Travel

A day in Coimbra

/ Greg / 1 Comment

On our journey north through Portugal toward our final destination of Porto, we stopped for a lovely twenty four hour stay in Coimbra. The main draw was to wander around its medieval old town and to explore the University of Coimbra. I’m glad we decided to spend a night here rather than just making it a day trip spot as we ended up having our favourite meal of the trip (and that’s saying something).

Our luck with the weather in Portugal continued unabated for our day in Coimbra. It is a beautiful town from any angle, but especially so from the point of view of the Mondego River.

Coimbra

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My favourite part of Portugal

/ Greg / 2 Comments

Over many years of traveling to and within Europe, I have become a big fan of spending an increasing amount of time on my trips in the “B” cities and towns rather than dedicating all of my time to the major centres. Portugal has two “A” cities if you’ll allow me to use that expression – Porto and Lisbon – and while I enjoyed both of those cities, my most fond memories from two weeks in this beautiful country were from the time we spent in Nazaré.

In plotting our Portugal itinerary, it was my wife who initially picked out this town as a stopping place. Seeing it perched on the Atlantic captured my imagination. Renting an apartment with a view over the ocean made me giddy with anticipation.

View from our deck in Nazare

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The best of the rest

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The nearly a week we spent in Lisbon this past fall felt a bit like a loose collection of activities and sightseeing that was stitching together an amazing collection of meals and food adventures. While the food ended up being the star of the show, there was plenty else that deserved top billing.

Situated as it is, there are million dollar views from many of the hilltops over the city. Most of the vantage points are gathering spots complete with an outdoor bar and seating, and usually some live music and entertainment. One of my favourites was the Miradouro da Graça and it’s view, seen here on a mid-week morning.

Miradouro da Graça

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Portugal for beer?

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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.

LisBeer in Lisbon

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As good as a break

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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.

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Delicacies in Lisbon

/ Greg / 2 Comments

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.

Cantinho do Avillez

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Giddy for seafood in Lisbon

/ Greg / 1 Comment

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.

Ramiro in Lisbon

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In the mountains of Sintra

/ Greg / 2 Comments

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.

Pena Palace, Sintra

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