Lisbon, Portugal-Tiles, Toenails, and Tons of Stairs

We traveled to Lisbon, Portugal for a week in August, 2024. Wanderful, a global women’s travel community, was having a global meetup there, so we planned our vacation around the event. I belong to Wanderful, and both of my daughters and my daughter-in-law belong to Wanderful as well. The global meetup had events planned for parts of four days. The women attended these events, and then we spent the rest of the time as a family vacation.

This was our first international trip with our grandson, Remy. He was eight months old and he did great!

Adding a baby to a vacation definitely makes the experience a little different. We rented an Airbnb that was within walking distance of anywhere we wanted to go in the city. We were close to shopping areas, restaurants, and city sights. As long as we were willing to navigate stairs. Lots of stairs. Long flights of stairs. Very steep stairs. So many stairs. Lisbon is known for its tiles, but there are so many STAIRS. Many of the stairs have a restaurant on one side of the stairs, and the tables and chairs where people eat on the other side. Not only does this make the area much more narrow to walk through, but you have to watch so you don’t knock over any servers carrying large trays of food. I had several close calls.

Greg was not fond of the stairs.

The day we arrived, we girls attended a welcome get together on a rooftop bar/restaurant, called The Art Inn, which is located in the center of Lisbon. It was nice seeing some familiar faces from previous Wanderful trips and we had fun meeting many new ones. The views of the city were great.

The next day was pretty full of Wanderful events. We went on a tour of Lisbon and learned a lot about the city and the tiles. Lisbon is known for its tiles. Making of the tiles was introduced by the Moors in the 8th century. It grew in popularity until Portugal became the primary producer of tiles in Europe. These beautiful tiles can be found all over Lisbon. Many of them tell stories of Lisbon’s history.

We heard many more stories about Lisbon.

We took a cooking class. We learned to make pastel de nata at Pasteleria Batalha, an award winning bakery. Pastel de nata are Portuguese custard tarts.

They were delicious, and we all decided we were going to make these a regular dessert when we got home. As far as I know, none of us has made any more since that day. But it was a good thought, and maybe some day….. We did take the guys back to the bakery later that week so they could have some too. The guys mostly stayed at the Airbnb that first day, and they were ready to go out and find something to eat when we got back. We found a really fun restaurant and had a nice meal.

Remy was ready to eat. The restaurant was called El Santo Mexican restaurant. It had Lisbon neighborhoods on the walls.

The activity planned by Wanderful the next day was scheduled for 4:30 pm, so the Halls had most of the day to get in some sightseeing. We visited the Carmo Convent.

The Carmo Convent is a former Catholic convent, built in 1389. It was the largest church in Lisbon. In 1755, an earthquake caused significant damage to the convent, but it is one of the main remaining ruins from the earthquake that is still standing. The original convent housed a library that had about 5000 books, but most of the library was destroyed in the earthquake.

There is also a small, archaeological museum. The museum has a replica of what the convent looked like before the earthquake.

The Wanderful event was a visit to Lisbon’s first winery, Adega Belem. We were given a tour of the winery, and we learned how the wine was made. We enjoyed a fado performance while we ate. Fado is a musical style from Portugal, with melancholic melodies and lyrics that speak of loss, longing, love and everyday life. Maybe not the most uplifting concert I’ve been to, but it is a tradition in Portugal. And to be honest, the words were in Portuguese anyway, so how did I know if they were talking about something sad or if they were saying this was the best day of their life?

The Wanderful event ended the next morning, with a farewell breakfast at Local Santos restaurant. The rest of the week, the Halls were on their own. Here we go….. But the rest of the trip actually went fairly smoothly for a Hall vacation.

When I retired from my job of 35 years, one of the gifts I received was a deck of travel cards.

Each person on the trip is supposed to pick a card, and then we have to do what the card says. I thought that it was a great way to explore and try new experiences. The rest of the family was not convinced, but they each took a card. Ryan’s card was called Splashing Day. The instructions were “Find a place where you can do a water activity such as surfing, kayaking, sup or snorkeling. Enjoy a day in the water.” We were planning to go to the coast anyway, so that was an easy one. We always have to touch the water wherever we are, if there is a body of water available. We did not have time to spend the whole day in the water, but we did put our hands in the water. We decided that counted.

Another card was titled Local Market. The instructions were “Go to a local market. While exploring the market stands, you have to ask five questions to locals about their business the items they sell or about their personal life. You will be amazed by the answers!” We were able to complete the activity on this card. We were walking through a park that had an area where local artists and vendors were selling their goods. Ally bought a painting from a young artist at one of the tents and she talked to him about his art.

Another card was titled Watch the Sunrise. The instructions were “Wake up early and go watch the sunrise in a beautiful place. It will be the best way to start your day.” We were on vacation. That card was not happening.

The next card was titled Share Your Food. We were asked to “Cook a traditional dish from your country, share this meal with local people.” Do frozen pizzas count? We did cook some of those, but again, we were on vacation. No one (and by “no one,” I mean me) wanted to spend hours in the kitchen cooking a meal. We didn’t invite anyone to our apartment to share our frozen pizzas, so I guess we failed with this card as well.

My card was titled, “Offer a Coffee,” with instructions to “offer a cup of coffee or tea to a stranger. Sometimes a small gesture can make someone’s day!” We saw a homeless lady sitting near the bottom of a really long flight of stairs. We went to the nearby McDonalds and got her some food and a drink. We thought that counted as completing the activity on this card.

