Our second trip to Portugal. If you remember from a previous post I got sick after 24 hours in Portugal. I was looking forward to being healthy on this trip because it wasn’t just Jon and I going, there were 3 other couples with us. Well, I was healthy for 3 whole days of our 10 day trip. More on that later.
Once again we used VRBO to secure a villa for the eight of us to stay in. It was lovely and was near the town of Luz. http://www.vrbo.com
Our trip to Portugal in June of 2019 was affectionately called “The Birthday Tour”. There were 4 couples traveling together and at least one of each couple was celebrating a 50th or 55th birthday. We arrived in Lisbon and spent the night. We all arrived at varying times of the day and night or first thing in the morning. After breakfast we knew we had plenty of time to get to our rented villa which was a two hour drive south, so we took the coastal route there. We decided to stop for lunch in a coastal town called Sines.
We arrived at the Villa and sent “the boys” off to Pingo Doce, the grocery store. We were all too tired to cook dinner or even go out, we just wanted to settle in and rejoice in the fact that all 8 of us made it there safe and sound. We decided to just have different varieties of cheeses, meats and crackers. Oh don’t forget the wine. They came home with 27 bottles of wine, laughing every time they took a turn in the car and heard all the clanking of the bottles.
The next morning Jason and I took a walk from the villa to a little town called Burgau. Burgau is right on the water. A few days later, Jon and I had a nice peaceful lunch there while Dean and JoAnne combed the beach.
The next day we went to Lagos to do some sightseeing and souvenier buying. I bought a purse for myself and one for our neighbor who was watering my tomatoes and peppers. The purses are made of cork. Cork is one the biggest industries in Portugal.
We had lunch in Lagos and I wanted to try their National Dish. Bacalhau, which is a salted cod. It was delicious. Portuguese Sangria is also the best in the world, according to me.
Portuguese Red Wine Sangria
Slices of Orange Wheels, Lemon Wheels, 8 oz. of Orange Juice, 8 oz. Brandy, 1 750ml. Portuguese Red Wine, and 6 oz. Creme de Cassis – Chilled. If possible, let sit in the refrigerator for a bit and ENJOY!
The next day we decided to take it a little easy. We went to the beach at Luz which was about a 12 minute drive.
So that evening, in keeping with the theme of taking it easy, Jon and I did what we do best. We entertained. We quite often make home made Jeopardy and/or Family Feud games. He is Vanna White and I am usually Alex Trebek.
We really do love putting these games together and incorporating the people we are traveling with into said game.
We booked a Food and Wine Tour while in Portugal. The weather that day could have been better. It was overcast, it rained, it was cloudly and then sunny. It really didn’t dampen our spirits. We visited a number of vineyards and did some wine tasting. We also got to tour the facilities and see how and where they store the wine.
When we were in the Algarve in 2011 one of our favorite places to visit was Tavira. Tavira is close to the Spanish Border and it sits on a river. It has a bridge that survived the big earthquake of 1755. There are many restaurants, that have indoor and outdoor seating and a pavilion in the center of town with fish and turtles that reside there.
In my opinion one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever been to is in Portimao. The beach is Praia da Rocha. We wanted to take our friends there and have them experience the food and the beach like we did so many years ago. We stopped for Sangria and a snack, big surprise there and did some souvenir shopping for our Grandkids back home. We got a Portugal soccer jersey for Lucas with his name on the back and an apron with the cock of Barcelos on the front for Rozlin. We also had dinner in Portimao and it was cliffside. What a fabulous meal.
Back in Lagos, we decided to take a boat tour of the Caves and Cliffs of the Algarve. It was just beautiful. I’ll share with you some pictures and the information you would need to have this fabulous tour.
Coming back to Lisbon at the conclusion of our trip is when I became the sickest. I had a fever and a terrible sinus headache and cough. After buying almost all of the medicine Portugal had to offer I decided to forego the days adventure to Sintra. I heard it was fantastic even if the weather didn’t cooperate that day. I slept for many hours and felt good enough the next day to see the Tower of Belem and go with our friends on a mini tour of Lisbon courtesy of Tram 28.
Lisbon is a city I could go to many times and still not ever get enough. We enjoyed the Fado music and made friends with the singer and her acompianist and one of our friends even got up and sang Summertime. It was a trip that will not be soon forgotten. I will go to Portugal again and hopefully I will be healthy the whole time. By the way, this time it was Bronchial Pnemonia and not the Doenca !!
