Portugal, What did you love there ?
May 31st, 2016, 03:37 AM
#1
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Portugal, What did you love there ?
Hi
Going to Portugal next months, logistic done : flights booked, hotels booked, car booked.
My wife has bought several paperguides and she knows where we have to go and what to visit.
So I am just asking what you loved most in Portugal so that I can double check that we see it !
We are 2 days in Porto, 2 in Lisbon, 2 in Peniche, 2 in Figueira da Foz.
Thanks !
Going to Portugal next months, logistic done : flights booked, hotels booked, car booked.
My wife has bought several paperguides and she knows where we have to go and what to visit.
So I am just asking what you loved most in Portugal so that I can double check that we see it !
We are 2 days in Porto, 2 in Lisbon, 2 in Peniche, 2 in Figueira da Foz.
Thanks !
May 31st, 2016, 03:59 AM
#3
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Amarante is a most beautiful town and it has one of the most unusual feast days in June. Young women and men exchange bread in the shape of phalluses to show their interest. Some are quite large. NO KIDDING.
Google it especially for images.
http://www.porto-tourism.com/porto-e...o-goncalo.html
Google it especially for images.
http://www.porto-tourism.com/porto-e...o-goncalo.html
May 31st, 2016, 07:55 AM
#7
Lisbon - click on my name for my TR, but the Belem monastery and the Gulbenkian are the stars.
Coimbra and Conimbriga.
Port - Taylor's port cave in Porto, Solar do Vinho do Porto in Lisbon.
Mountain railways in the Duoro valley that no longer exist.
Coimbra and Conimbriga.
Port - Taylor's port cave in Porto, Solar do Vinho do Porto in Lisbon.
Mountain railways in the Duoro valley that no longer exist.
May 31st, 2016, 08:24 AM
#8
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Porto is my favourite city. Two days is a very short time to enjoy all the aspects of this area. If you have time, drive the Douro Valley (upto Pinhão via N108). The last part (from Peso da Régua) is the prettiest.
From the Ribeira in Porto you can take the old tram (no. 1) to Foz de Douro. From there walk all the way to Matosinhos (Porto's beach) for dinner at one of the excellent fish restaurants. Not the touristy stuff, the real thing.
In Lisbon: sightsee, sightsee, sightsee. Take the various elevadores/antique tram and at night, make your way to Alfama for a splendid view over the city in this oldest Lisbon neighbourhood.
Peniche: known for windsurfing, bodyboarding, etc. Great beach!
Figueira da Foz: not far from Coimbra. Do visit the university.
From the Ribeira in Porto you can take the old tram (no. 1) to Foz de Douro. From there walk all the way to Matosinhos (Porto's beach) for dinner at one of the excellent fish restaurants. Not the touristy stuff, the real thing.
In Lisbon: sightsee, sightsee, sightsee. Take the various elevadores/antique tram and at night, make your way to Alfama for a splendid view over the city in this oldest Lisbon neighbourhood.
Peniche: known for windsurfing, bodyboarding, etc. Great beach!
Figueira da Foz: not far from Coimbra. Do visit the university.
May 31st, 2016, 09:12 AM
#11
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Thanks all !
@ IMD : my last daughter is 6.
We've got 4 kids and took our time doing them - some 15 years. That's one of the things I like about questions like 'how do you travel with kids' - been 20 years that we travel with kids ...
@ IMD : my last daughter is 6.
We've got 4 kids and took our time doing them - some 15 years. That's one of the things I like about questions like 'how do you travel with kids' - been 20 years that we travel with kids ...
May 31st, 2016, 11:09 AM
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Jun 2nd, 2016, 03:50 AM
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What I love in Porto (as I live here): Afurada. Not touristic (yet... a marina was built there). It's not in Porto, it's across the river. To get there you must take a boat from Calen Garden (near Fluvial swimming pools, right after Arrabida bridge), just ask the fishermen there. Boats are secure (although they don't seem to), they are taken everyday by working people. If you go, don't complain about the smell, you will be with working people, not perfumed tourists. You can get to Calen garden by tram 1 (very touristic, this one). Afurada has the best fish (well, along with Matosinhos) restaurants. Women wash the clothes in a common washhouse (now very stylized, due to the proximity of the marina) and all the clothes are put to dry in common hangers (when I say all the clothes I mean all the clothes, including underwear). Lots of seagulls, as it is a fishermen village, and lots of other birds (like herons) due to the proximity of a protected area. A nice place to spend a couple of hours, I really enjoy going there (I go by car, usually, but have taken the boat maybe twice).
Jun 2nd, 2016, 04:16 AM
#17
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I strongly suggest you search for lreynolds threads on Portugal here. In 2010 we did her Lisbon walk exactly as suggested (we used no guide books or other planned tours) and it was excellent. I don't know if she still posts but she's very well-respected here for her Lisbon suggestions (and possibly other places in Portugal as well).
Jun 3rd, 2016, 08:56 AM
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We loved everything. Spent a few days there in March, mostly in Lisbon with trips to Sintra and Cascais. In particular not too many tourists, great people, inexpensive, wonderful seafood, visited two great castles (Sao Jorge in Lisbon and the Moorish castle in Sintra), very good public transportation in Lisbon and to other places we visited, Portugese wines are wonderful and cheap!, trolleys in Lisbon, everything I had read that was negative e.g. about pickpockets and such was not true - at least in our case, great weather, Super Bock's various beers,it was just all good, can't wait to go back for longer.
