Skipping Town

Our last day in Portugal. We had a few hours this morning before we had to leave for our train, so we enjoyed the breakfast buffet one final time, and then the kids swam in the indoor pool. Then we packed up, left our bags at the desk, and Ubered to the marina. Mom bought some cork placemats at a cork store, we walked along the beach (one final praia!), and then we had gelato for lunch.   The train ride back to Lisbon was pleasant, but what was even more pleasant was discovering that the hotel we'd booked for our last night in Lisbon was absolutely amazing. Beautiful, spacious, in a building full of charm--we wanted to stay for many many days. It's called Le Consulat, and I am determined to return. Our room (well, suite of rooms) looked out over Praca Luis de Camoes, a bustling square with trams rattling by.  We walked around our neighborhood buying a few final souvenirs, then had a delicious final dinner at Faca & Garfo in the Bairro Alto. I had steak in a coffee, po...

A day of adventuring in a minibus! But really, thank goodness for Andrew, the only one of us with any degree of willingness to a) drive a stick shift, b) drive a minibus, c) drive a stick-shift minibus around a million Portuguese roundabouts.  Our first destination of the day: Sagres, the end of the earth, the westernmost point of Europe. It was suitably dramatic, with the ocean crashing below against rocky cliffs, and of course no barriers or railings to keep us from falling over the edge as we tramped over extremely rocky ground.  We stopped for a few souvenirs at a ceramics place, then headed into the town of Sagres for lunch. We sat outside a little restaurant called Cafe Conchinha. I had a dish of clams, my fave. Mom had sole, Greta had cod (both of those fishes were bone-in fish), Dad and Andrew had piri piri chicken, and Lucia had lasagna.  Then we walked down to the nearest beach, Praia da Mareta, which was of course beautiful. The kids ran at the edge of the wate...

These days may have had some hiccups, but they've ultimately come together better than we probably deserve for our less-than-perfect planning. Today, for instance, it became clear that Greta--who's been battling an increasingly serious cold and cough over the past couple of days--needed some medicine. So Andrew and Greta Ubered to a pharmacy first thing this morning, right after breakfast (a fabulous buffet at the hotel), where she was given some powerful cough medicine and a decongestant spray.  They were, fortunately, able to get back quickly enough to join the rest of us for the morning's activity: a visit to the 7 Seven Spa's "therapeutic circuit." The girls and I started a kind of tradition in Barcelona of trying to find an unusual spa-like activity--there, we did fish pedicures. This experience was far less horrific. The spa is beautiful, and for a small fee you can use the "therapeutic circuit" without having to book actual spa treatments. The...

To the Algarve! Our original plan was to rent a car to drive from Lisbon to Vilamoura today, but a tip from an Uber driver when we arrived in Lisbon made us realize that although the car we'd rented would fit six people, it would definitely not fit six people plus their luggage. So we cancelled the car and took the train instead. It was a bit of a to-do to take two Ubers to the train station, but we all made it, and the ride was a pleasant three hours. Dad had brought cards, and Mom and Dad taught the kids to play gin. We were so happy to check into our hotel, the Hilton Vilamoura As Cascatas, a very beautiful resort with several outdoor pools, an indoor pool, and a spa. Mom and Dad had one apartment, and we had another a few doors down. After our fairly rustic Air BnB in Lisbon, the comfort, amenities, and huge bathrooms were a welcome change. We explored the grounds, and the kids tried to swim, but the outdoor pools are unheated and just too cold. So they took a dip in the indoor...

We started off the day with breakfast at a bakery near our apartment--very small, full of locals, no one who spoke any English at all. The owner (or worker?) shooed a black-shrouded old woman from her table to make room for us, and we were convinced she'd put some kind of curse on us. We had delicious toast with olive oil, and the kids had croissants.  Maybe because of the old woman's curse, or maybe because we'd planned poorly, but during breakfast Andrew realized that our plan for the day--go to Belem--wouldn't work because everything there was closed on Mondays. We recalibrated, deciding to have a day of doing all the small random things we hadn't yet done in Lisbon. It turned out to be one of the best days. We first walked to a metro station to buy all-day travel cards for public transportation, then rode the metro to the origin point of two tram lines--#28 and #12. The #28 is the most famous tram, very touristy, and the line was insane--stretching down the bloc...