portugal: drinking

Cheers! That's us enjoying our second glass of Ginjinha, a Portuguese liquor made by infusing sour cherries in alcohol. You can have it room temperature or cold, with or without cherries (with pits!). I preferred cold without cherries, but it was pretty tasty either way.

Besides ginja, we pretty much had vinho verde for every other meal. I'm not going to embarrass myself by saying much about the wine, so hopefully Jeff will post something about the trip soon. That's it for my Portugal posts. Saude!

©top photo via Instagram, bottom two photos by me

portugal: eating

Eating in Portugal is easy - all fish, all the time. Yes, you could have meat, but you are on the ocean! Enjoy it, I say. If it swam, we ate it - octopus (above), shrimp (below), clams, lobster, and a variety of local fish. Some culinary highlights included a fantastic lunch at Tasquinha do Oliviera in Evora, a delicious dinner at Agua na Boca in Salema, and super good bar food at Sol e Pesca in Lisbon.

Another speciality I should call out is a flaky egg custard called pastel de nata (below). We got ours from Pastèis de Belèm. As you can imagine, it was delicious.

©top and bottom photo by me. middle photo by Jeff via Instagram (@drinkeatlove)

portugal: cape sagres

On our honeymoon five years ago, Jeff and I visited Santa Maria di Leuca, or "the end of the world"; this is the southernmost spot in Italy, considered at one point to be the furthermost known land. We visited a similar location in the Algarve - a windy plateau known as Cape Sagres. Famous for being the departure point of many an exploration, Henry the Navigator built a school for explorers on this spot in the 15th century.

©all photos by me. More here.

portugal: salema

After four nights in Lisbon, we took a four-ish hour train ride to Salema, a small fishing village in the Algarve. We stayed in a lovely pensione, just a five minute walk to the beach (above). Our time in Salema was pretty much the same every day: breakfast, walk to the beach, read, lunch (fish), read until the sun went down, glass (or two) of wine, dinner (more fish). Heavenly, I tell you.

 ©all photos by me. More photos here.

portugal: evora

Èvora, about an hour and a half from Lisbon by train, is an UNESCO World Heritage Site boasting an impressive number of historic structures in a relatively small town. Santa Maria de Èvora (above) is home to one of the three archbishops of the country. St. Antào (below) was built in the 16th century.

©all photos by me. More photos here.

portugal: national palace

Our last stop in Sintra was the National Palace, the oldest surviving royal palace in the country.

©all photos by me. More photos here.

portugal: moorish castle

Just a hop, skip and a jump away from the Pena Palace lies the Moorish castle,  thousand year old ruins with a breathtaking view from Sintra all the way to the Atlantic.

©all photos by me. More photos here.

portugal: pena palace

The town of Sintra (about 30 minutes by train from Lisbon), was once the home of Portugal's aristocracy. Today, there are a number of palaces, castles and other breathtaking sites to visit. The Pena Palace was built by Prince Ferdinand in the 19th century and designed by a German architect who mixed German, Moorish and Portuguese styles to come up with the design.

©all photos by me. More photos here.

portugal: belèm

The Belèm district is three miles from downtown Lisbon and it's full of interesting sites, like the Coach Museum, Monastery of Jerònimos and the Belèm Tower. The stunning Manueline architecture reminded both Jeff and I of our trip to Lecce a few years ago. These structures survived the 1775 earthquake, so it was really interesting to see some of the original structures of Lisbon. Belèm was also the send-off point for explorers during the Age of Discovery.

©all photos by me. More photos here.

portugal: lisbon

Bom dia! I don't have enough good things to say about our trip to Portugal. From the sights to the food, we had a truly wonderful time. We started our trip in Lisbon - we decided to rent an apartment (we stayed here), which I was really happy with. Lisbon is often compared to San Francisco, which I can kinda see - their bridge was modeled after the Golden Gate and it's very hilly. It's also a beautiful city - tile work covers many of the buildings and the streets. We spent most of our time wandering the narrow streets of the Alfama, exploring the splender of the Praça do Comèrico and walking up and down many hills.

©all photos by me. More here.