extremely accessible. There are also a lot of other beaches that we passed on the train.

The water was cold, even in August, (Atlantic); the sun was hot (but we had some sunscreen!); and the shops in the area were really cute. We laid out our towels and literally all fell asleep. We were so tired from traveling and just "go-ing" so much over the past week and a half.

After a few hours of beach time, we headed back into Lisbon to clean up and then grab dinner. We ended up going to the same place we ate last night—the service was good, the food was local, and the location was close! We also, of course, stopped for gelato at a place near our Airbnb. What would our final night in Europe be without gelato?!

Thursday (Day 11)

We packed up and left the Airbnb this morning. We were definitely sad, but I, for one, was ready for a bit of stability and the comfort of home. We grabbed a final espresso and pastry at the café on the corner. ($2.50 for a savory pastry, a sweet pastry, and a coffee! I won't get over the sticker shock—or the reverse I faced when landing back in the States.) Then, we caught our bus to head over to the airport. (Lisboa Card savings: 1.85€ bus).

But, of course, nothing ever goes quite as planned—the buses we had to take were running a bit late, and while I like to act like I am okay cutting airport timing tight, I'm not. At all. So I was pretty stressed getting to the airport, especially since we had to go through a bunch of lines (check in/ticketing, security, and passports), and were unfamiliar with the huge airport's layout. Fortunately, the lines were short for every checkpoint we had to go through and no friendships were permanently ruined.

We boarded and immediately felt like queens. Pillows! Blankets! Headsets! On our seats and for free! We got a carry-on item! (Em and Jo needed the duffle bag they had Kaitlynn bring out when we met up with her—they had lots of souvenirs to pack up.) We got a hot meal, a snack, and beverage service no fewer than 3 times! Compared to our last two flights, we were living in luxury.

It was a direct flight, so we took off and landed without any issues.

This trip was so fun, and I strongly recommend you put both Iceland and Portugal on your travel lists. Both countries are so different and have such great histories, cultures, and general *vibes* for travelers to learn of and learn from.

Lisboa Card savings: 65.4€

The card is well worth it! Again, the cost for the 72-hour/3-day pass was about $45. We didn't have to take as much time getting in line and paying for tickets at various places or waiting to load a metro card. We also felt freedom to travel a bit more because we didn't have to worry about spending more money with an additional train, bus, or metro trip.

Step Tracker: 210,693 steps total (per person!)

Besos (and until next trip!),

Tina the ExploraDora

Europe > Exams: Lisbon (Day 9)

Hola todos,

We started off the morning with a bus to Belém. (Yes, again! We had to go to the places that were closed yesterday.) We wanted to get an early start to beat the crowds and long lines. And, since it was Kaitlynn’s last day, we needed to get our busy day started!

Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (Jerónimos Monastery)

Lisboa Card savings: 1.85€ bus, 10€ entrance

Because we had the Lisboa Card, we were able to jump straight into the entrance line instead of buying tickets first and then hopping in line. But don’t mistake this for a fast pass—we still had to wait about 50 minutes to enter even though we got there right when the monastery opened. The line hadn’t died down by the time we exited, so I can't say that we should have waited. If anything, we should have arrived maybe an hour before opening? But then we still would have waited for an hour. Well, the view was nice and the weather was great, so it's hard to complain either way!

The monastery was stunning, and was a continuation of what I learned is called Manueline (or Portuguese Gothic) design. This was the same style as the Convento in Tomar, and you could see a lot of similarities between the two buildings. That design style is also repeated throughout Portuguese architecture and once we learned how to identify it, we spotted it everywhere! I've used the word "stunning" too many times during this trip blog, but I would use it again here. The monastery was stunning, and totally worth the wait.

 

Just look at the quantity and detail of the hand-carved stone! Amazing.

We then waited in a separate line to see the church that is connected to the monastery. That wait was only 20 minutes, and the church is another example of more of the same design style. Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese explorer, and Fernando Pessoa, a famous Portuguese author, have their tombs there. 

Pasteis de Belém (reprise)

We went back to Pasteis de Belém for lunch to grab some savory bites and one more pastel de Belém. We missed the line, too; when we came back from the park where we picnicked, the to-go line was probably twice as long.

We took the bus back to Lisbon to check out the remaining items on our list.

Pantãeo Nacional

Lisboa Card savings: 1.85€ bus, 5€ entrance

This is the National Pantheon, which is a big cultural and historical monument in Lisbon. It looks very similar to the Capital Rotunda in the U.S. Capitol and has stunning views of the city from its top floor and terrace.

 

Flea Market

There is the flea market right outside the Pantheon, so we walked through that and window shopped a bit. There is an eclectic mix of stuff, but we had to move along to our next site!

Museu Nacional do Azulejo (National Tile Museum)

Lisboa Card savings: 1.85€ bus, 5€ entrance

We bussed over to the Tile Museum to check out its various exhibits. This was one of the things I was most excited to see—part art museum, part history museum, it would be something a little different than anything else we had seen in Portugal thus far.

