Yes, you certainly can bring home canned fish. We always do. In Lisbon there is a very amusing, wildly colored shop called ¨O Mundo fantástico de las sardines porttuguesas" on Rossio square but also a store that is less flashy that I really like where you can also taste with a little eatery near Cais do Sodré called ¨Loja das Conservas¨ on Rua Arsenal. Another classic canned seafood shop is ¨Conserveira de Lisboa¨ in the flat Baixa area at Rua dos Bacalheiros.

https://www.mundofantasticodasardinha.pt
https://lojadasconservas.com
Conserveira de Lisboa | Established 1930

I'm a little over half way through this trip.

The first 3 days, in Lisbon and Cascais, were great, temperate weather.

Then after the first night in Cascais, the weather turned crazy, very heavy winds. Made outdoors dining very unpleasant or impossible.

I made it to Sintra or rather Pena and Moorish castle, which were both great but in the afternoon, clouds rolled in and from the Pena Palace terraces, you could barely see the valley below.

Next day I made it out to Cabo da Roca. Some sun so visibility wasn't too bad. I had visited a lighthouse west of Cascais first (where there are some nice restaurants with views, prices not too crazy). Then I tried to take the coastal road towards CdR and came across several sandbars across the road. In one, I got stuck and had to gently reverse and then cross the sandbar on the left lane to get past it.

At CdR, the gusts were strong enough to make you teeter several times. Parking wasn't too bad as a result.

Then I drove down to Carvoeiro and the windy conditions continued the first couple of days. Still enough sun to see the beautiful coastal cliffs in the sunlight but again very windy before the rain came on Friday and so far most of this Saturday.

Had plans to go to Faro and selected other areas along the coast but the weather wasn't cooperating. Even a short trip to Portimao was slow going and that was before the rain.

Just some bad luck the forecast for next week is for some warming and a lot of sun, but I fly to Porto tomorrow. Oh well, one reason to come back. But still enjoying enjoying it and looking forward to hopefully better weather in Porto and the Duoro valley.

We just got back from our 22 nights in Portugal on Thursday night and we were in the midst of that crazy wind storm - the wind howled for three solid days and wreaked havoc on contact lenses. Tree crud was thick and half the city of Lisbon was sneezing and coughing. I was freaked out about flying on Thursday due to the wind, but it had stopped by then thank goodness.

Unfortunately, it seems to have followed us to Colorado, where the dry conditions and horrible wind are causing wildfires.

We really enjoyed Porto - it'll be interesting to see what you think.

scrb11.
Sorry about the horrible weather messing up your trip. I've been reading about the sand and wind storm in The Portugal News. They say that in the north,
heavy rain showers are expected over the weekend with temperatures reaching highs of 17 degrees C and lows of 8 degrees. The rain is supposed to ease up on Tuesday with increasing sunny skies and higher temps, with highs of 20C. Hope you have better luck with the weather gods in the north!

Yesterday, we ran into snow in Manteigas, which is up in the mountains. Crazy, the women at tourist info told us they only had snow twice this year. Loved watching some kids/dad making a snowman. The Serra da Estrela region is beautiful.

bdokeefee,
Are you hiking there? The Serra da Estrela has been on my list for a long time. Have you visited Belmonte?

Well... people cannot rely on weather forecasts. They are usually wrong. As this time they were.

First afternoon and first full day in Gaia and Porto were spectacular, not too windy, plenty of sun.

It was a tough trip from Algarve to Porto though, had to drive about an hour to FAO and then that flight is delayed about an hour, leaving about an hour to connect to the LIS-OPO flight.

When I got off the plane into the terminal, the next flight was already boarding and fortunately the gate was close.

No chance to eat anything or even go to the bathroom.

Then it took about half an hour for the bags to hit the carousels at baggage claim. While waiting in baggage claim, I checked Uber and showed like 18 Euro trip. But when I got out of the terminal I thought I would just take a taxi instead of waiting. My experiences with Uber in Lisbon and Sintra is that a lot of Uber drivers in those places just cancel if there is any kind of traffic on the way to pick you up. So I didn't want to get stuck in a loop of cancellations.

The taxi driver avoided center of Porto and probably that had to do with the Don Luis 1 bridge lower deck undergoing construction. But he probably was avoiding a lot of traffic so that meant looping to the east of Don Luis 1 and going well south of the Vincci Ponte de Ferro hotel. Still that meant the fare was over 31 Euros, more than what I expected but worth not using the metro which would have taken at least twice as long.

