Portugal is for wine, right? Of course it is. And I can report back that I sampled and enjoyed a wide range of the wine of this amazing country over two weeks there. But I also found some time to explore a relatively new and growing craft beer culture.
Starting in Lisbon, I found this great little craft beer bar, LisBeer, tucked a few streets off of the main beaten-down tourist paths.
That old line “change is as good as a break” rang true as I was getting ready to attend another of a series of interesting professional development sessions at a conference in Chicago last week. Sometimes a vacation is a true “get away from it all” type endeavour. And sometimes, like this past week, it is a mix of a different location, a different pace, a different set of topics to think about, and a little bit of exploring some things outside of the norm.
When I booked this trip, it was with a few extra days added, mostly to geek out on baseball at Cubs games over the weekend after my conference wrapped up in Chicago. As it turned out, my wife was able to join me, and thanks to an available last minute flight on points for her, it changed that trip plan to something different. Something better.
She got the full on vacation experience as I was working away at my conference, but at nights, we picked an interesting restaurant and enjoyed a meal together (and yes, we did get to a couple of baseball games). The trip was a nice reminder that a vacation doesn’t have to be an all or nothing approach. Especially when you get to spend it with your favourite person in the world.
Favourite 2018 travel photos. Sintra, Portugal. October 2018.
In thinking back on the close to one week we spent in Lisbon last fall, the first thing that comes to mind is the food. While we did not explicitly plan for Lisbon to be a dominant foodie experience, we had a host of amazing meals, dishes and drinks scattered around the city. One meal was so good, I even just wrote about it separately so I could attempt to do it justice.
So, here goes for a tour through our Lisbon eating experiences…
Night one, slightly jet legged and craving an early to bed evening, we arrived at Cantinho do Avillez at the almost ridiculous hour (for Portugal, or for anyone under the age of 73) of 4:30 for dinner. What a great start to our stay in Lisbon. Olives, a baked cheese dish and some local pork sausage got us off to an amazing start.
I’ll set the stage. It was early afternoon and we were standing in Sintra and at that point were making our plans on the fly for the rest of our day. Rather than having a late lunch there, we decided to hop an earlier train back to Lisbon to make a beeline to a restaurant that was on our “must visit” list.
In my mind, Cervejaria Ramiro, a down to earth seafood restaurant, had reached almost mythical proportions. As a former coastal dweller now landlocked in Saskatchewan, I was drooling at suddenly having unfettered access to fresh seafood for the first time in ages. I had read reviews of this place and had seen it on a Netflix special about six months earlier. It was love before first sight.
All of our European adventures over the years have included at least one day trip. The idea of heading out of a locale on a train to spend a few hours somewhere else has always had an element of romanticism for me. Maybe it is the train ride itself, or maybe it is just that quirk in my personality that is always craving seeing something more and something new. When we booked our fall trip to Portugal last year with Lisbon as the starting point, there was no doubt that one of our day trips would be to visit Sintra. We had seen it’s Disney-esque castle in photographs and on television a few times, and I wanted to experience it first hand.
Our plans went off without a hitch, including having a spectacular October morning for our visit. After arriving in Sintra, we hopped the first bus of the day up the steep and winding Sintra mountains so we could be among the first to arrive at the Palácio da Pena. Sometimes when you travel, the expectations outstrip the experience. Not the case here. The palace, in the morning light, was stunning.
About thirty minutes by tram to the west of central Lisbon is Belém, a lovely locale we based part of a day around during our trip back in October. Belém is not for the faint of heart if you are unnerved by crowds. In the morning, cruise ships disembark and a never-ending line of tour busses congregate outside of its most popular sites. For our first stop, we avoided the crowds and visited the National Coach Museum. The collection of historical carriages here was amazing, and seeing so many in one place let us see the progression of “technology”, if you can call it that. I never really thought of carriages before, but loved the unique focus of this museum.
I really could not have had worse luck with the soccer schedules on my trip to Portugal in October. Whether it was Europa League, Champions League or the Portuguese domestic league, the home teams of Lisbon and Porto were playing when I was in those respective cities, but in away matches each and every game. While I’ve had some really fun times at matches in Prague, Rome and Seville that will have to hold me over until my next European adventure. So, to make the best of some bad timing and with my wife sleeping in one morning in Lisbon, I took the opportunity to do a tour of Benfica’s stadium on the outskirts of the city.
Estadio da Luz, you are definitely a beauty.
When Jodi’s parents visited us this past summer, there was one place they were itching to get to… the West Edmonton Mall. While the idea of visiting a mall normally induces dread akin to an upcoming visit to the dentist, the idea of a prairie road trip with family to a city that’s really grown on me sounded like a great way to spend a weekend. Another plus for me? You can’t really road trip in Canada without pulling over somewhere beside a roadside attraction, so on the way to Edmonton, here we are in Vegreville in front of their famous pysanka. Unbelieveably, at three and a half stories high and more than 5,500 pounds, it is only the second largest pysanka in the world due to some deft one-upmanship from Kolomyia, Ukraine.
For a host of reasons, I’ll be glad to put 2018 to bed and move on to 2019. Life threw quite a few curveballs this year, and throughout 2018, travel was a nice escape and respite. Like most years, many of my favourite moments came while I was away and exploring. Whether it be on a couple of baseball trips (New York, Philadelphia), a few first time adventures (Portugal, Calgary), some return visits to favourite places (Vancouver, Austin, Alberta’s Rocky Mountains), family-related travel (northern New Brunswick, Halifax, Edmonton, even here in Saskatoon), or the annual pilgrimage to a Riders game in Regina…. travel made me laugh, feel alive, and filled my heart and mind with memories that I’ll cherish forever.
In no particular order, here are my favourite travel memories from the past year.
1. The day brought to you by the letter M (part 1, mountains and Maize) – On a spectacular road trip into the mountains in June, I had a chance encounter with one of my favourite musicians, Andy Maize, from the band Skydiggers. He was gracious, charming, and I enjoyed the time we spent together chatting about one of my favourite bars in Canada, the Carleton, back in my old hometown of Halifax.
Bluenose Traveler 