Day 5 Lisbon 2018

The final day dawned sunny again. After a farewell breakfast we checked out quickly and left our luggage to be picked up on the way back to the airport. We then went to the Jeronimos Monastery only to find a long winding queue though we were there at 10.05 for a 10 am opening. Luckily, D's pregnant tummy got us straight in, into the fantastic monastery. This was easily the highlight of our trip and it came as no surprise that this fantastic building is a UNESCO World heritage sight.

The cloisters and the high vaulted ceilings in the Manueline style were a sight to behold. The monastery's library provided interesting insights in to the history of the monastery. The portals, the ceilings and even the pillars were all ornately and exquisitely detailed with stone work. The church to the side of the monastery had fabulous, tall stained glass windows. The gallery from the monastery enjoined the church and gave a view of the inside of the phenomenal beauty of the church from atop. We could not but spend a lot of time admiring the beauty and reminiscing about the ancient temples and palaces of India that have this and more but are not very well maintained, if at all.

We then walked across the park and along the Tagus once again to the monument of discoveries and the Belem tower. We then crossed the park again to visit the Pasteis de Belem Cafe, a cafe open from 1837 and famed for its pastries.  We packed some delicacies to go, grabbed some sandwiches from Starbucks next door and took the tram back to Praca do Commercio.

From here we took the famous yellow bus tram which is more modern , costly and hence with no pick pockets as opposed to the historic tram 28. It took the same route as tram 28 ,with an audio describing the various landmarks as we wound through the historic areas of Lisbon.

The most impressive buildings on this ride for me were the Sao Bento Palace which is the current Portuguese Parliament  with its traditionally dressed soldiers standing guard and the  Basilica de Estrela with its  domed roofs.

Sadly that brought us to the end of the Lisbon trip. We realised that, as is the case with  many European capitals, a Lisbon trip has enough for 10 days if not more and not a mere 5. We missed the Monserrate palace, the moorish palace, the count's house tour and lots more..

The friendly locals made me want to comeback again like I would, just for the locals and their lack of prejudice  to Italy ( Not Naples), Catalonia ( Not Madrid), Athens, Mykonos, Cyprus , US, Singapore but not Kualalmpur, Paris, Switzerland or Edinburgh.

We got off there and took the bus back to the hotel. We picked up our luggage and took the aerobus to the airport. We battled the terribly long security queue to the woefully crowded lounge and the amazingly inadequate food court to another long boarding queue to be seated in the flightonly to be told that the flight was delayed for another 2 hours. Luckily that changed and we took off and made good time and the arrival was delayed only by 5 minutes.

There was still the 2 hour  drive back from Luton which was thankfully uneventful. We walked in exhausted and flopped on to our beds around 1am but with yet more wonderful memories to sustain us through the daily grind.

Day 4 Lisbon 2018

For the second time in her life, D had somebody message her in facebook that they had her wallet and could she come to collect it. She was extremely delighted and we decided to split. D and family were to go back to Sintra to collect her wallet while we would finish visiting Se cathedral and they would catch up with us at Lisbon.

We bade good bye to a very relieved and happy D and family and made our way to Se Cathedral.

The train to this destination covered all the main sights of Lisbon including the Praca Dom Pedro iv AKA rossio which was really cool with it's wavy tiles and alluring water fountains.

From the station we alighted to arrive at Praca Do Comercio , with the majestic statue of King Jose, shining in the late morning sun. The waves of the Tagus were shimmering in the sunlight and the view of the Vascodo gama bridge and the Christ the King statue from this side of the city was a sight to behold. We did stop the night before for tea  in the restaurant on this promenade but the view in the day was something else altogether. We took some snaps and made our way to Se Cathedral.

Compared to many other cathedrals in Rome , London and Paris, this was on the simpler side and while we enjoyed the stained class windows and the chapel there was nothing much to impress. We did enjoy the visit to the treasury which housed the catholic ritual ornaments and lots of artefacts from India. The stained glass work in the small balcony on the top part of the chapel was quiet charming.

We then walked down the hill to the utterly charming Rainha D'Amelia restaurant. It was an experience in itself as this tiny cafe with just 6 tables let us see those walking outside and also the tram 28 passing by Se Cathedral to the background of the soft music from the restaurant. The young one happily had a goat's cheese toast accompanied by hot chocolate with loads of cream and sprinkles while I had a light bean soup.

We bought ourselves some icecream and walked through the streets of Lisbon discovering beautiful squares, narrow tiled houses and scary pick pocketers. I was focusing on getting the young one to safely cross the roads while she was happily licking her icecream when suddenly in French and English several people cried out that I had 3 pick pocketers trailing me, trying to snatch my back while my focus was entirely on the young one. Apparently they ran away when the others warned me off.