Vincci Ponte de Ferro was kind of a splurge as I'd seen some other places that was a lot less. But I got a rate on booking.com that was somehow about 1/3 less than on the Vincci site itself. They upgraded me to a room with a partial view of the bridge:


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...6c021947b0.jpg

But the best thing about this hotel is that they have an elevator which goes down almost to the river level so guests can use their room cards to go up or down 10 flights of stairs instead of walking up/down the winding road on the southern end of the Luis I Bridge or some stairs on the northern end.

Still you get your workout walking around Gaia and Porto. Today, my Fitbit shows 45 floors climbed.

Rain forecast for the next two days so easy come, easy go. Glad I got to enjoy this spectacular place in good weather. You can see there's been a lot of investment to renovate vacation housing stock on both sides of the river as well as a lot of buildings with cleaned up facades and several more with scaffolding indicative of more renovation.

Down in the Ribeira, there were huge crowds and the outdoor restaurant tables were full. Lot of street musicians with PA systems playing loud music which you can hear from a distance. I don't know if it's traditional Portuguese music or some pop-like uptempo music designed to be festive and appealing to the crowds.

I know Porto is already a huge tourist destination but looks like they're betting on it becoming even bigger.

scrb11,
Sounds like you're enjoying the Vincci Ponte do Ferro. Are you happy that you're staying on the Gaia side for photography?
Hope you get to enjoy the city with at least a bit of intermittent sun for the next few days.

I would say that the views of the Porto skyline are much prettier than the Gaia skyline. I found a little miradouro, Vittoria I think it's called and it was okay but not as nice as from the Gaia side. Also the top deck of the bridge has spectacular views on both sides, east and west, though west is more scenic.

I also liked the views better than in Lisbon. But in Lisbon, I only visited the Jardim de São Pedro de Alcântara in Barrio Norte.

I tried to get to the St. George's Miradouro but I couldn't reach it, instead reached the castle entrance, which had a queue to buy tickets. I will try again in a week as I spend a night in Lisbon before flying out.

scrb11,
The Miradouro de Graça has great views in Lisbon and a pretty square with quiosque for refreshments next to the church. We started there and made our descent from there through Alfama.

Hello Bdokeefe, may I ask what tour company in Portugal you used and were you pleased?

My experiences with Uber in Lisbon and Sintra is that a lot of Uber drivers in those places just cancel if there is any kind of traffic on the way to pick you up. So I didn't want to get stuck in a loop of cancellations.

Our experience in Sintra exactly! And then you get charged the fee - we did anyway, but I disputed the charges and was given a credit, not as good as a refund as I seldom use Uber, but better than nothing.

Still that meant the fare was over 31 Euros, more than what I expected but worth not using the metro which would have taken at least twice as long.

We took the metro from the Porto airport to Porto - 4.65 euro for the two of us and took about 45 minutes, but we went to Sao Bento - curious how long the taxi took?

scrb11,
Were you in Sintra during Easter week? (I can't remember). We used uber 5-6 times in the Cascais-Sintra zone w/o problems (twice at night), but..... that was before the holiday, when things weren't quite as crazy and crowds not as huge.

I didn't use a travel company. I had come over to Portugal twice in 2019, and used those as scouting reports. First trip with oldest daughter and her hubbie; next with 2 youngest daughter. So now with my wife she gets the greatest hits version.

Maribel- No not hiking. We stayed in Belmonte our first trip, this time 2 nights Castelo Novo and 2 nights Monsanto. These small villages are pretty special.

True, we've actually been 'lucky' with the weather, didn't have hardly any rain up north. As far as the snow, it was snowing back at home also...we were just in prettier surroundings here.

I don't remember exactly but 15-20 minutes or so.

Didn't hit traffic until we reached Vila Nova de Gaia. I just checked Google Maps and the way back to the airport would be going west of the Luis 1 bridge, not east, which is the route the taxi from the airport took. So maybe shorter distance overall.

I went to Sintra the 17th. I parked in a lot in the center but it was below the Sintra center. I had read that the free parking by the train station had a lot of incidences of break ins so I was willing to pay to park in the center, figuring it would be closer and thought maybe it was a manned parking lot. It wasn't and it cost me about 5 Euros for 4-5 hours or so.

There were a lot of people at Pena but probably not as many as in the summer. The forecast was for very high winds the following days so people may have come out that day.

I guess I will give Uber another try tomorrow to go back to the airport where I will pick up a car to drive to Pinhao.

Thanks, scrb11, for the info about Sintra parking. Hope you enjoy your time in the Douro and can get up to those Miradouros if weather cooperates.