In August I flew to Lisbon, Portugal to spend almost 3 weeks, with a side train trip to Northern Spain...
Funny story...
I was connecting from Milwaukee in Philadelphia for my flight to Lisbon, Portugal. I had 90 minutes in Philadelphia. The flight out of Milwaukee left 25 minutes late because the arriving flight was late getting in. When we finally left, we were stopped on the runway and the captain announces that because of bad weather out east we need to wait for a new flight plan. 30 minutes later we took off.
Anyway...
When I got to Philadelphia, I ran through the airport to my connecting gate (of course it was in another terminal). Does the phrase 'ghost town' conjure up any images? Nothing. No one there, nothing on the monitors, even the departures screens had no flight info. No sign of my flight to Lisbon. I think the Lisbon flight captain was Amelia Earhart. After waiting in line 30 minutes at customer service, I got a hotel voucher and a food voucher. Tomorrow's flight to Lisbon was already fully booked, so they had me fly through Boston and catch an earlier flight from there to Lisbon.
Oddly, I thought how nice it was flying out of Milwaukee. It's a short drive from home, cheap parking, no crowds, small airport, and a breeze through security. Now I have to contend with the busy and huge Philadelphia airport twice and the Boston airport. I contacted my Lisbon hotel about the delay and they said they would hold my reservation. So at least I'm good there.
It seems it had been a long day traveling and now I have another. I was now booked on a 45-minute flight from Philadelphia to Boston. As usual, I had to get to the Philadelphia airport several hours in advance, then wait. Once I landed in Boston, I checked with the American Airlines service desk. In Philadelphia last night, or was it the night before, they couldn't give me a boarding pass to Lisbon since it was not an American flight. It was PAN Airlines, the Portugal national airline. Boston customer service said to go to the PAN check-in desk. The problem was, that was outside the security area and I could see the Boston security check was a madhouse. I noticed my flight to Lisbon was on the screen at gate C17. Keep in mind, PAN has only 1 flight a day from Boston and this was it, it's not a big airline out of Boston. At this point I had about 90 minutes before boarding, so I was trying to avoid exiting the security area and trying to get back through security.
Eureka! Or as they say in Portuguese - Eureca!
There was a PAN man there setting up the gate. I noticed the PAN plane was already there at the gate (where else would it be?). Once he finished his setup, I approached him. He had a list of about 6 people that were being re-booked on this plane from other flights, and there was my name. I have to admit, despite the extra flights, the airlines had everything communicated to each other very well. So, my $77 ticket to Lisbon (fees and taxes) cashing in my air miles probably cost the airline hundreds in hotel, food, and flights. Of course, it all could have been avoided if they waited 15 minutes for me at my Philadelphia connection...
So, my Boston to Lisbon flight arrived at 05:45 am in Lisbon. I knew my hotel would honor my reservation being a day late, but what I wasn't sure of was if I would have a room when I got there or would I have to wait until the regular check-in time (like 02:00 pm). I knew they would hold my luggage, so off to the hotel I went. I took the convenient Metro from the airport, had 1 transfer, and arrived at the hotel in about 35 minutes. Then a very short walk to the hotel. They had my room ready and I even got my hotel breakfast that morning. I didn't get much sleep the last couple days, so I turned on the A/C and went to sleep about 08:00 am. I woke up at 02:00 pm. I was able to easily walk around the remainder of the day and got to see some sights, get oriented, and found a couple grocery stores nearby.
I always make a rule to not plan much the first day or 2 of my holidays. This was a perfect example of why. I also plan the first couple days at the same hotel at the start of the trip so I have less to worry about if something happens. So, my first (or was it my second or third) day was going to be an easy day. I had booked a full day bus tour to see some sites outside of Lisbon. When I was in Portugal 10 years ago, I had actually seen these, but I figured seeing them once a decade was fine and not an issue.
Unfortunately, I did have to wake up around 06:00 am to get ready and walk to the pick-up point (the Lisbon Hard Rock Cafe). It was only about a 10-minute walk from my hotel centrally located on Rossio square, it was an 08:00 am departure but you had to arrive early to check-in beforehand. The first and second stop of the tour was in the town of Sintra. It actually had 2 old grand castles and several smaller ones from the 15th and 16th century. This area outside of Lisbon was where the Portuguese Royalty spent their summers. We first toured the Pena Palace, a colorful Palace you can't miss (unless maybe if you're colorblind). We then drove into the Sintra old town centre to roam around and have lunch. In the old town is the Sintra National Palace, some nice exterior pictures but we didn't have time to tour the inside (last time when I was here on my own, I went through it - big old Palace, you get the picture).
