Portugal!

We had heard wonderful things about Portugal from our family living abroad and decided to check it out for ourselves. Turns out they were right - it is a great place to visit, for many reasons. It was just the vacation we needed: laid back, easy, relaxing, summer weather kind of vacation. The weather was just perfect. Warm during the day, cool at night, dry, not buggy. It was the perfect respite from work. 

Traveling with a baby is...different... things matter that never mattered before. Places that accommodate babies by providing cribs or always having a high chair, a plastic cup, and a kids menu make the process easier. Places that offer babysitting, definitely a perk. Every place we stayed had a crib for Dylan, we never needed to take the pack and play out of the car. They all took care of Dylan in the restaurants. When it came time to leave, we were pleasantly surprised to be recruited away from the crowds and long lines at the airport to the VIP access lines since we were traveling with a baby in tow - just more evidence of why its great to travel to Portugal with the little ones! 

Algarve: We started our trip in the south of Portugal, Algarve, at a resort called the Pine Cliffs Resort. This was your typical family oriented pool/beach resort. Food was decent, pools were numerous and great, beach was fantastic. They have a kids play area, babysitting services, high chairs everywhere, a nice gym and a great organic lunch spot/juice bar. Thats enough for us to love a place. There were lots of families there and kids roaming free - it would be a super fun place to return to with the sibs/cousins and their kids! There was even enough down time for me to work on a couple research projects (residency doesn't afford this opportunity on a non-vacation week). 


Evora
After a few days lounging around in Algarve, we were ready to move on. We hopped in the car and headed north. Our ultimate destination was wine country, but we decided to break up the trip by making a pit stop in Evora, an town east of Lisbon. When you drive into Evora, it almost feels as if you're traveling into a different era. Aqueducts line the city horizon, church spires can be seen from afar, old grand gates and buildings that have half crumbled to the ground have not been restored. 

We stayed at Convento do Esipinhero, an old convent that has been renovated to a resort. We enjoyed the pool and gardens, tasted wine in their wine cellar, explored the premises, and then finished the day with a really special dinner at their Michelin starred restaurant. 

Porto The next day we continued on our journey north to Porto. We drove for almost 4 hours - a totally non-stress drive. We thought about how if we had been in the car for 4 hours at home we would have spent a good portion of that sitting in traffic and would not have covered nearly as much distance. People are courteous and attentive as drivers here. No one swaying between lanes cause they're texting and driving. No one sitting in the left lane "cause they have a right to stay in the left lane when driving the speed limit." People use their turn signals. Truckers don't drive like jerks. No cops waiting with radars to slap you with a huge speeding fine. Oh and the roads... they're nice!! Despite the evidence of financial hardship affecting many of the towns in Portugal, their highways are immaculate. No potholes to destroy your nice wheels. Something for the US to aspire to. 

In Porto, we stayed at Hotel Teatro - a hotel that was once a theatre and now is a theatre-themed hotel. There is where we found our second Michelin restaurant of the trip. We decided to walk around the city, see the ancient church, walk over the pedestrian bridge over the river, and eat..as we always do. We stopped in a this new little restaurant on the main drag not far from our hotel for lunch - Impar Flores, it was surprisingly good. We thought for sure it would be one of those tourist trap places, but it was not! Dinner at Restaurant Palco was again exceptional. I had the most incredible veal paired with this amazing wine from Douro, from Qunto do Bragao - we tried to find it in wine country but were unsuccessful (next time!).

Douro
Not like any other wine country I've visited...and I've visited a few. First of all, you usually can't just stop in for a tasting. It seems that very few accommodate the unannounced visitor for a tasting. The first winery we visited, Quinto do Crasto, was 20 kilometers through switchback roads up and down several mountainsides. We thought for sure the GPS had mislead us, as we only passed 3 other vehicles along the way, 2 of which were trucks working the vineyards. We joked that it would probably be closed when we got there - and it was! Well, at least closed to the public for tours/tastings. They did however let us buy a bottle of their wine (as David put it, we had to at least get a bottle to taste after coming so far!). The views along the way were worth the trip though. We passed through a small village or two along the way, and the locals smiled as we drove through. We felt welcomed. We stopped and had lunch (with wine pairing of course) at an outstanding restaurant, Conceitus, at the Quinta Nova estate. We ate outside, drank wine, Dylan played, and we bought more wine. We moved on to check out another winery before landing at our hotel for the night, Vila Gale Douro, set right on the banks of the Douro river. With beautiful views we were able to relax and enjoy our purchases.


I should say that driving up to Qunto do Crasto was the second time that we were convinced the GPS was wrong, that the areas we were driving would have been more developed and there would be more signs or stores, or something! Driving down to Algarve was the same thing - we passed practically nothing for 2.5 hours from the airport to the resort! And the roads leading up to the resort were winding, small, and without lots of signs or advertisements. Wine country was even more sparse. It was pretty refreshing.

Peniche
On our way back from Douro, we decided to take a random detour to check out the ocean town Peniche. We were so glad that we did! The views were so beautiful. We found an awesome lunch place at the Fish Market and enjoyed squid ink croquettes, lobster, sea bream, salmon, and sangria. I also tried farofias for the first time - an amazing Portuguese dessert with a few of my favorite things (meringue and cinnamon). 


Lisbon
Finally we made our way back to Lisbon. Our first two nights we stayed at Altis Belem, a totally modern and cool waterfront hotel in the middle of it all. Our last night we stayed at the Lapa palace, on a hill overlooking the water, a few km away. We ate at the Feitoria restaurant our first night - which is my second favorite of all the Michelin's we have dined at (Kadeau, Bornholm, still holds first place).  Before each dish they brought the fish to us to show us what we would be eating. We went for the full tasting menu with wine pairings... my only complaint was that I got too full! The wines and all of the food was so good, and so wholesome, that I was stuffed by the end. It was definitely a treat. There are so many museums in Lisbon, we had to be super selective in choosing one, and we picked the Maritime museum and Viking exhibit (obvious choice if you know my family). We were really impressed and Dylan had a blast running around the museum. It was blazing hot outside, a great opportunity for an afternoon swim at the rooftop pool. 

Our last day we were so pleased with the Lapa palace, the gorgeous pool, the view from our room balcony, that we didn't even make it off the premises. Well, to be totally fair, Dylan also had a fever and slept through most of the day...but we were not complaining about the laid back Saturday.