musings & mumblings

What a dream come true!!! I got to go to Portugal last month!! My children were invited but did not want to come with me this time. Here is a picture of how sad they were to see me go…

I spent a month preparing, setting up carpools, finding hotels and car rentals, trying to learn a bit of the language and customs, and creating a loose itinerary. My main purpose was to see Fuseta, the town my great grandma grew up in before her family, our family, moved to the united states.

We had a lovely meal with my teenagers before they dropped us off at the airport. Kristi and I were ready for our adventure!

The long flight to London…

It was the biggest airplane I have ever been on. Surely not impressive to all of you dear readers who are well versed in the two level, spiral staircase sort of airplanes, but it was new to me. A bit intimidating and a bit claustrophobic somehow. Kristi helped me stay grounded (metaphorically speaking of course since we were quite far from the ground) with calmness and giggles. I went through some existential dread, watched a bit of doctor strange, discovered and discussed with kristi the hugeness of Canada (its quite a large Country) and then I managed to sleep for quite a bit of the trip. I had been too nervous for the dinner service and woke up very excited for the breakfast service and TEA! They slowly brought up the cabin lights and those darling carts made their way towards us. The pictures may not look as appetizing to you sitting at home with a full belly in your cozy chair and warm blanket as you sip on whatever beverage you might sip while reading your favorite blog. But let me tell you that it was delicious. And somehow I ended up with two teas!! luckiest of mornings! There were two sexy stews attending the cart and somehow they both poured my tea and the one who handed them to me said “This will put a bounce in your boots dear” She. Was. Not. Wrong.

Our flight landed 15 minutes early but then had to wait on the tarmac for a half hour so we missed our connecting flight. There was some kerfuffle but we were put on the next flight that left about three hour later. So we did the most sensible thing one can do when stuck at an airport for longer then planned. We found our way to the bar for a couple of pints. I could go on at length about the inefficiency and oddities of british airways but lets get to lisbon shall we? So much still to come!

Portugal!

We got into Lisbon around 11p local time. After much confusion with taxis and ubers we made it to our hotel a little after midnight and collapsed. The next morning we found our way to our car rental place so we could head down to the Algarve. Our first stop will be Sagres – the most southwestern tip of mainland Europe. At the car rental place they gave us a free upgrade to a cute little blue convertible with GPS we named Sophie. I started driving around this unfamiliar city while Kristi figured out the GPS. Some people may figure out how to use the GPS and figure out where they are going before they start driving around a strange new city. We are not those people. I like us. We have fun.

So we puttered about Lisbon and made our way across a big beautiful bridge on our way to Sagres. We realized that we had rushed out without breakfast but were excited to be on the road so we stopped for some snacks to get us through until we could find a cafe for a real lunch. Sumol and ham flavored ruffles? why not?

That first drive down the coast was delightful! Kristi took pictures and videos…

We stopped at a little cafe for lunch and while no one spoke english there we were able to get a delicious sandwich to share, coffee for kristi and some cha for myself with my limited portuguese and pointing at menus and muito “desculpes” e “obrigadas”. The rest of the drive to Sagres was gorgeous. We listened to a radio station that had an eclectic mix of Portuguese and english music. Sagres is a cute little beach town that gave me Bolinas CA vibes. The lady at the front desk of our hotel suggested a dinner restaurant that was hard to find and not open once we found it but we had a lot of laughter on the way. She also let us know where the lighthouse could be found which she said was the perfect place to watch the sunset but might be hard to find parking because of the crowds – muitos pessoas! Holy flock of seagulls batman, she was not kidding. Muitos Pessoas indeed. The lighthouse itself was covered in plastic sheets and scaffolding and the cliffs were covered with crowds of people waiting to watch the sunset from this end of the world vantage point. We watched the same sunset they did but from a few blocks away by ourselves and then went to a little neighborhood mercado for fresh bread, meat, cheese, and beer labeled Sagres. Which we were excited about because we were in the town of Sagres and found out later it is a very popular beer all over Portugal. Still tasty. No one was mad about it. The view from our balcony was phenomenal. Exactly what I had been hoping for.