The next stop was the Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of mainland Europe. Very nice dramatic rocky coastline on the Atlantic Ocean. Also, a bit windy. On our way to our last stop, we drove some more along the coast, with dramatic views around every turn. Our last stop was in the historic fishing village of Cascais (pronounced just like it's spelled). Lots of boats in the harbor and lots of little winding lanes filled with all kinds of shops. It's a bit touristy, but still nice along the water and a small beach. The entire loop was about 75 miles and we got back around 05:00 pm.
A few facts about Lisbon. It is very hilly and they had a massive earthquake in 1755. Regarding the hills, it doesn't look like much, but when you're walking around all day, they are there. Lisbon also has an extensive network of cable cars (similar to San Francisco) that go up and down the hills. There are also a lot of stair shortcuts for pedestrians, although I don't know if stairs are necessarily a shortcut. Back in 1755 the area had a massive 7.7 earthquake. This was followed by fires and a tsunami that devastated the city. When they rebuilt the city, they wanted buildings that could withstand another earthquake. The style of building created (referred to as the Pombaline style) was a movable shell layered with a facade that could shift. They actually built these buildings off-site and brought them into the city to put together. If you notice in the pictures, all the buildings are 4 stories with a small attic area. Sort of an early pre-manufactured home (I guess you can think of Lisbon as a really nice trailer park).
High above the city is the 12th century Castelo de São Jorge (St George's Castle). While mostly ruins, the walls are still standing. It also has spectacular views over the city and the nearby Tagus River. The Santa Maria Maior de Lisboa (Cathedral of St Mary Major of Lisbon), referred to as Sé, was built in 1147. It has survived several earthquakes, with only some damage. Interesting that the cathedral has survived several earthquakes.
I've been to a lot of European capital cities, only a few have old towns that are really spread out. Lisbon is one of those cities. I took a 45-minute tram ride to an area known as Belém, along the Tagus River. One of the sites in this area is the National Museum. It's located in a grand building reminiscent of a palace, and is actually 4 museums in one (maritime, planetarium, archaeological, and monastery). Nearby is the Presidential Palace Museum. Directly on the Tagus River is the Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument of the Discoveries), built in 1960 to commemorate the Portuguese involved in the age of discovery and it has detailed carvings on both sides. A little further down the Tagus River, but within easy walking distance, is the Torre de Belém (Belém Tower). It was built in 1520 as a fortress along the river. These are pretty famous landmarks in Lisbon.
I then had a train travel day to Porto, Portugal (that's fun to say quick). I caught a train ride from Lisbon Oriente station to the Porto Campanha station. It was a 10:12 am departure and is a little over 2 hours to the north. Unfortunately, the train was about 40 minutes late arriving into Lisbon, and we lost another 10 minutes on the way, so we arrived 50 minutes later than expected into Porto. I wasn't too concerned since that put me closer to my hotel check-in. When I arrived in Porto, I decided to just walk to my hotel. I travel very light and my main suitcase has wheels and is also convertible into a backpack. I knew it was 2.1 kilometres (1.3 miles), and pretty much a straight walk down a major road toward the Rio Douro (River Douro). Porto is the 2nd largest city in Portugal. Yes, this area of Portugal is famous for the making of Port, I know you all were thinking that. Porto has 6 bridges crossing the Rio Douro, it's known as the city of bridges. In perspective, Lisbon only has 2 bridges crossing the Tagus River. The most scenic bridge in Porto is the Ponte de Dom Luís I (Luís Bridge). Completed in 1886 it spans 395 metres (1,296.8 feet). Porto is also very hilly, and when looking at the pictures of the bridge you get a feel of how dramatically the city rises from the river level.
I had the chance to spend a full day wandering Porto. The weather the entire trip so far had been perfect every day, very sunny. It only reached a high of 24c (74f) but in the sun it felt a lot warmer. Oddly, Portugal is about the same latitude as Washington DC on the map, I would have thought it was further south than that. One of the tallest landmarks in Porto is the 75 metre (246 foot) Igreja e Torre dos Cerritos (Clérigos Church and Tower) built in the 18th century. It's hard to capture the whole church in a picture, the building is not much wider than just the tower. One of the oldest landmarks is the 12th century Sé Cathedral do Porto (Porto Cathedral). Part of it is from that timeframe with expansion in the 16th and 17th centuries (right now part of the exterior is covered due to restoration).
