It has been almost a month since our trip to Lisbon and Spain and we have many fond memories. We had good weather for the most part, except for some unexpected chilliness initially in and around Madrid. The entire adventure (and an adventure it was, but more on that in a bit) was great and we loved all the sun, beautiful places, and delicious food and drink.
Our adventure began in Lisbon, Portugal where spent the day sightseeing from Marquês de Pombal, Baixa, Alfama, Bairro Alto to Belem. Originally we had reserved 2 days for Lisbon but due to flight delays (again more on that below) we were forced to take in the whole city in 8 hours. Interestingly it was enough time, at least by our standard sightseeing pace, and the only thing we had to omit was the Maritime Museum. While Lisbon is an important capital city, it is fairly small (not in a negative way) and very easily seen in a full day. We were able to take in Santa Maria Maior de Lisboa or Sé de Lisboa, Praca do Comercio, the Alcazar, Elevador de Santa Justa, Sant’ Anna tile shop and Torre de Belem. No trip would, of course, be complete without excellent food so we took time to enjoy a nice lunch on a side street near Rossio Square, and stopped in at Café Pastéis de Belém. Our lunch which consisted of seafood was scrumptious and the pastéis (custard baked in flaky dough) were amazing. When we ordered one each (they are tiny) the waiter did give us a strange look, but once we consumed our portion and asked for round two of the delicious dessert, he knowingly smiled and nodded. All around Lisbon is a wonderful city to visit.
When we arrived in Madrid we knew that we would not be doing many of typical touristy things because I had lived in Madrid when I studied abroad and Patrick had visited. As a result we decided to do more of a walking tour, on the relaxed side, instead of running from one museum or monument to the next. Our first day in Spain started with a walk to the Chocolateria San Gines, where each enjoyed a robust of cup of thick hot chocolate and delectable churros. That day we took on the Palacio Real, various beautiful plazas, a little shopping at El Corte Ingles, some wonderful helado (basically gelato), gorgeous neighborhoods and dinner at a very cool restaurant in Barrio Salamanca called Teatriz.
While in Madrid we also took trips outside of the city to San Lorenzo de El Escorial and Toledo. Both places are worth a visit so if you have time to spend outside of Spain’s wonderful capital, do check them out. The gathering of Spanish soccer team fans inside a bull ring in Toledo was quite a sight. Hundreds of red and gold/yellow clad fans cheering on their team playing on the big screen at the World Cup in South Africa. Additionally, in the city we also checked out Parque del Buen Retiro on one of the most perfect, warm summer days. If visiting Madrid keep in mind one other place, the Plaza de Santa Anna. It is a pleasant place to sit and people watch as well as enjoy some of the most divine tapas.
Our trip also included a few days in Andalusia, where we checked out Seville, ancient Cordoba, Cadiz and even ventured as far as Gibraltar. Seville is a wonderful city (so-called birthplace of flamenco-we did see a fun show), with both a modern and ancient feel to it. We stayed in the Barrio Santa Cruz with its many narrow, albeit confusing, streets and really had a chance to be in the middle of all the sights /sounds of this magnificent city. Cordoba is small but worth the day trip, especially for its old mosque. Cadiz is an Atlantic coast town, worth seeing if you are into maritime history and enjoy seafood. Our Gibraltar excursion was more of “it would be cool to say we’ve been there” trip than anything special or unusual. It is an interesting place to visit for these few reasons; piece of Great Britain in mainland Europe, you can literally see the African continent and it is literally a settlement of people on a rock.
Now that all the good has been discussed, we should turn to the disappointments of the trip. Since our trip did not begin in the Iberian Peninsula, but rather in Austria and Poland (where each of us spent 3 days visiting our families before we took off on our Southern European excursion), the itinerary was more than complicated. Our award tickets from California to Frankfurt –making that city the “open-jaw” part (then splitting up and going to our own countries mentioned before), and having our Madrid and Lisbon tickets (also award but separate) be a completely different itinerary/airline made the flying part almost impossible. With a complicated itinerary like that, everything needs to happen on time. Unfortunately, my flight out of southern Poland was 3 hours delayed, making it impossible for us to meet up with enough time to transfer to our Iberia flight. I will spare you the tiny details but will mention that we did end up losing a day in Lisbon, had to buy additional tickets for a flight that just left early, experienced a flight with a pilot who was unable to land an airplane, ridiculous delays with no reasons given, melt down at a security check, and pleading to get onto an airplane after the gate door closed. So the major takeaways from this journey are that you should minimize the flights (in favor of renting cars or traveling on trains), stick to a geographically simple itinerary and allow plenty of room for error. Happy Traveling!