The silly reality  was that I was carrying a huge bag with absolutely nothing  in it but my back up rain coat and sun glasses! K took us to the metro Restauradores  subway to top up the Viva viagem card and there I stumbled upon  the fantastic Luiz Ventura a Cheganca tile mural 'The Arrival'. I believe this type of art work is called the Azulejo. The work was so interesting that I was hoping to find out what it depicted. Unfortunately google did not seem to throw up any valid results ( Sacrilege!)

We then took the historic and graffiti painted  Gloria Ascensor across the road from downtown Lisbon to Bairro Alto. We had a fantastic hot chocolate at a restaurant up the hill walking the world go by through the open glass doors. I changed from my summer maxi to a costume more appropriate to the hilly winds. We lounged around taking in the lisbon city view, looking at knick knacks and taking snaps with a tawny owl ( don't ask!) while the happy D and family rejoined us. The wallet had been retrieved intact and they were raring to go.

We walked down the Bairro Alto district enjoying the more colorfully tiled historic buildings  and stopped at Amorino Baixa for some icecream and Macaroons.

P was keen to try  the ancient Santa Justa lift so we stood in line for 1.30 hours to go to the top to get a circular view of lisbon. We then went back to Praca de Comercio for dinner at the Can the Can restaurant. I tried Guincho which was like cherry  liquer and I liked it :)

Back to the hotel but everybody crashed. No kid swapping took place :)

..last day next

Day 3 Lisbon 2018

We had high hopes for this day as the weather forecast was very promising. While it rained all through breakfast, when we stepped out, it was gloriously sunny!

We took the train to Cascais. A ensured all of us sat on the left of the train to enjoy the lovely beaches and hence the fantastic views all throughout our journey. We arrived at bright and sunny Cascais in an extremely good mood. We made the short 5 minutes walk to the Praia da Rainha beach. The weather was most amenable, the beach was small but uncrowded and there were two small coves on the right side of the beach and large rocks to climb and enjoy the view.

We spent quite a while there relaxing while the kids ran amok building sand castles, jumping and chasing the waves and unfortunately also throwing sand on each other! Luckily,  I had taken a change of clothes so dried the young one as much as I could, dusted off atleast some of the sand and marched her reluctantly to a nearby restaurant for lunch.

The Indian lunch was OK but it served the purpose. We then walked through some jolly live music in the town square and spent some time taking photos against the back drop of the various blue and white tiled buildings.

We made our way to the Museu Condes de Castro Guimaraes which was located in the Marechel Carmona gardens.Disappointingly due to it being the easter Sunday, the count's house was closed but the delightful gardens were open. We enjoyed walking through the tiny rock bridges, the peacock gardens where one of them enthralled us with a full feathered dance, the rock nooks and crannies with tiny rock benches to relax privately in and the rock hill from where to enjoy the view of the garden. The children had a great time in the play grounds while we lounged in the sun.

On the way back, we discovered that the house had a beautiful chapel right in the front, opposite which was a private beach! The sea, from across the count's house  went under the roads and under a bridge within the house's private's walls to form a private beach in a small cove. I found it extremely cool to have your own private sandy beach with waves washing your feet just a few stairs down the front garden of your house!

We then walked on the Cascais to Esotiril promenade to enjoy the sun, the sea and the breeze. We stopped to buy some icecream which was when D discovered that her wallet was missing. D and P went to the shops to see if anybody had handed them over while we took the kids to look at some local stalls. We made our way back through the lovely  old town centre to the Praia de Raina. Unfortunately D could not find her wallet so she rang to cancel all her bank cards. Meanwhile the kids picked up something from Mac D for the train journey back.

D did not have much money in her wallet so resigned herself to reapplying for her driver's license and the pan card. While D and family decided to try out the hotel restaurant, we made do with the left overs from lunch packed earlier as it was mostly vegetarian while D and family were strictly non-veg eaters!

The kids moved room again :)

..to be contiuned

Day 2: Lisbon 2018

On Saturday, we got up around 8.30 am and went down to the fantastic breakfast spread. One of the things I knew I would miss after the trip was the lovely hotel and the staff. The shower was blissful, the beds most comfortable, the staff friendly and the breakfast spread my second best! ( the best being my absolute favourite one in Mykonos with the sea view!)

A sat at our table on most days and R could not have been happier. I sneakily fed her lots of fresh fruits, egg and the potato Rostis while she was busy chatting with her friend, so by the time she reached for her nutella pancakes and croissants and doughnuts, she was already full! :)

We then caught the 40 minute train to Sintra from the Campo Pequeno station which was a mere 4 minutes walk from the hotel. The sun was out though there was still a slight chill in the air. We then caught the uber to the Quintas da Regaleira palace. While the palace and the grounds were beautiful the best part was when we had to climb some rock stairs to go through some  tubed fairy light lit dark caves on the other side of which were some beautiful stepping stones leading to more stones and a lovely rock bridge! The sides of the cave also had some gentle waterfalls which added to the allure of the place. We thoroughly enjoyed the  experience ..