My Porto hotel is just around the corner from the main pedestrian shopping street Rua Santa Catarina. The one end of the street is in Batalha square (where my hotel is), and an odd thing to me, the 1.5-kilometre (.93 miles) Rua Santa Catarina just ends - no glorious square or park or anything. For a main street I would have expected more. I don't often buy any souvenirs. I pretty much have enough from the countries I've been to that I don't need anything more. For the most part, the souvenir shops sell the same thing. Something I especially noticed in Porto, most of the gift shops all look identical. Same lighting, same layout, and to be honest the same employees. I wonder if the same person owns them all, and there are a lot of them everywhere.
I knew I only needed a couple days to see what's in Porto. I also decided not to book a car this trip because I knew I'd be staying in several cities, meaning I would pay for parking and several of the days the car would just sit. Consequently, I booked a couple tours to see the surrounding area in each of the cities. Another tour I took was to see Costa Nova and then onto nearby Aveiro. Both towns are near to each other, and they are about 85 kilometres (53 miles) from Porto. I like what they refer to as the small group tours, 8 to 12 people and a small bus that can easily get into town centers. Costa Nova is an old fishing village along the Atlantic Ocean. Its unique feature are the striped wooden houses originally built by the fisherman. Today it's more of a resort town and the houses are revamped for seasonal living (ka-ching). It does have a nice sandy beach, but it is the Atlantic (brrr!). A short drive away is Aveiro. Because of its location, it made its fortune in salt and seaweed (it was a different time 1000 years ago). They used special flat bottom boats (moliceiro boats) to transport the items. Today they are a tourist attraction that run through canals in the town. I was on a 40-minute boat ride where they talked about the town history as we floated through the canals. Then they gave us some time to explore the old town on foot.
Another day tour was to a couple old towns. Not too far apart from each other, they are only about 60 kilometres (36 miles) north of Porto. Braga goes back to pre-Roman times. In the 2nd century, Emperor Augustus gave it its name and in the 3rd century, Emperor Diocletain made it the capital of the area. It was located on one of the main Roman roads in the Iberian Peninsula. Braga's Cathedral is also the oldest in the country and was built in the 12th century by the parents of Portugal's first King (more on him later). There are other numerous old buildings in Braga. Guimarães is commonly referred to as the 'Birthplace of Portugal' because it was here that Portugal's first King, Afonso Henriques was born, and also due to the fact that the Battle of São Mamede - which is considered the seminal event for the foundation of the Kingdom of Portugal - was fought in the vicinity of the city. Overlooking Guimarães is the 10th century Guimarães Castle. While the interior are ruins, they rebuilt the exterior walls several times over the centuries. The remainder of the town center is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Overall, I was surprised by how few people were there in these nice towns (especially considering it was Saturday). It was a nice break from the crowds.
If it's Sunday, it must be Spain! In the morning, I caught the train from Porto, Portugal to Vigo, Spain. It was about a 25-minute walk to the Campanha train station in Porto. Being a Sunday morning, it was really quiet on the streets. However, the train was really crowded. I had a window seat for the 2 hour and 15-minute train ride but it was facing backwards. It was definitely not a bullet train, more like a pop-gun train. Once I arrived in Vigo, Spain it was only a short 10-minute walk to my Vigo hotel.
Vigo, Spain is definitely not a hot tourist destination. To be honest, for the time I was going to spend on this trip in Portugal, it was too much time just for Lisbon and Porto, so I threw in Vigo, Spain just for fun. It was an easy train ride. I did notice in Vigo the English on signs and spoken was really lacking. I don't believe they get a lot of English-speaking tourists here. One of the odd monuments in Vigo is that of Jules Verne sitting on an octopus. SPOILER ALERT - The French writer dedicated a chapter to 'the Bay of Vigo' in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea where Captain Nemo's submarine, the Nautilus, enters the Vigo Estuary to rescue Rande's treasures. He actually did visit Vigo twice in his lifetime.
BTW: Yet another phenomenal day with the weather...
