Those Who Do Not Risk, Do Not Benefit {Lisbon, Portugal}

 When booking our flight to London for Amy’s wedding, we knew we needed to visit some additional places in Europe while we were there. Our cruise was the best way for us to see lots of places that were more difficult to travel on our own, like Iceland and Norway. Our cruise ended in South Hampton, London, which would have allowed us to fly home from London, however it was so much more expensive to fly home from here. We ended up looking at flights home from several places, and in the end, we would still save money to fly to Portugal and stay for two nights over flying straight home from London. So off to Lisbon, Portugal we went for the remaining 2 days of our trip. 

We were really exhausted when we landed in Lisbon, but we took the metro a few stops to our hotel in the Chiado district. 

Chiado was the perfect place to stay. It was quiet, but also lots to see in the touristy area. We also really loved our balcony.

We were so caught off guard at how beautiful Lisbon was with all its artistic tiles and stunning architecture. 

It was a warm 90 degrees while we were adventuring, but we knew our time was brief so we made the most of it by getting up really early and starting our train journey to Sintra. 

In Sintra, we found Mario, our awesome Tuk Tuk driver who took us up the hills to the top of Sintra. 

At the top you’ll find Pena Palace, a beautiful castle that King Ferdinand 2 had built and decorated, and it was breath taking. 

BIGGEST take away from all the Europe traveling we have done is always book your tickets to places ahead of time, and come early. The lines to buy tickets to these locations were all hours and hours long, and we skipped over every single person and were in and out in under an hour and on to the next stops simply from buying our tickets weeks in advance and showing up in the first time slot. 

Just a small walk down the hill was Mikes favorite, the Moorish Castle. This one reminded me of the Great Wall of China, with all the stairs, and would be a great spot for Merida to meet and greet. It felt very medieval. 

It was hot and there were a LOT of stairs...

Another little walk down the hill was the National Park of Pena. It was absolutely beautiful and we could have spent all day wandering around the beautiful flowers, but we only had a few hours of exploration so on we went. 

As luck would have it, our Tuk Tuk driver Mario happened to be at the gardens right as we were leaving and offered to take us back down to the city center of Sintra. The city center was so lively, and almost like a movie set.

 We had a harder time finding food we wanted while in Portugal. After having been on a cruise where everything your stomachs desire had been granted to you, it was hard to make decisions. One thing we knew we wanted to try was the Portuguese custard tart, and we found our first at Fabrica da Nata. You can sprinkle cinnamon and powdered sugar on top the warm tart, and they were incredible! We ended up going back 3 different times to get more, and the only regret I have is not doing it more. 

We also tried the traditional cherry liquor or Ginja in a chocolate cup, and it was actually very tasty! 

At this point it was around lunchtime. We took the train back over to Chiado to explore the areas around us a bit more. We tried the famous As Bifanas Do Afonso, or pork sandwich, and I found it very salty, but Mike really liked it. 

I really enjoyed seeing the famous Santa Justa elevator from every angle, except the top of the elevator, which we did not ride to. Something really breath taking about this cool architecture piece just shooting up out of the middle of the city I really loved. 

We also saw the famous yellow tram 28, but noticed it seemed super hot and crowded and no one looked like they were having a good time, so we chose to skip this one. 

From our balcony we could see the Lisbon Cathedral, so we got a closer look and realized how much it looked like Notre Dam. 

We walked the famous pink street, where we probably would have found restaurants we would have wanted to eat at, but wasn’t the right timing for us. 

We also visited the Time Out Market for a snack but ended up not eating there either (told you we were feeling picky about food). 

We opted for a little gelato instead to combat the heat, and had strawberry basil and chocolate gelato from the famous Santinis, and it was great! We took a little walk by the waterside and saw these really cool squids in the water.One of my favorite spots was visiting the stunning Arco da Rua Augusta, which pops up right in the middle of the city. This arch has a crazy historical reminder of the huge earthquake of 1755 which turned into a huge city fire, and a tsunami! Insane story honestly.