The museum had a whole bunch of exhibits of different tiles that have been found throughout Portugal, organized by time period and artistic style. It ended up being more art museum than history museum. Compared to all of the other tiles and tile murals that we had seen preserved in actual castles and monasteries, it was a bit underwhelming!

Monastery and Church of São Vicente de Fora

Lisboa Card savings: 1.85€ bus

Finally, we checked out our last monastery in Lisbon. We got there right when it was about to close, so we were only able to go into the church portion. This one was more austere and simpler in contrast to some of the more ornate churches we had seen. At this point, I could have gone without touring this church. I think the Jeronimos Monastery from this morning just stole the show!

We walked back into the main part of town to finish up some souvenir shopping and grab some dinner. We grabbed food at an amazing local place that our tour guide from the first day, Claudia, recommended to us!

And, of course we got gelato on the way home. The gelato shop was right near the parliament building, so we got to see that as an unexpected addition to our tour.

A successful final day for the whole group, I think!

Step tracker: 176,791 steps

Lisboa Card savings: 50.15€ (our 3-day "plan" cost about $45 USD, so it paid for itself today!)

Besos,

Tina the ExploraDora

Europe > Exams: Lisbon (Day 8)

Hola todos,

I woke up and sipped coffee on our little rooftop balcony to the sounds of a city waking up. I could get used to this.

Lisboa Card

Before I get too involved in describing our day, I want to explain the Lisboa card. This is a prepaid card that gives you free or discounted access to public transportation and tons of museums across the city. We looked into the card and figured it would be financially worth it to get a 72-hour “plan”. So, as I am recounting our day, I’ll mention if we used it and keep a running total of how much money we saved.

Zenith

We started this morning a bit more leisurely since a lot of things are shut down on Mondays. Since we had a smaller list of places to tackle, we decided to have a sit-down breakfast at a brunch place someone recommended to us.

It was a really modern and chic restaurant that reminded me of hot DC brunch spots. It had a lot of American food options, but often with a European or Portuguese twist.

They did charge us for the tap water, which was a total scam. But otherwise, we had a good time. The food was affordable and delicious, and they hit two of the three points of the tourist trifecta (free water, free Wi-Fi, free bathroom).

Sé de Lisboa (Lisbon Catedral)

Lisboa Card savings: 1€

Then we walked over to the Lisbon Cathedral, which looks a lot like Notre Dame. The Cathedral also suffered some fire damage, but is in better shape than the two we saw yesterday. That is because it is in a different part of the city that was less affected by the earthquake and the fire. This cathedral also holds a lot of the relics and treasury of the Catholic Church in Lisbon, so part of it functions as a museum. It also has a balcony with a stunning view of Lisbon and the river.

Here are some views from the balcony!

Tram 12

Lisboa Card savings: €1.85

In addition to trains and buses, Lisbon also has trams throughout the city. The most famous ones are Tram 28 and Tram 12, since they pass through the most common tourist areas. Tram 28 is notoriously crowded, so we decided to try to hop on Tram 12.

The trick was to hop on a stop that is not near the biggest tourist attractions so that you can get a seat before the Team fills up. That plan worked great, and we got great seats on the tram to view the city. Tram 12’s path is a circle, so once we got on, we just sat down and viewed a few different neighborhoods. We decided to ride it twice so that we could get different views of the city.

While Tram 28 is the most famous, I think Tram 12 was great. It stopped by some of the main tourist areas and we got to see the city in a cool way.

At one point, the tram stopped for a few minutes and we were trying to figure out what was going on since we had a green light. Turns out, the driver wanted to take a quick smoke break! We thought that was funny because that’s not something that really happens on DC public transit.

Old Town/Alfama

We got off the train in the Old Town or Alfama neighborhood. It was at the top of the hill, so it was perfect to ride the train up to the neighborhood and then walk down. We walked down through some really narrow neighborhoods with cobblestone streets—very picturesque.

Palacio Nacional da Ajuda

Lisboa Card savings: €1.85 bus, €15 entrance (museum + palace)

Next, we took the bus to Belém, a city in the Greater Lisbon Area. The Palace museum holds the national jewelry and treasure collection dating back centuries. It’s amazing to see the country’s and former royal families’ fancy silver, gold, jewels, crowns, jewelry, silverware, coins, swords, and more!

The exhibit is well done: they put all of the treasures on display in blacked out rooms with spotlight cases to highlight how beautiful the gold and jewels are.

You can also tour the Palace and its various rooms. The rooms hold more national and royal works of art but have largely been maintained to look as they did when the Palace was in use by the royal family. It’s amazing how much wealth is on display there.

It’s also cool to learn about the daily life of a royal by seeing the location and layout of different rooms throughout the palace. (Never mind that the queen’s dressing room was bigger than every apartment I’ve lived in!)

We spent several hours in the Palace, since it is enormous. The rooms just kept coming and coming and coming.

We couldn’t take a ton of pics, but this is the outside view from the back.

This is the Palace dining room where Jimmy Carter dined as President.

Another power pose opportunity we couldn’t pass up.

Discovery Monument

Lisboa Card savings: 1.2€

This is a big monument celebrating the explorers of Portugal, like Vasco da Gama (first to sail to India from Europe.) I wasn’t sold on going to the top, but it was totally worth it. We climbed about 200 steps to see amazing views of Lisbon, the river, and the Atlantic. Stunning!