We then went to the national palace, watched the trotting of the horse cart carriages in the roads just below the palace grounds  and spent some time at the famous Piriquita bakery. We had their famous Travesseiros that were to die for and also some queijaddas.

We took some snaps of the national palace and moved on to the Pena palace. The traffic was unbelievably bad and the hilly roads of Sintra were back to back jammed with cars so our driver took us through round about fantastically green reaching for the skies tall trees-filled scenic route and we snoozed in the car dappled by the afternoon sun!

The climb to the top of the palace via the fantastic palace gardens was a steep climb but D was game enough to brave it slowly and steadily!

The Pena palace was fantastic and like in many places D's advanced pregnancy led us to being taken straight from the back of the queue to the very front. Nobody complained and in fact most were very encouraging. The castle was very romantic and kids enjoyed the hogwarts-like entrance and the moat and the watch towers.

The view from the balconies over the tree covered hills was fabulous.

We had some light snacks in the restaurant and made our way back to the station.

On the way we stopped at a local restaurant to taste Sintra's famous port wine and nourish ourselves. The kids fought and made up ( yet again!) and we made it back to our hotel quite late in the night.

That still did not stop the kids from getting together in our room for the night..

...to be continued

Lisbon : Easter 2018

Usually we spend Easter holidays shivering but generally having a good time at one of the Butlins' with one of our family friends. It has been an Easter tradition for the past 3 years. But this year, given that we had exhausted all the Butlins options, we thought we would go in search of the sun to Lisbon.

We were going with another good family who have been really helpful especially in the month of Jan/Feb 2018 when I was suffering from chest infection. The lady D, despite herself being in the family way, drove R to her classes and when one night I could not breathe and had to rush to the
A & E, R stayed overnight at their place.

D is now 6 months into her pregnancy but was still game to travel. The fact that her elder daughter A was just 11 months older to our R made it an ideal match. K and P were recent ex-colleagues and got along famously already.

The plan was to travel to Luton on Friday morning and take the afternoon flight to Lisbon. With fond hopes of the bright sun, we packed light clothes and braved the bitter cold wind of the Luton car park to board our flights to Lisbon. The kids went in one car and as usual had a whale of a time to the detriment of the hearing of P and D!

All through the flight the kids sat next to each other and made grand plans for the rest of the holiday , most of which involved staying the hotel room all day playing games, going swimming in the pool and watching lots of tele in the evenings!

As soon as we landed, D and I were sorely disappointed at the slightly chilly and windy weather in Lisbon with a slight drizzle of rain. Though in a scale of 1 to 10 this Lisbon weather would score 5 to UK's 9 in the bitterness of the cold scale, we were still disappointed..

We checked into the Jupiter Lisboa Hotel, where the staff were friendly, the rooms were huge (especially by European standards) and neat and lovely and the roof top pool was awesome.

We then stepped out to go to the skyride Gondola by the Tagus river. The uber drivers were quite helpful though only rarely did they speak English. However P had a love for languages and would always try to converse in Portuguese and that helped us a lot. He taught the kids to say 'Obrigado' which meant thank you and the kids would generally say it everywhere and all those faces at the receiving end would melt into huge smiles and usually some candy for the kids! :)

We passed by the famous oceanarium to get to the skyride. Though the oceanarium was one of the best in the world, given that both kids had been to the acquariums in Atlanta, Barcelona, Dubai and London.. we thought they would not miss much if we skipped this one!

The sky was still drizzling but we made the best of it and enjoyed our ride across the beautiful Tagus and the view of the Vasco da Gama bridge, Christo Rei ( Christ the king) on one side and the city of Lisbon on the other.

Our thoughtfully packed, extremely light, summer clothes were totally unsuitable to we walked to the Vasco Da Gama mall and spent several hours looking through the shops to buy a suitable coat. We di not want to buy anything expensive as it was not that cold and we had good quality coats back home for that purpose. D and I  spent almost 1.5 hours looking through the various shops and finally selected something from Zara!

We were very chuffed over the time spent in arriving at this saratorial choice since over the next 4 days, we saw different colours of our coat on more than 20 ladies in the various tourist destinations.

Obviously most others hoped to catch some sun but caught the last vestiges of winter instead in Lisbon :)

We had chinese dinner at the food court, some ice cream and left happy tired to the hotel. Our rooms were next to each other so on alternate days the kids stayed in each other's rooms and had a great time playing Kludo, having midnight parties and generally being up to no good.

..to be continued.