Portugal: bonus night

We arrived back into Lisbon on Thursday evening and had one more evening in the city before flying out on Friday morning. We checked into our apartment and then decided we wanted to go back to the Chiado area to walk around and eat and also get one more pastel de nata from Manteigaria.

We ate at a pizza place in this area. 

Then walked to the pastel de nata place... it did not disappoint! 

 We flew most of the day Friday and got to RDU Friday evening. We were excited to see our boys!

 What a gift to be able to do this.... all thanks to our parents for keeping our kiddos! So thankful to them! and I'm thankful they were able to tag team it and split them up some... our boys had a great time going to the beach, having cousin time, a museum day, ice cream at Maple View, Papa's pool, Duke Gardens, and more! 

Portugal: Lagos

On Monday morning, we took a train from Lisbon down to the Algarve Coast, to spend a few days in Lagos. We checked into our hotel and headed straight to the ocean! 

We ended up walking into town along the beach that evening.  

On Tuesday morning, we got up and took a bus to the Ponta da Piedade area. This was probably my favorite part of our whole trip. We spent a lot of the day hiking in and out of the coves and the views were absolutely incredible. Pictures do not do it justice!

Can you find Chad in the picture below?

Can you find me in the picture below?

We weren't on typical schedules a lot of our days, and grabbed lunch at a Mexican place around 3 on Tuesday. 

On Wednesday we visited the little town of Salema. It is nicknamed "Sleepy Salema", and that could not have been more accurate. It was a little crazy how dead it was. It was also overcast and colder this day... so maybe that's why no one was around. 

One of Chad's fav meals was this all you can eat sushi/Chinese place back in Lagos... 

Lots of reading during our Lagos days.

We usually packed a lunch or dinner from our breakfasts :) 

and then on Thursday we took the train back to Lisbon to spend one more night in the city... 

Portugal: Lisbon

We flew to Portugal for our 10th anniversary. We have wanted to visit Portugal for years! So many people have asked "why Portugal??" It's a country that neither of us have been to, it doesn't take too long to get there/is cheaper to get to and it has always interested us. We both love to explore new places, cultures, foods and so this trip was a good balance of that and rest. We spent 3 days in Lisbon (lots of walking, sightseeing) and then 3 days at the Algarve Coast/beach (rest, reading, hiking) before coming back to Lisbon for a day before flying home. It was a great balance for us. Even our full Lisbon days felt so relaxing. We would take books wherever we went and when we came to a pretty square or park or cute coffee shop, we would sit and read for a bit before going some more. So fun! and so different from our day to day life right now! To me, Portugal is a real collection of other places. The food, the sights, the people... everything. There were many times where I said "ohh, this area feels like Rome. or ohhhh, this area feels like Kathmandu." They have trolleys like San Francisco and auto rickshaws like India. Even the sights are all famous things from other countries... arc from Paris, Golden Gate bridge from San Francisco, Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio. 

We flew out of RDU on our actual anniversary. We were able to wake up and celebrate my dads 60th birthday with him, and then we left around lunchtime. 

We flew overnight and arrived in Lisbon early Friday morning... which meant we had a while before checking into our apartment that afternoon. We really didn't have any trouble, but we were glad to drop our luggage and not drag it around anymore. 

Rolling our suitcases all over the (hilly) city...

home sweet home...

the old Portuguese lady who sat at this window (out of our window) would stick her tongue out and spit at me when I looked out our window. She must not like tourists... 

Rua Augusta Arch

 Coach Museum

 See Chad in line? haha- this was the post popular pasteis place in Belem so we thought we should try it.

 Jeronimos Monastery

 Monument to the Discoveries

 25th of April Bridge and Cristo Rei statue

 our neighborhood (Alfama)

 we love walking around local grocery stores!

this was a highlight of Lisbon for me... while we were strolling, I commented on the cute, tiny, one table porch on the corner and Chad said we should get coffee and sit at it. So fun!

love the back of the arch and the famous tiled streets

Elevador da Gloria

 Chiado neighborhood

 at the top of the Santa Justa lift

this was hands down our favorite pastel de nata (Manteigaria)...

 Cristo Rei statue

 see that little jetty with yellow tables in the lower right corner? that's where we ate dinner (courtesy of Somebody Feed Phil's recommendation) 

train to Sintra

We explored Sintra in this little thing...

 Sintra is known for their "pillow like" pastries... so we had to try that too, right?

and then back to Lisbon that afternoon... 

National Tile Museum 

We came up on several huge, crazy viewing parties of Portugal playing in the World Cup

 Some of our fav (and cheapest) meals/memories are picking something up and having a little picnic somewhere. 

Then we got up and went to the train station to head to Lagos!