Perfect Portugal

We spent two weeks in Portugal for a special 60th birthday celebration. It wasn't our typical trip in that we stayed at all 5 star hotels and did not do any diving or beach activities.

We started out flying United Polaris class and having drinks and tartines in their airport lounge. Once we boarded we were each in our 'pod' across the aisle and couldn't see each other without leaning forward at the same time. There were all the amenities including multiple pillows, a blanket and plenty of storage for the stuff you want to be able to access easily.  Maybe the best part was we each had our own overhead bin!!!

We landed in Lisbon and had no challenge getting through immigration. We traveled only with carry on so no waiting for bags. I had prearranged car service to our hotel and the driver met us and was parked in the first spot in the first row and we were off!

We drove to the Bairro Alto section of the city which requires a code to enter with a vehicle. Down a small back street and we pulled up to The Lumiares Hotel & Spa. This entire property smelled like a spa. It was phenomenal! We were quickly checked in and then taken to our one bedroom suite on the 4th Floor with a street view that looked far over this side of the city.  Lunch was reserved at their Lumi Rooftop Bar & Restaurant and bar and the view is nothing short of amazing. All of the city, the Tagus River the castle across the way, churches, houses - everything. Service was perfect and the food tasty. We absolutely loved this place and would have breakfast and drinks daily. Dinner one night was lovely as the sun set and the moon rose. 

If you like to walk be prepared for hills and stairs in Portugal. It took a couple of days for our legs to acclimate to the hilly streets with smooth white and black stone sidewalks. There are lovely plazas covered with different geometric patterns made of the same stones. But if you don't want to climb every hill, there are lots of transportation options including cable cars!

 

Hit List for Lisbon

• Lisbon Cathedral
• Castelo de São Jorge
• Teatro Romano De Olisipo (Roman theater & ruins)
•  Convento Do carmo Lisboa
•  Monasterio de los Jerónimos de Belém
• Belem Tower
• Sintra National Palace
• Moorish Castle Sintra
• And a church on every other block - each with beautiful interiors 

Belem Tower

Lisbon Cathedral

Cloister at Monasterio de los Jerónimos de Belém

View from the Moorish Castel - Sintra

Fabulous Eats in Lisbon:

• Restaurante Lisboa à Noite - 5 stars!
• Cervejaria Ribadouro - fabulous fresh fish (where we dined next to Jim Belushi)
• Lumi Rooftop - our home base
• Definitely stop and have a drink at one of the many kisoks around the city

Then it was the train to Porto. Side note, buy your train tickets in advance because they fill up! 

Hit up the town market for anything and everything fresh. We had amazing pastries and were tempted by so much more.

We stayed at  Hotel Infante de Sagres which was nice, if not a bit stuffy. Hotel was well located to get around but we probably wouldn't return as it was just not welcoming. That and a few other things we saw that made you think does this really deserve 4 or 5 stars?

Porto is the city of Port so of course we made a visit to Sandeman to view their facility and taste their ports. We did a lot of walking around Porto without any real agenda and came across lots of interesting sites including peacocks, the high bridge to the other side of the river and the Carmo Church & Monestary which had a hidden house. Truly! It has been hidden behind the facade of the church for 280 years. The church also has a crypt with 338 bodies, mostly of monks and priests that served the church and of course the prominent families of the parish. 

 

After 3 days, back on the train to Coimbra. This was a special place and we wish we would've spent more time here and less in Porto.  Home to Portugal's oldest university dating to 1290s. We couldn't get into the library so we opted for the  Museu Nacional de Machado de Castro which did not disappoint! Roman ruins underneath that could take days to explore. The exhibits where well laid out and showcased so much of Coimbra's history. Totally worth an extra day. We also found the 11th C Romanesque Cathedral which was left standing when it came time to remodel. Instead they built a new Cathedral. 

First Coimbra Cathedral

Roman Ruins in Coimbra

We stayed at the Hotel Oslo Coimbra situated in the center of town and made walking to everything easy. Staff at this small hotel was wonderful. They asked if we were interested in a dinner with Fado and since we hadn't experience it yet this was the perfect opportunity. We walked as a group to a tiny restaurant hidden away. There were other locals there and we sat between two other couples from the hotel, one French and the other Sardinian. It was a total laugh fest with three languages, soup that ended up being shared and the disappointed look on the Sardinian's face when he was initially served a plate of beans as his entrée.  The Fado started and it was a male singer who was good. Then locals started to drop in and sing. We had a really good laugh over the guy in the yellow Timberland t-shirt who bellowed out a few songs.  We had a good night's sleep, a lovely breakfast in the hotel and then on to the train back to Lisbon.

In Lisbon we were picked up by the hotel car and delivered to a beautiful resort hotel in Cascias. Our room wasn't ready so we wandered into the town area and found a place for lunch overlooking the water. The room was fabulous with a beautiful view over the pool and beach. We made our way to the pool and flopped for the remainder of the day. Dinner was at the hotel buffet which was ok.

The next day we lounged by the pool all day. For dinner we found a spectacular seafood restaurant called Restaurante O Pescador and enjoyed out last night immensely. 

This was a wonderful birthday celebration trip!

Vacation Non-Vacation

 After a year of not traveling at all (unbelievable for our family) we needed a change in scenery. Desperately! We checked our options for some of our usual island destinations (Curacao, Aruba, Bonaire, St Croix) but couldn't make any of them work so we opted for the next best islands: The Florida Keys.

A week after the dawn of 2021 we packed our stuff and flew south. It was great to get first class seats for what we would pay for cattle class on most domestic flights. We landed in Miami, met the other family for lunch in Key Largo and caravanned south to Chardonnay House in Key Colony Beach, a man made area of canals at the northern tip of Marathon. 

