One thing you will see in every single souvenir shop in Portugal is a rooster. It isn’t just any rooster, either, it is of a very particular and ornate design. The rooster is seen on nearly everything that can hold the image of the rooster (magnets, oven mitts, pins, keychains, …
I have now been in Portugal for several days, and I have some random wisdom to share.
I have become a believer in traveling very light when flying internationally. I can usually get by with one carry-on piece of luggage and a decent-sized under-seat bag, even when traveling for a couple weeks at a time. That means I usually only have four or five changes of clothes. …
We had an amazing food day today, in Lisbon and Sintra! Breakfast at The Folks in Lisbon: Turkish eggs (poached eggs in yogurt), French toast with berries, tiramisu latte Lunch at Paco Real in Sintra: mushroom risotto, gigantic beers, and the most perfectly cooked octopus I have ever encountered. It …
The second half of the day, after our lunch, was spent at the Pena Palace, a stunning building that sits atop a small mountain over Sintra. It is an eye-catching Romanticist collection of towers and walls, with huge sections painted school bus yellow or rich, carmine red. Ornate carvings cover …
Today was the first day that Fes and I met up with “the rest of our group”, aka the folks we would be sailing with on the following day. Our group is a College of Curiosity travel group, who get together to do travel (usually cruises) a couple times per …
Hi, folks! I’m sorry if you were following along with the Iberia adventures and were left hanging after Day 4. Time got away from me, I had no cell phone access in the evenings for half the trip, and I picked up a nasty cold somewhere between Gibraltar and Malaga. …
Let’s get down to it: Lisbon has excellent food. Everything I’ve eaten thus far has been a delight. Everywhere you go here, there are restaurants of every nationality next to Portuguese fare. There are obscene numbers of cafes and gelato shops. The waterfront has unbroken rows of seafood restaurants that …
One of the most iconic sights of Lisbon is the Rua Augusta Arch, a massive triumphal arch that faces the river on one side and a large promenade of shops on the other. Thousands of people buzz around the place at all times, shopping, eating at restaurants, and watching buskers. …
I’ve long believed in visiting flea markets and thrift stores during travel. There are few better ways to really know a place than by digging through its junk. Thus, when I learned that there was a flea market in Lisbon every Saturday and Tuesday, I knew exactly what I was …
