After being sidelined for two weeks with a cold, I was ready to grab my bathing suit and hit the beach. Sunshine and stories of “Portugal’s best beaches” were calling my name!
I started by taking a train 40 minutes north to Sintra. One of the city team members suggested we connect with his friend Francisco to give us a guided tour of the area.
Francisco met us at the train station and we hopped into the back of his open-air Portuguese jeep (known as UMM, a manufacturer of military vehicles). Bouncing around on the side benches in the back, I felt like we were in the army – ready to jump out at the next stop to complete our mission! It was fantastic!
Sintra is on a mountain so everything you want to see is either straight up or straight down. Francisco drove us to his favourite sites – Quinta da Regaleira (with it’s stunning palace and gardens, including underground passages and the Initiation Well), Palace of Sintra (with sweeping views out to the ocean and up to the Castle of Moors) and of course, Pena Palace (the red and yellow whimsical palace high up on the mountain surrounded by parkland).
Along the way, we stopped at locals-only spots for scenic photos, fresh-made sandwiches and of course, port. (Francisco strongly believed we must be sipping port while looking at the monuments. Not him, as the driver, but definitely us!)
What struck me the most was how lush and green the countryside was, and how peaceful you felt (especially after being in Lisbon). The locals believe the area is magical, and it’s easy to see why. The whole mountain feels like part of a fairy tale, not quite real.
At the end of the day, Francisco drove us to the ocean, showing us all his favourite beaches and dropping us off at our AirBNB for the night – which turned out to be the cutest house with a large yard and outdoor eating area. We wrapped up the day with dinner on the beach, watching the sunset.
I woke to discover my friend Adrienne had got up early, walked to town, picked up groceries and was whipping up breakfast fit for a queen! We sat outside in the sunshine and talked about coming back to this place for our annual reunion.
After a full day lounging on the beach, we packed our bags and took the electric tram into Sintra and caught a train back to Lisbon.
In each city, our Remote Year team coordinates activities where we sign up for a themed track and participate in four events during the month. Since I’d missed the first two (mixology challenge and storm the castle by canoe), I was looking forward to connecting with the group at the third event – a cooking class to make pastel de nata!
A traditional Portuguese treat, pastel de nata is simply puff pastry with custard but it’s actually more complex to make. There is a fine art to getting the pastry to the right thickness – too thick and you end up with raw and gooey pastry but too thin and the custard breaks through or burns. After ten minutes of working my pastry for one tart, I had a new appreciation for the grandmas who crank out these handmade treats by the dozen.
We felt very official with ear pieces to hear to the chef, TV monitors to watch her technique up close, and black aprons at every station. Naturally we had to sample each batch as we tried to improve our skills.
Another Portuguese, or Lisbon, tradition is to ride a tram. Tram 28 is known as the “tourist tram”, as it stops near all the monuments, churches, castle and viewpoints. It’s also crammed full like the cans of sardines sold everywhere and each trip we’re warned about pick-pockets.
Other than getting tossed around as the rickety tram slams on the brakes for a parked car and the constant rattling of metal on metal tracks leaving me needing a chiropractor afterwards, our tram experience was safe.
I also tried to expand my cultural tastes and joined a track activity to the Berardo Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. Thank goodness we had a guided tour otherwise I would have had no idea what we were looking at! Modern art on its own seems simple to me (something anyone could do) but with further explanation of what the artist was trying to convey, why it was important and how it changed the way future art was accepted, I started to appreciate it.
The museum tour also gave me a chance to explore Belem, a district just outside Lisbon. It’s runs along the river and includes an impressive memorial to Portuguese seafarers and explorers, as well as the Belem Tower.
Finally, we took a train to explore some of Lisbon’s beaches (which are about 30 – 40 minutes outside of Lisbon). As an Okanagan girl, I’m used to walking to the beach in five minutes so the idea of walking 15 minutes to a train and then taking the train for half an hour seemed much too far to get to a beach!
But we explored Sao Pedro and watched the surfers and also went to Cascais, where we admired the guys setting up our umbrella! Overall, the beaches around Lisbon are beautiful but I’m still partial to my beaches back home!
One week left in Portugal and still so much to see!