While having several days in Spain, I took a day to take it easy. No tours and no big plans, in fact I actually was able to sleep in late. Rick Steves has mentioned what he calls 'a vacation within a vacation'. Effectively taking time during your vacation to take it easy. Seems odd, but when you have these types of vacations with a lot going on, you need to do something like that. Trust me. Since this is Spain, I noticed a lot of businesses closed during the mid-afternoon for 'Siesta'. While it might not actually mean they are taking naps, it is a break in the afternoon for them to do something other than work. That's not to say I didn't see or do anything. I still walked over 7 miles and saw a lot of Vigo. At the top of the city is the Fortress of El Castro built in 1665. It has remaining exterior walls, but many of the interior walls are in ruins. The hill it is on is really grown with trees and other vegetation. So much so, you can only see the fortress while near the top of climbing the hill. I had mentioned before how hilly Lisbon and Porto are. Vigo is not as bad, but it has its share of hills. I'm not sure what the people of Vigo are called (Vigoites? Vigotians?), but they take the hills seriously. They have a whole structure of moving sidewalks and escalators throughout the city. There are even maps on the streets showing you how to get around the city using these moving structures.
On my last full day in Vigo, Spain I did a lot of walking. I didn't have a detailed map of the city, but I found a lot of nice squares, parks, and gardens located around the city. There were also an abundance of monuments to people and events that I had no idea who or what they were for. On a lot of buildings were plaques providing more historical references (which I couldn't read in Spanish). I mentioned Vigo isn't really a tourist spot. But, that means it isn't crazy crowded. Which is nice.
It was time to leave Vigo, Spain and return back to Porto, Portugal on the train. There are only 2 trains between Vigo and Porto. Either early morning or late in the evening. This meant I arrived in Porto, Portugal in the morning several hours before check-in. I was able to drop off my luggage, walk around a bit, and have lunch before checking-in. I spent the remainder of the day walking around Porto to see a couple things I didn't see the first time, like the beautiful Porto city hall. Built in 1920, it includes a 70 metre (230 foot) chiming clock tower. I didn't mention that Spain and Portugal aren't in the same time zone, Spain is an hour ahead of Portugal. Even though both countries are aligned with the U.K. time zone according to the Greenwich Meridian, only Portugal actually uses that time (correctly). Spain uses the same time as central Europe. The reason for this goes back to WWII when Spain's fascist leader, Francisco Franco, wanted to align with Germany. It's never been changed.
After that brief return to Porto, Portugal it was time to take the bullet train from Porto back to Lisbon. Despite the speed, it's still a 2 hour and 50-minute ride. At some points we were going 225 kph (140 mph). We did make several stops along the way, and there were sections where we slowed down. But, it's still the best way to get between the 2 cities. Based on how crowded it was (the train was very full both there and back), a reservation was a good idea. While in Lisbon I used the convenient underground Metro to get around a little. It has several lines reaching out to all areas of the city. If you can get around in any other European city, the Lisbon Metro is similar to other cities. I was surprised it was not overly crowded.
Since my time in Lisbon was winding down, I made a quick run for the bulls, or rather bullring. I went to the Praça de Touros do Campo Pequeno (Campo Pequeno Bullring). It was built in 1892 and holds about 10,000 people and 1 bull. Portuguese bull fighting does not involve killing the bull in the ring, but if the bull is critically injured it is put down after the event. Otherwise, it is released to pasture after its one-time appearance. Amazingly, I'm not sure how they did it, but there's a large 2 story shopping mall under the bullring.
I expected that I would have had enough time in Lisbon by the end of the trip, so I booked another day tour for the last full day on this trip. I took a day trip to the town of Évora and also to the small town of Guadalupe. The towns are about an hour ride outside of Lisbon. Évora is a real Roman town and has many ruins to prove it. There's a Roman temple, cathedral, and even an aqueduct. Surrounding all this is a nice old town worth walking around. Guadalupe is almost a town you would drive by. The town itself is a sleepy little village with a little main street with just a couple stores and not many people. The significance of the town lies in what is just outside of town down an extremely dusty, bumpy, narrow, winding road. It's the Cromlech! What's that you say? Is that a pastry? Is that an alien race that landed here? Is it a breed of super human soldiers? (Insert your guess here). WRONG! It's an archaeological site consisting of dozens of megalithic structures: cromlechs and menhir stones. It's 95 monoliths arranged to create a calendar, of sorts, that the people of the region used to determine the different seasons. These are from 6000 BC, about 3000 years before Stonehenge. Unfortunately, because of some recent vandalism, they roped off the stones and you are unable to walk among them for now, so they are only visible from a distance.
When I caught my flight back home, I had a 3 hour wait in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for my connecting flight to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There was not a mad rush of people wanting to fly from Philadelphia to Milwaukee, the plane was virtually empty. By the time I got home, I had been awake 23 hours.
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