In the morning we had a delightful breakfast at our hotel including our first pasteis de natas. We will try this Portuguese pastry treat everywhere so get ready for that!

Next we took a sweet short hike to the end of the world to get a closer look at the amazing view from our balcony.

The Amazing Algarve

Next we drove along the coast on our way to Fuseta, the town my great grandma was born in. The GPS kept trying to redirect us to a main road more inland but we drove through the cute coastal towns and took some time to stop to play at the ocean.

Fabulous Fuseta

And after a lovely coastal drive we arrive in Fuseta!! We checked into our wonderful little hotel and had a wander about town and delicious dinner.

The next day we woke up and tried to find great grandmas house. The street my mom had given me was not on the map but we walked around in the general area it was supposed to be. We found a little side road with the right street name but only two doors. Around the corner was the right number and a very insistent cat. It seemed feasible that even if this was not the exact house my great grandmother had lived in, we were walking on cobblestones streets my family walked, and their church was the view from our balcony. This morning found me deeply reflecting on what my great grandma might have been like before making the long journey to a strange new country. She never returned to her homeland and neither did her daughter or grand daughter. She died when I was too young to remember her but there are pictures of her holding me. So we had a brief physical connection so long ago and now here I stand in the place were she was as small as I had been when she held me.

Much deep thoughts but now is time for lunch so we headed over to Kais cafe. We had delicious bifanas and sangrias and another tasty pasteis de nata.

Another lovely evening in Fuseta and then we were on our way back up towards Fatima to meet with my mom and sister and cousin. They were making a brief stop in Portugal on their way to Rome and I was very excited to get to see them while we were all here. On our way we drove through forests of cork trees and olive groves and eucalyptus trees.

A brief moment in Spain

We realized we were close enough to dip our toes in Spain so we drove across the border and then around a roundabout to get back into Portugal. It was indeed a very brief moment in Spain.

Evora, Portugal

We spent the night in Evora and found a nice restaurant for dinner. We tried some bacalhau on little mini ice cream cones for an appetizer. The restaurant brought us some delicious tonic water and lemon grass spritzers to start our meal and I want to have them every day for the rest of my life. Not pictured but so refreshing. The food was amazing as well.

Before we left Evora for Fatima, we had to go back into town to storm the castle…

Familia in Fatima

And now we head to Fatima to meet the fam…

Back to Lisbon!

From Fatima we all made our way down to Lisbon and tried some pasteis de nata at a spot endorsed by a king. delish

The next day my fam continued their journey on to Rome and Kristi and I went out to explore Lisbon. Our first exciting adventure was to find a laundromat! because we know how to party. Also we liked the idea of traveling home with clean clothes instead of filthy. We got a little bit lost but found a delightful little cafe with wonderful people who showed us the way. They also had the best pasteis de natas of our whole trip.

We dropped off our clean laundry at the hotel and headed downtown to see the sights. We decided to check out the santa justa lift which was supposed to be an excellent view of Lisbon. When we got there it was terribly crowded and there was a long line of people who looked miserable. We ended up grabbing a tuk tuk with a driver named Sylvestro. He took us to a much higher part of Lisbon and we could see the santa justa lift looking tiny down below. Sylvestro also showed us so much cool street art that I am going to need to write a whole new blog about because this one is already way too long and there was so much amazing art to share about. Stay tuned for the next blog!!

After our tuktuk tour Sylvestro dropped us off in Alfama for dinner and Fado music.

We woke up on our last morning in Portugal and got our things together to head to the airport. We bought a few last souvenirs and sent some postcard and then it was time to say adeus.

London Layover

We had an evening in London on a long layover before our final flight home. We stayed at an adorable hotel called the Captain cook. We had a delicious dinner and then explored a little London nightlife.

And that is a little sneak peek into our adventure. I hope you enjoyed it. And now back to your regularly scheduled program… Thanks for reading! Tip your servers well! Get plenty of rest and water and don’t forget to stretch.