_edited.jpg)
Another Amazing Country Visited – Portugal - Part 1
- Patti Mills-Roy
- 13 minutes ago
- 5 min read
We recently spent time in Lisbon for a short 2-night visit and then took the train from Lisbon to Porto in the north to board a river cruise ship to both spend time in the city of Porto and then sail the Douro River.
We had the most amazing group of 8 people join us in Lisbon with an additional 2 for the actual Douro River Cruise that we took on Tauck’s lovely Andorinha ship out of Porto. It was a fun 10-day trip that gave me a great taste of Portugal although I know that I’ve barely scratched the surface and will need to return in the future.
Lisbon was a fabulous city with wonderful architecture, great dining, wonderful people, and much to see. We enjoyed our 2 days of touring there and stayed in a smaller boutique hotel in the heart of the historic center of Lisbon. It was beautifully located, allowing for a wonderful walking tour of the city on day 1 of our time there with a great guide. When not doing the official walking tour we were then easily able to do our own wandering from the hotel.
We learned a lot about Lisbon and Portugal’s history including the deadly earthquake that occurred on November 1st, 1755, with a magnitude of between 7.7 and 9.0 on the Richter scale. It not only devastated the city but also killed an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 people.
In spite of the Earthquake, Lisbon does have some amazing historical buildings standing including the oldest bookstore in the world from the year 1732.
We got to see many great sights, including the Sao Roque Church, one of the earliest Jesuit churches in the world, with its very plain façade but phenomenally beautiful interior that’s more like a museum than just a church with so many great paintings and art throughout the church. The view from nearby this church was also well worth the climb with a stunning view of the city below (as shown in photo at top of this blog).
Later in the tour, we tasted Portugal’s famous pastel de nate, the typical custard tart that they’re famous for. They also had many pastry shops everywhere with fabulous displays and some great coffee shops worth visiting too.
The 4-star hotel we stayed at, i.e. Hotel da Baixa, had just 66 rooms and was very comfortable with great food and good service. More and more of my clients are preferring smaller boutique properties versus the larger grandiose ones although there are many great options to choose from in Lisbon.
Day 2, we had another great driving tour with yet another fabulous guide & driver who took us out of the city to nearby Sintra. We visited the lovely 19th century Pena Palace and heard all about its rich history.
Following our visit to the palace, we made our way to the westernmost point of continental Europe called Cape Roca. It was incredibly windy there, so we didn’t spend much time out by the coast that day. Only long enough to get the photo taken of all 8 of us.
The scenic drive down the west coast of Portugal from the Cape back to Lisbon was stunning and included a brief photo stop at Boco do Inferno, that translates to “mouth of hell” although it was nice and calm when we were there as you can see.
Our final stop was the lovely town of Cascais for a very tasty, fresh seafood lunch followed by some shopping, including grabbing a delicious gelato and shopping for some yummy chocolate. All over Portugal, it was 'beginning to look a lot like Christmas'!
We drove through the town of Estoril on our way back to Lisbon past the famous ‘Casino Estoril’ that inspired Ian Fleming’s James Bond character and is considered one of Europe’s largest. This area of Portugal, west of Lisbon, including Sintra, Cascais, and Estoril, is considered Portugal’s Riviera and served as a refuge for many politicians and Royalty during World War II since Portugal remained neutral throughout the war.
Following our brief, but incredibly worthwhile time in Lisbon and area, we boarded our train that took us from Lisbon to Porto, roughly 200 miles north. We were picked up from the train station and taken by private transfer to our beautiful river cruise ship, Tauck’s Andorinha, docked at Vila Nova de Gaia.
And is she ever lovely...there are just 42 staterooms and suites overall with a maximum capacity of 84 passengers. For our sailing, we lucked out with being just about 1/2 capacity considering the time of year with the American Thanksgiving holiday.
I'm sharing some photos of this beautiful ship along with some of the very special experiences we had and the tremendous culinary offerings as well. There seemed to be something special every day.
These culinary offerings included a special 'fruit display', a chocolate extravaganza, afternoon 'high tea', and a Portuguese specialty afternoon including an extraordinary Portuguese sandwich creation. They also had incredible meal options each and every day.
Tauck tends to be a more inclusive, luxury tour operator, always ready to offer wonderful experiences one wouldn't necessarily expect. One such experience included a 'tile decorating class' on our embarkation day, enabling folks to create their own typical Portuguese masterpiece to take home.
They also brought on 2 other focuses of local 'art' and 'culture' including a specialist in filigree jewelry and a cork producer enabling us to learn more about these trades and also do some extra shopping!
Overall, our first impressions with our Tauck river cruise were terrific and our overall impression of Portugal has also been excellent. I look forward to sharing the balance of our trip sailing the Douro River in Part 2 later on as I realized that there was just too much to share in just one blog.
I hope you've enjoyed this and will look forward to Part 2 coming up next!
Comments