This house was a very welcomed respite from the past 24/7/365 of living in our house.  We had 4 bedrooms, lots of desk space and lots of outdoor living space to essentially quarantine somewhere else. We worked and went to school the first week, in between dives and trips to the grocery store.

There were lots of walkers and bikers in the neighborhood and people were genuinely friendly.  Must have had something to do with the warmer, sunny weather?! Sunset Beach Park was at the end of the street and had nice views of the ocean. 

And then there was the diving with Captain Hook. It was more than chilly for our crew that is used to diving in warm waters (like 80+ degrees) but a good time was had by all!

At the end of our two weeks of non-vacation we all flew home with tentative plans for when we can all travel again and Covid-19 is behind us!

It's Time to GO!

We about 24 hours from departure for our annual winter Caribbean holiday. It's time for warmer weather and for our little family to decompress, relax and eventually rejuvenate.

Here's what we're taking:

DIVE GEAR

 SUNSCREEN

because we don't want to look like this...

  Of course these!

A few of these...

Because this is the plan for the next two weeks:

 

Make the most of your holidays - wherever you are!

The Gift of Travel

Off We Go!

One of the many beaches we've lounged upon

We've been traveling for years during the winter holiday season.  Not being religious, I figured it was better to get out of town, avoid the cold weather, skip needless shopping for stuff people don't:
a) want
b) need or
c) like and will therefore have to return while fighting the throngs of after holiday sale shoppers
and head to the Caribbean for a week+ of warmth and merriment of our own making.

 [Side note: Our parents lived on the same street and it was too chaotic shuffling back & forth so we just gave up, which was way easier than dealing with the family holiday madness.]

Wilma was a Cat 5 storm.

I should say this originally started when we were taking a trip in October that Hurricane Wilma forced us to 1) postpone and 2) find a new place to visit after it wiped out Cancun.  The NOAA hurricane central website helped find an island that had not been destroyed in recent memory. [See my post on Like Amsterdam But in Pastels for the full story.]

This tradition started when our child was a baby. As she's gotten older we've asked if she wants to stay home and 'celebrate' and repeatedly we got the 'No," so I've stopped asking and now we just go.

We have 12 days until we leave for this year's trek. Two weeks in a condo on the beach. But let me tell you, each year it gets harder and harder to plan. It seems there are more people who have taken to the gift of travel instead of giving unwanted/needed/liked gifts.

 

 

Our planning process 

This is our actual airline confirmation. Notice the date: May 20!!!

In May we start thinking about where we might want to go. Generally I look for a more 'off the radar' type of island.  But for some reason, this year I zeroed in on a well known destination. Typically  I start the process of looking for a place to stay on TripAdvisor. After looking at hotel rates (GASP!) I opted to find a rental through VRBO or FlipKey.  Thankfully I found a reasonably priced place and I booked it stat!  [When we started this tradition I could get a 4-5 star hotel for $179/night. This year I was faced with $750+/night!??!  Clearly this whole run-away-to-warmer-weather-for-the-holidays has caught on.]

Then I started looking at flights. Much to my surprise I was FORCED to by airfare because the flights were already practically booked - in MAY? We're talking for a December flight seats were filled and some totally sold out! Maybe it's the island we picked? Guess we'll find out in less than two weeks.

Since flights were already crammed, I figured I better book the rental car at the same time.  So at least all the big logistics were out of the way.

The spouse and the kid are scuba divers. For the past two months he's been saying 'I need to contact the dive shop.'  Finally he did. Guess what? First choice dive shop was booked. As in for the entire two week trip. [Again, people are catching on to this non-holiday thing.] Plan B - go with the cattle class dive shop. Stay tuned to see how that shakes out!

Part of the planning of the location/accommodations MUST include: beach access, pool, bar, spa, and ability to prepare our own meals or at least a mini-fridge and microwave. The first three go without saying, but the spa is all me. This is where I'll be spending lots of time...

This is what I really look forward to while not celebrating a holiday.

Moral of the story?

So, moral of the Gift of Travel post? Book early if you want to go somewhere you read a LOT about. Consider renting a flat, condo, house, villa if you can't find a reasonable hotel rate. Then hope everyone else decides to stay home.

Happy Travels!

I Hate Halloween

There I said it online. I've never liked this stupid holiday even as a kid. Didn't really see the point of knocking on doors begging for candy I didn't eat (except the Reese's!) And the dressing up thing? Gawd! No thanks. Too much bother.  Did I also mention as an adult I hate people knocking on MY door begging? OK the little kids are cute but I think 6  should be the cutoff for trick or treaters. Even my own kid has been told this is the last year and i think she's ok with it. (She doesn't eat the candy either). Does everyone else throw out the Halloween candy at Easter and the Easter candy at Halloween?

But in general I hate the change of season. I'm a child of summer. Give me sun, heat and even humidity.  LOVE IT! Hate cold, dark, rain and snow. I liked snow more when we skied, as long as it was sunny. Skiing in the rain sucks!

In our house we're not religious so we pack our bathing suits, sunscreen, flip flops and 2/3rds of us pack scuba gear and head to the Caribbean for 10+ days every December. It's what we live for all year or at least once it's been planned, which is usually not long after we return home from the previous year's trip.

So since I've called this blog "Where To Next" I guess the logical thing would be to say where we're going.  Or at least give you clues:

• It's a British Territory

• Water temp averages 78F

• Technically it's in the Atlantic and not the Caribbean sea

• Known for really good diving and beaches 

So can you figure out where we are going next? (I'm just hoping there isn't a stop at Crazytown on the way!) You've got 50 days - GO!