Pasteis de Belém Café

Belém is known for its own variation on the pasteis de nata, called the pasteis de Belém. The recipe dates back to the monks who lived at the monastery in Belém. This café is the one that is most famous for serving pasteis de Belém. We rested our feet and got a little snack before heading back into Lisbon.

It’s a very unassuming facade, but the interior is huge.

Pink Street

Lisboa Card savings: €1.85 bus

We bussed back to Lisbon and got off near the famous Pink Street. We obviously couldn’t pass up a photo op!

Time Out Market

Then we walked to the Time Out Market, which is indoor dining space with lots of local restaurants you can order from. We ate dinner there and then got gelato (of course!) for the walk back to the Airbnb.

A full, but good, day!

Lisboa Card savings total: 22.75€

Step tracker: 155,132 steps

Besos,

Tina the ExploraDora

Europe > Exams: Lisbon (Day 7)

Hola todos,

I woke up in Lisbon and went to bed in love with the city. Y’all, if Lisbon isn’t on your list, put. it. there.

The view from our Airbnb.

It was Sunday morning, and we wanted to go to church. Kaitlynn’s grandpa knew a pastor in Lisbon, so we connected with him and went to his church. He graciously drove us there since it was a bit of a commute. During that drive, we drove across the famous Lisbon bridge, which some people compare to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.

The bridge (this was taken from the west of the bridge, so Lisbon is on the back left).

The pastor’s son spoke English very well, so he was a mini-tour guide for the drive. He explained some aspects of Portuguese and Lisbon history and culture. Their family is from Brazil, so he offered some interesting insights and comparisons to life and language there, too.

He also translated the whole message at church, which was a huge help. I picked up on a few key words that were similar to Spanish or English (or unique enough to get context clues, like books of the Bible) but I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to understand the message.

Pastor, his wife, his son Gabriel, and us.

The church is small (we doubled its population on Sunday) but appears to have a faithful group of attendees!

They surprised us by asking us to sing at the end. We hadn’t prepared a song, and we literally had to quickly google some lyrics to make sure we were all on the same page.

After church, the pastor and his family took us to lunch. We went to a Lisbon mall and ate at what I gathered was a fast causal restaurant for traditional Portuguese food. I’ve been to a few malls around the world, and I think it’s so interesting that malls are basically the same around the world (at least where I’ve been). Maybe some different stores, clothing offerings, or food court choices, but they all have the same structure and flow and purpose.

After lunch, we were dropped off near the start of our walking tour. It started just off the main street called Liberdade, which was basically a wide street running between two big statues and plazas, covered with a tree-canopy and lined with fancy stores. It looks very French, similar to the Champs Elysées. It’s beautiful, and we would have walked more of it but it’s on a steep hill. I was still emotionally recovering from Porto.

Our tour was a free walking tour where you tip the tour guide at the end. I’ve used these in almost every city I’m traveled to and I love them: you get local insights and history of the city and country that help you understand what you’re seeing. And it’s so much cheaper than a bus tour or paid tour.

Our guide was Claudia, and she was so fun! She had lots of great tips and tricks for pictures, museums, food, and saving money. We also learned so much more about the history of Portugal, the various monarchies and political turmoil, and the cultures that have contributed to what Portugal is today (Romans, Visigoths, Arabs, Jews, and I’m sure I’m forgetting some).

Some scenes of Lisbon from the tour.

We also saw two different churches that had been burned during a series of natural disasters that occurred in 1755: an earthquake of roughly 8.5-9.2 on the Richter scale, followed by a tsunami, followed by a huge fire that took 5 days to put out. Lots of the city was reconstructed after that, but you can still see fire damage on some of the older buildings.

They had to reconstruct the roof of this church entirely after the fire damage, but you can see some of the fire damage in the stone. The church also decided to restore itself in an austere fashion, as opposed to the more ornate original.

This was from a lookout in the Carlo neighborhood. So many hills, so many views. I cannot get over the combination of the vibrant colors. (And, blue and orange are Pepperdine colors.)

The tour ended at the Praça Comercio, or Commercial Plaza. It’s a large open square surrounded by yellow buildings on 3 sides and the river port on the other. We got some gelato and hung out at the riverfront for a bit. We met another DC-er on the tour (she had also just finished law school!) named Justina, so we hung out with her a bit too.

Bad picture; good sunset.

gelato 😎

On our way to dinner, we stopped by this bookstore in the Chiado neighborhood. Bertrand Bookstore is the oldest operating bookshop in the world and was established in 1732. (It’s free to go inside!)

We ended the night with a late dinner at an Italian place around the corner from our Airbnb. (If you’re keeping track, yes—we had dessert before dinner. What can I say? At least I’m consistent across continents.) (And yes, we had Italian food. It was our first non-“local” cuisine in Portugal, but we desperately needed any restaurant that was 1. open at 9PM on Sunday and 2. not going to break the bank.)

Step tracker: 133,380

Besos,

Tina the ExploraDora