Stop #33 (the final stop): Lisbon sits on seven hills, and no matter where you go in Lisbon, you always feel like you are walking up one of them! To get a feel for the streets, take a look at the photos of the streetcars. I don’t know what they have for engines, but they […]
Stop #29: Porto is Portugal’s second-largest city. There is a famous expression in Porto: “Coimbra sings, Braga Portugal’s second-largest city, with a population of roughly 280,000, considers itself the north’s capital and, more contentiously, the country’s economic center. Locals support this claim with the maxim: “Coimbra sings, Braga prays, Lisbon shows off, and Porto works.” […]
Stop #30: When your guide book tells you that you will visit the “Venice of Portugal”, it is pretty hard for that town to live up to your expectations. So, to get to the point immediately, this wasn’t Venice. Aveiro is a sea town and sits on the Ria de Aveiro, with a large shallow […]
Stop #32: Nazaré has become synonymous with surfing and big waves. They are the biggest waves in the world. The town isn’t the quaint Portuguese fishing village it once was. But it is still beautiful with cliffs and sand that stretches for miles. The town of white buildings and tile roofs buts up against the […]
Stop #28: One of my favorite cities on this trip was medieval Guimarães. We stayed at an old monastery converted into a hotel. In the fact, the history of the monastery is described below. The city is a UNESCO World Heritage site and a 2012 European Capital of Culture. You will see a picture below […]
Stop #27: In Pinhão, we stopped at the local train station to take photos of the 25 large azulejo panels depicting scenes from Douro rural life. While Portugals buildings are often covered in these tiles, the scenes that were included at the train station tell a story about every day live in the Douro Valley, […]
Stop 6: The area of Vila Viçosa has been inhabited since antiquity and was a small Roman settlement. It was part of the Visogoth Kingdom and came under Moorish control. In 1217, Moorish domination ended with reconquest by Christians. In the early 14th century, a castle was constructed in the village to protect it from […]
Stop #5: Between Lisbon and Mérida, Spain is a town called Estremoz, a site of strategic importance since Roman times. It has a castle that overlooks the town. And I did get some pictures of the cutest elderly Portuguese lady I ever did see. 🙂 The pousada was also really impressive. Thanks to Fodor’s Travel […]
Stop#4: At the very top of the hilltop village of Evoramonte is a pretty massive fortress. At first, I said that we shouldn’t bother because it looked like a concrete building. But then I later realized that this building was first founded in 1160 and rebuilt after a 1531 earthquake. Oops! The knotted rope sculpture […]