Weekend Trip: Lisbon and Sintra, Portugal

This past week marked the halfway point of our Semester Abroad!! The clock is ticking, and looking at our jam-packed calendar of family travel nearly every weekend, we decided to squeeze in a trip to Lisbon... without the kids! We found a darling babysitter who took care of Sophie and Stone while I was in Paris, and the kids have been begging to have her back. So she showed up on Friday after school and I left a detailed schedule of ways to keep everyone busy on Saturday and Sunday (including the best treasure hunt I have ever done, leading to a rock crystal kit for L and L, a makeup kit for Sophie and a Spiderman costume for Stone). 

It's Sunday evening now, and we're sitting in the Lisbon airport waiting to go home. It was a HEAVENLY 48 hours. I loved having Erik all to myself, talking uninterrupted, running together, laughing together, and NOT carrying anyone on my back or talking anyone through a meltdown. Also we couldn't stop laughing about how delicious it was to have carpet under our feet in our hotel. I just walked and walked and walked around in circles in bare feet. I hadn't realized how much I'd missed carpet!

MADRID

The Madrid Airport has no good food options... but the best chocolate shop ever!!

We are going to buy a box like that for our family to live in.

LISBON
The beautiful capitol of Portugal, a big city surrounded by water and full of interesting buildings, museums and street performers

Late-night dinner at our hotel in Lisbon. It was so old-fashioned fancy and charming, and we loved the piano guy in the background, playing music like "Mack the Knife" and "The Pink Panther."

In the morning we slept in and then went for a run along the river to this amazing sculpture and back (the massive sculpture is a monument to the people throughout history who made exploration possible).

Movie Star Erik all showered and dressed after running and breakfast. We caught a taxi downtown to explore Lisbon.

A 19th-Century bakery, famous for their pasteis de nata, a vanilla custard with a caramelized top, baked in a phyllo crust. We ordered a few of those, plus several more pastries.

Me and my new boyfriend, Pasteis de Nata. We are outside the Monastery of Saint Jerónimo. Which is more handsome, the monastery or the custard tart? It is hard to say.

"Erik, what are you reading about?"
"Robots."
If I were in a Robot Museum I would probably pay attention for a little while but then I might excuse myself to sit down and read about monasteries.

He was really supportive of me exploring the whole gorgeous building, walking along and talking with me, though old buildings are not his thing. And then upstairs we actually found an exhibit on the history of the world that was fascinating to both of us. 

I loved this architecture!! It was different from anything I'd seen before, with plant, rope and nautical motifs typical of 15th Century Portugal.

Erik noticed these doors: "They open the top ones when the giants come for a visit."

We hopped on a bus tour to see more of the city, and rode past a copycat of the Golden Gate Bridge!! Made us feel at home - even the rolling green hills on the other side were familiar.

What the...? Guess whether Erik had any interest in climbing that building.

We walked and walked and walked some more, talking about our kids and our goals and our future, trading all kinds of great ideas and acquainting ourselves with the entire city of Lisbon. Then to dinner at an Indian restaurant.

SINTRA
30 kilometers outside of Lisbon, a green mountain town by the ocean, home to fairy tale palaces, crumbling castles and the cutest cobblestone streets. One of our favorite cities in Europe... or anywhere in the world we've seen!

Pena Castle, a delightful hodgepodge of colors and shapes, perched atop a giant foresty mountain

So much about this is scary.

Big cities are fun every once in awhile, but being near trees and rolling hills and ocean and sky fills our souls.

If Sleeping Beauty had been a Moor, this would have been her castle

Painted tiles all over the exteriors of buildings all over Portugal.

Hiking down from the palace to the crumbing Moorish fortress ruins. Note sweet Erik carrying my purse for me.

Nothing says "American tourist" like running shoes with jeans. I will never forget that hike and that view (and I was glad I wasn't wearing heels or even cute little ballet flats! I'll take dorky but comfy!).

This site was still in process of excavation - they recently found lots of 11th century graves

One of our favorite days and favorite places ever. Thanks for the recommendation, Elayne and Noelle!!

And another Indian restaurant. Erik is convinced he doesn't like Spanish or Portuguese food, so we always go with the highest-rated non-Iberian restaurant on Trip Advisor. Actually the Indian food in Portugal has been amazing.

And here is an email from our dear babysitter at home. My recently empty-feeling bucket is now full to overflowing.

Hi Amy!

Everything is doing great over here! Lindsay and Lucy are helping me with Stone and Sophie putting them to bed, they take turns scratching their backs and singing to them. And specially Lindsay helps a lot cleaning without me telling her to do it.

Sophie misses you so much, but she is always happy to play with Stone o to do some art. She helped me a lot teaching Stone some Spanish. They loved the books you bought!!

Stone is up and down with his Spiderman suit! He says that nothing hurts everytime their sisters punch his cushioned arms and chest.

They always are constantly showing love to each other, its really easy to take care of them!

Right now we are at the Maria Luisa park. Its sunny though there is cold air. Lucy and Stone are playing in their "club house" tree and Sophie and Lindsay are next to me waiting in the sun, making each others a portrait, respecting that Lucy and Stone want to stay for a while, since its kind of chilly.

I hope you are enjoying your trip!

Besos,

Carolina