10th Anniversary Trip Part 4 - Sintra

On Thursday, May 30th, we were up bright and early to leave the Algarve and drive 3 hours to Lisbon.  We returned the car to the Lisbon airport, caught a bus to our hotel, checked in and then promptly jumped on a train to Sintra, a town about 30 minutes outside of Lisbon filled with castles.  In total there are three castles in Sintra but we only made it to two.  The first was the Pena Palace, built in the 1800s for the royalty by a German architect.  It's often described as a "Disney Palace" because of it's colorful design.  They day we were there was fairly chilly, cloudy and WINDY.  We were able to appreciate it, though I think we could have appreciated it more if it had been a little warmer :)

 A picture of the two of us by the palace:

 Brian on the palace wall:

Lauren at the palace:

After the Pena Palace, we hiked up through their forest grounds to the High Cross:

 Which provided great views of the palace from above:

And next we hiked down to the 1,000 year old Moorish castle, which gave great views of the Pena Palace from down below:

Here are the Moorish ruins from afar:

And up close:

The sun finally started peeking out towards the very end of the day, which I was thankful for.  All in all, we enjoyed Sintra  and the castles that we got to see.

We returned to Lisbon in the late afternoon to do a little more sightseeing and hit up one of the restaurants that Peter had recommended, which was called Tasca de Esquina.  And the recommended meal is to get the 4-5 course chef's tasting menu . . . which means we had no idea what we were going to be getting to eat with each course.  It forced me to try some things which I might never have tried and everything was really good.  Brian got the 5 course meal while I was full after 4 courses.  We would never have stumbled upon this restaurant without Peter's recommendation (it was a good 1.5 miles from our hotel) and we loved it.

10th Anniversary Trip Part 3 - The Algarve

With our rental car we were able to explore the southern Portuguese coastline (known as the Algarve) on Wednesday, May 29th.  We stayed the Hotel Porto Bay Falesia in Olhos de Agua - a tiny coastal town.  After 4 full days of sightseeing, it was a welcomed break to have a day at the beach, even if the 60's temperatures weren't quite perfect beach weather.  At least it was bright sunshine and we couldn't ask for much more than that.  The first shot below is the view from our hotel balcony - total relaxation:

Headed down to the beach - the red cliffs were amazing:

Never quite been to a beach like this before:

Stunning:

It stretched on for miles:

With lots of little rock outcroppings to explore:

After a 2 mile walk on the beach and visit to the hot tub, we headed out to the larger nearby town called Albufeira for dinner.  Walking through the quaint streets of Albufeira, we stumbled upon this beautiful tree.  

After a walk through the town, we headed to our destination - Dom Carlos Restaurant - easily our best meal of the trip and one of the best meals we've ever had.  Peter, an Irishman, and his Portuguese wife Anna own this restaurant.  The meal is a 5-course meal with 2 options for each course (soup, appetizer, fish, beef/chicken, dessert).  The chef goes to the market that morning to pick out the freshest ingredients and that is how he picks his menu for the day.  He puts a lot of pride into all of his cooking and comes out to explain each course.  They made you feel like part of the family, even joking with me that I needed to slow down (anyone who knows me knows I eat too quickly).  In my reservation, I had mentioned that it was our anniversary and Anna had a bouquet of flowers for me.  We had not ever experienced a restaurant like this before and I'm sad that we won't be going back anytime in the near future.

Here we are at the restaurant with pictures of our appetizers:

Luckily, we had the foresight to ask Peter for restaurant recommendations in Lisbon and he was happy to provide them.  We went to the two restaurants he recommended in Lisbon and they were fantastic as well.  I can't say enough good things about our one day pit stop in the Algarve.  We were refreshed and ready to head north for 2 last days of sightseeing in Portugal.

10th Anniversary Trip Part 2 - Seville

On Monday morning, May 27th, we boarded a 7:00 AM train to Seville from Madrid.  I had booked us a walking tour at 10:30 AM and we needed to take 2.5 hour train ride, cab to our hotel, check in to drop off luggage and then make our way to the walking tour.  We had a great tour guide who gave us a 2 hour overview of the city including information on Seville's rich history.  Seville was such an amazing city - full of character and charm.  The center of the historic district revolves around the massive cathedral (3rd largest in Europe) and it's bell tower, seen here below during the day and at night:

Following the tour, we visited the Alcazar Palace of Seville:

The gardens of the Alcazar were beautiful:

Brian adding a head to this statue:

More of the beautiful flowers in the gardens:

Our hotel was tucked away in the Barrio de Santa Cruz (old Jewish quarters).  The streets were like mazes and it was an adventure trying to find it every time we went back.  Part of the fun of the Barrio district is getting lost, so we enjoyed the fun of finding the hotel each time:

Our hotel had free bicycles to use, so we took them out both days of our trip:

On Monday night, we got the pleasure of taking in a Flamenco show.  Brian and I both fully enjoyed this hour long show - the singer, guitarist and dancer were all amazing.  I was also especially happy with how this photo turned out:

