Portugal, Summer 2023 ~ Travel
Our trip to Portugal in June/July of 2023 was planned to coincide with our friends Scott and Diane move into their newly refurbished villa in Alcobaça, near Nazare on the Atlantic coast. They moved to Portugal for retirement, and it felt really neat to experience alongside them the joy of finally making it into their new home after a more than 8-month remodel and wait.
I designed our trip to start in Lisbon, where we land, and then work our way north via Sintra’s fairytale castles, to Nazare’s Silver Coast, to Porto and the Douro River Valley to enjoy the lush countryside, and treat Michael to his favorite port wine.
We had a major travel snafu with one of our passports on the way in, so the very beginning of our trip was a bit scrambled and stressful, but, as we work well together, and are often incredibly fortunate in our travel adventures, it was all resolved in a matter of 48 hours, and we were able to relax the rest of our trip. Lisbon was very hot, and still very busy, with streets decorated for a triple saint holiday, fish and meat being roasted on every street corner, and garlands crisscrossing the streets in Alfama where we stayed. The heat reflected from white and tiled walls left me with memories of Lisboa almost shimmering and glowing white hot. The city sits on steep hills, which, besides the athletic element, also adds an interesting way to experience the environment from different angles that you don’t always find in other cities. Here you can always count on seeing almost any structure or landmark from up top, down below, or even on a diagonal. And your step count is dramatically enhanced by climbing 96 flights of stairs in a day! LOL
On the way out of Lisboa, we stopped in Sintra. There are several palace and castle complexes, but to do them all justice, we would need to spend at least 2 full days in the area. Since we only had time for a pass through day trip, we chose Monserrate (based on an enthusiastic review from a traveler friend), and the Pena Palace. One traveler advice to heed is “follow all the warnings about parking, transportation, wait lines and advance tickets you see online!” This place is incredibly popular, and is not, and never will be, easy to get to or around. It is located in an extremely hilly area, with small villages literally having nowhere to expand to accommodate the glut of visitors.
And here are some photos from Nazare, the Silver Coast of Portugal, and the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Alcobaça Monastery. The fish drying racks are Nazare’s cultural heritage, and the monastery is famous for housing the tombs of Portugal’s own Romeo and Juliet like story of doomed love between Ines and Pedro.
Nazare.
Mosteiro de Alcobaça.