The last card was titled Smile Challenge. The instructions were to “Say hello or hug people.” Umm, I don’t think so. Well, I could say hello. But I’m not hugging a random stranger in a foreign country. That’s a good way to get your face punched in.

Even though we did not complete all of the cards, it was still a fun way to do some things we might not have done. I think these cards may become a regular thing on our family vacations. I’m sure my family will be thrilled.

We visited a few museums. One was a pharmacy museum, Museu da Farmacia, that Kelly wanted to visit. Kelly is a nurse and has also worked in a pharmacy, so she really wanted to visit this museum. The museum was interesting. We had lunch at the restaurant outside the museum. Remy was trying to decide what to have for lunch.

Ally, Sarah and I visited the National Tile Museum.

This museum is housed in a previous convent. It shows how the tiles have evolved over centuries. It doesn’t seem like looking at a bunch of tiles would be very exciting, but the museum was actually pretty interesting.

Kelly and Ryan opted out of the museum and decided to go shopping that day.

Greg had had enough of the stairs and decided to stay in the Airbnb. Sometimes, everybody needs to just do their own thing.

You may be wondering what toenails have to do with Lisbon, Portugal. Nothing, really. Except in my story. The month before this trip, Ally, Sarah and I had hiked Mount Kilimanjaro. (You can read the story in my blog). As a result of the hike, I had injured my toenail and it was going to fall off, which is a pretty common thing that happens to hikers. If anyone has ever lost a toenail, you will know that it takes several weeks for the toenail to actually fall off. Well, my toenail decided to fall off while we were in Portugal. The problem was, I could see that it had fallen off, but I couldn’t find the toenail. I wanted to find it because I didn’t think it would be very nice to leave it lying around for the cleaning crew to find after we left. Ally was completely grossed out.

She walked around the apartment like the toenail was going to jump out and bite her. I couldn’t even mention the toenail. I never did find it. I’m hoping it came off in the shower and went down the drain. Ick.

We spent one day on a tour to Sintra and the surrounding areas. Our Airbnb owner arranged the trip for us. We had a wonderful day on this tour. We were picked up at our apartment in a private van and we had our own private tour guide. She was very knowledgeable about the area and she enthusiastically showed us around.

We visited part of the Sintra-Cascais National Park, and saw some beautiful views of the coast.

We explored the Sanctuary of Peninha, an ancient site in the Sintra mountains.

We then went into Sintra and visited Quinta de Regaleira.

Quinta de Regaleira is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a blend of Romantic, Gothic, Manueline, and Renaissance styles.

There is a palace, chapel, and a park with lakes, caves and underground tunnels.

It was a little claustrophobic in the tunnels. Ally does not seem sure about these tunnels. There is a lot of esoteric symbolism in the chapel, which I think creates a more interesting and mysterious atmosphere to the tour.

As I mentioned previously, this vacation went pretty smoothly for a Hall vacation. However, at the airport on our way home, it turned into more of a typical Hall vacation. We had a layover at Heathrow airport in London on our way home. Our layover was not very long, so we were in a bit of a hurry to get to our gate. Now, Heathrow has very tight security, understandably. We had to take all of our liquids out of our bags and put them in one plastic bag. We knew the guidelines for liquids, so I didn’t think it was going to be a big deal. While we were frantically stuffing all of our liquids into the one bag, Greg said, “I’m going to put this in your bag.” I didn’t pay much attention, and I put my bag in the bin with my suitcase to go through the x-ray. They pulled my bag aside, so I had to wait for them to inspect the contents of my bag. I had no idea why my bag did not make it through. I was in a bit of a panic because we needed to get to our gate to catch our next flight. I sent everyone else to the gate, while I waited for my bag to be inspected. The woman who was supposed to look through my bag could not have moved any slower. I told her that I didn’t have much time, but that only seemed to make her move slower. The more agitated I became, the slower she moved. She moseyed over to straighten a hat, talked to a co-worker, and pretty much ignored me. I was ready to lose my mind. She finally decided to take a look at my bag. She pulled out a tube of toothpaste. A normal sized tube of toothpaste. Not the travel size that is allowed. A NORMAL SIZED TUBE OF TOOTHPASTE. And it did not belong to me. GREG. The toothpaste is the thing Greg put into my plastic bag at the last minute. He was in SO MUCH TROUBLE. I told her to throw it away, took my suitcase, and sprinted through the airport to the gate. I was not very nice to my husband when I arrived, panting, at the gate. Luckily, our flight was a few minutes delayed, so I was able to make the flight. Greg has since bought tiny tubes to store his toothpaste in when he travels. He is still not allowed near my plastic bag.

Tips:

1. Find more information on the Carmo Convent at https://museuarqueologicodocarmo.pt/. There are many options for guided tours, if that is how you prefer to visit, but we just did it on our own. There are multiple information signs as you move through the convent, so we were able to get plenty of information from those.
2. The website for the tile museum is https://www.museunacionaldoazulejo.pt/. It’s actually pretty interesting, even though a museum full of tiles does not sound all that exciting.
3. Always look to see what someone puts in your bag of liquids before sending it through security.
4. Information about the Museu da Farmacia can be found at https://www.museudafarmacia.pt.
5. Find more information about Quinta de Regaleira at https://www.quintadaregaleiratickets.com/history/
6. A toenail will not jump out at you, but finding it on the floor may gross you out.
7. There are multiple tour options for Sintra and the surrounding areas. Getyourguide.com is always a good option, in my experience, but there are others to choose from.