Trying to get effect of the twirling dress:

After the show, we went to dinner at Albarama for a tapas dinner.  The food was amazing.  This shrimp with garlic aoli risotto was our favorite:

The streets of Seville at night were equally charming:

Another view of the Cathedra Bell Tower at night:

The next day we got more lost in the streets of Seville for fun:

Brian at the Torre del Oro:

We walked back to the cathedral to tour inside and climb the bell tower.  This photo was taken from the top of the bell tower looking down on Seville:

Brian by a fountain in the courtyard of the cathedral:

Onto lunch and some yummy paella:

Our hotel in Seville (Hotel El Rey Moro) had a gorgeous open courtyard where we ate breakfast:

 That afternoon we took the bikes out to Plaza de Espana in Seville, built for the 1929 world's fair:

You can barely see but I'm standing on the bridge:

A view of the Plaza de Espana:

Bike riding in a park - just to the left center of the fountain is a dog laying in the water:

The Guadalquivir River in Seville:

We were sad to say goodbye to Seville - we absolutely loved it.  But on Wednesday morning, we were up bright and early to catch a 7:30 bus to the town of Tavira in Portugal, where we walked through cobblestone streets to find a Budget rental car inside of a hotel.  We would drive this car for about an hour (plus an additional 30 minutes of being lost) to the town of Olhos de Agua.  To be continued . . .

10th Anniversary Trip Part 1 - Madrid

This is the first of several posts about our 10th anniversary trip to Spain & Portugal.  We flew out on May 24th and arrived on the 25th.  We forced ourselves to stay awake during the day and toured some of the sites in Madrid, including the Prado Museum.  I have to admit I was half asleep walking through the museum, but we made it through to a 7:00 PM bedtime and slept 12 solid hours to get right onto their time without a problem.

Here was our hotel in Madrid - Hotel Europa right in Puerto de Sol, which was pretty much the center of everything. We opted to not have a room overlooking the square because of the noise and we needed our sleep.  But it would have been nice to have a view of the action:

Coming out of the Prado Museum, we walked by this church.  They were rolling out the red carpet for something special:

We walked over to Parque del Retiro in Madrid, which was beautiful on this gorgeous day:

First of many cartwheel photos in the park - by the funky trees:

On day 2, we started with a segway tour, which was SO much fun!  Here we stopped to take a pic with the Royal Palace of Madrid in the background:

On our segways:

Brian doing fancy driving:

Even fancier driving by me, though I have to say, about 20 minutes before this photo, I took a hard fall off of the segway when I cut a corner too close to a bench.  Our tour guide informed me he only has 1 fall a month . . . oops!

Getting fancy and going down stairs:

Our instructor took pictures while we were riding - this one I didn't even know he was taking:

We stopped at a rose garden which was in full bloom (though the photo is too bright):

More steps towards the end of the tour:

After the tour we headed over for a tour of the Royal Palace . . . and a cartwheel in front of it of course:

And after our busy day, we headed over to a see a bullfight.  Two words - HUGE MISTAKE.  It was HORRIBLE!  Within five minutes, I was crying and sick to my stomach.  For those unaware, bullfights in Spain end when the bull dies in front of you in the arena.  He doesn't stand a chance and it just is really cruel.  After 5 minutes, I proceeded to close my eyes or look up at the sky for the remainder of our time there.  Even Brian was a bit disturbed by it all and admitted he wouldn't go back to see it again (though he appreciated having the experience at least once).  And we left early - after 4 of 6 fights.

While Brian took more pictures, I'm choosing not to show them here because they get bloody.  I will say that the bull had a small "victory" during this fight.  The main matador (on the left below) was tossed into the air, landed on the bull's back and then onto the ground.  He was gored in the leg and passed out before being carried out of the stadium.

For anyone interested, click on this link for a professional picture of the matador getting tossed in the air:  Matador getting tossed

After the bullfight, we went back to the hotel to get up for an early train to Seville.  Only I couldn't sleep this night because (1) I was haunted by the bullfight and (2) in the middle of the night we got a text that Eric was having an allergic reaction to amoxicillin.  Just like his brother, he was covered in hives that were not responding to Benadryl.  And thankfully my mom was well aware of Evan's reaction and hospitalization for his reaction, so, after a Facetime conversation, she took him off to an urgent care to get steroids for treatment.  Poor Eric and my poor mother - I felt bad for everyone!  But after a few hours on the medicine, he started improving.  And compared to Evan's reaction, this wasn't nearly as bad.

All in all, we agreed that Madrid was our least favorite stop on our trip.  It just felt too much like a big city and did not have the charm of Seville and Lisbon, which we visited later.  That being said, we both agreed that our favorite activity of the entire trip was the Segway tour.  We were only in Madrid for a day and a half, which was the perfect amount of time before heading off to Seville.  Details to come in my next post.