Lisbon and Guimarães (July 3-6)

Olá a todos! What an action packed past few days it has been. We pretty much walked all of Lisbon in 2 days, gorged on pastis da nata and drove half-way across Portugal in a fancy new Mini Clubman. And we are still going strong!

The REAL highlight of the past few days though has been witnessing the friendship of Soren and little Arya. Since we started sharing an apartment with Rehka, Adi and Arya in Lisbon, the two little ones pretty much spend all their time playing and chasing each other around. They seem to like all the same games and somehow don’t fight at all. Amazing.

I’ll get into the details of Lisbon in a minute, but before I do I would like to emphasize that we covered a LOT of ground with the young’uns (in tow) during our two Lisbon days. Highlights:

July 3 Lisbon
Morning Swathi was in the throws of her illness and had to spend the morning at home resting up. The rest of us (Adi, Rehka et al) took the historic Tram 28 from through the Alfama to the end of the line at Martim Moniz. It was…crowded:

After a quick Uber ride back to the Castello S. Jorge, we wandered the narrow alleys and vertiginous staircases back to our AirBnB to collect Swathi.

Took a 15 minute walk to the TimeOut market for a taste of Lisbon. The food was delicious, but he young’uns only wanted to eat french fries and strawberry ice cream 🤦. From there we explored the Belem neighborhood. Saw the Jeronimos Monestary and of course the Tour de Belem. It was impressive, but bright:

July 4 Lisbon
Time has been really flying and I honestly forgot that it was the 4th of July. After our marathon day on July 3, we took the morning off lazed about the apartment. By lazed I mean, spent 2 hours eating breakfast and then watching helplessly as the toddlers dismantled the apartment. RIP Lisbon apartment. RIP.

Around noon, we headed out on our trusty Tram 28 to the Campo de Ourique Market for lunch. From there it was off on another marathon hike from to the Jardim de Estrella, Avenida de Liberdade, Acensor de Gloria, Barrio Alto, and the Elevador de Santa Justa. We were a little tired at the end and to reward ourselves by having dinner at an Indian restaurant. I’ll admit, we were a little tired at the end of the day. Morale was high though:

July 5 Lisbon –> Guimarães
Rented a car, threw our bags in the back and bid our dear travel companions adieu. Headed north out of Lisbon making towards our destination of Guimarães. Stopped at Conimbraga along the way for a terrace lunch and some roman ruins. Soren emphasized that he does NOT like romans.

At the end of the day we made it to our destination: a monastery that now serves as a hotel. It is incredibly well preserved and feels like we stepped back in time a few hundred years.

July 6 Guimarães
After a leisurely breakfast, we spent some time exploring the monastery grounds. The property is quite extensive and includes some nice cloisters, azulejos, grottos and wooded trails. One of our favorite places was an overlook of the city:

We headed to the historic city center for lunch and then the ladies headed home for a rest. Swathi is still recovering from illness after all. The boys headed up to the top of the mountain overlooking the city via cable car. At the top there is a park with trails, caves and most importantly a trolley!

More photos of our adventures from the past few days here.