Portugal - updated

Lisbon, Portugal

We made a last minute decision to book a flight to Lisbon, Portugal as it was the same price to go to our planned next destination of Madrid, Spain.  It cost us about $150 CDN but saved us a very long train ride, a Eurail Pass travel day and we were able to get there in just over 2 hours. It has been the best decision we've made so far.  We have titled it the "vacation within a vacation" as it seems to be a more developed version of Mexico.  Everything is fairly cheap (relative to the cities so far).  We booked into the Good Morning Hostel for 4 nights, costing only about 20 bucks CDN each per night and providing the best hostel accomodation we´ve had so far.  We spent our first day on the beach laying around and going for the occasional dip in the ocean.  The water is a bit chilly (Holly doesn't seem to think it's that bad) but is very refreshing when it is over 30 degrees outside.

Our plan for today is to hang around Lisbon and do some shopping before attending a Portugese dinner and then who knows what for the evening.  Tomorrow, we plan on heading to Sintra for the day, a small town outside Lisbon with castles and palaces to explore, and Sunday we will head out to Lagos, Portugal to stay there for 3 nights. Lagos is supposed to be a gorgeous beach town with lots to do, according to other travellers.

We will fill you in on these upcoming events when we get the chance.

Kevin

On Saturday, we visited Sintra, a small town outside of Lisbon (roughly a 30 minute train ride). It is considered a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and it is easy to see why. There are a large number of fantastic castles, palaces, convents, and other neat old buildings and structures on the Sintra mountains. Furthermore, the landscape and foliage is extremely lush, it reminded me of the forest in Montana.

Since it would take a couple of days to see everything, we had to choose only a few sites to see. We started out at the Moorish Castle, which was a relatively small area in total but had a wall all the way around it with turrets and stone walkways around the perimeter of the courtyard. It also boasted a breathtaking view of the surrounding countryside. After some time exploring this castle, we went to Pena Palace, the great palace on the uppermost part of the Sintra mountains. It was really interesting exploring the inside of the palace, not to mention the surrounding landscape was fantastic. We spent a good hour in the woods enjoying some time off the beaten track as well.

Lagos, Portugal

We arrived in Lagos after a relaxing four hour bus ride. Our first stop was our hostel which has great staff and a relaxing atmosphere. After a quick bite to eat, we hit the beach for a couple of hours and spent the night visiting with people at the hostel. Yesterday we got up, went for a run in the hot sun, then went kayaking on a tour through all the grottos along the beaches. We also got to kayak through some pretty tight caves, and got to snorkel at one of the secluded beaches. Last night we went out for a really good Portuguese dinner, and couldn't keep our eyes open past 11.  

Today we went and walked the cliffs that overlook the ocean and run above the beaches. We then spent the afternoon reading and swimming on one of the beaches along the walk. Tonight we're hoping to go out because tomorrow we're bussing back to Lisbon and taking an overnight train to Madrid.

Holly

Lisbon from across the river

Pretty nice beach view