uppsala30

Hi, my sister and I (of “varsity” age) are leaving next Monday 4/8 for Lisbon and Porto. We have been monitoring the weather reports and cannot believe our good fortune - it’s been raining for weeks - and this is the forecast for our trip


Arrive on Tuesday 4/9 in Lisbon

Arrive in Porto on Sat. 4/13
I am now moving my down vest out of suitcase and sticking my walking sandals and summer dress into suitcase.

We have been planning this trip for 8 months. My sister - who has her own home remolding business- had over 120,000 miles on Air France that we used for our flights. Surprisingly the flights are still priced at the same # of miles as when we booked 8 months ago, and appear to have over 140 empty seats each way (KLM). We also used miles to get lounge passes for our layover in Amsterdam.
Many thanks to Maribel and Mai Tai Tom for help with planning this trip. We had some requirements for accommodations that steered us towards apartments. My sister doesn’t want to climb stair so we had to have a place with an elevator ( haha wait until she has to climb all of the hills) and we wanted two bedrooms, with kitchen, washer and dryer. Maribel was kind enough to help us with locations in Lisbon.
I’ll try and post more as we get going on this fun vacation.

Melnq8

Along for the ride. Have a great trip.

bilboburgler

Not that it matters, but neither I nor my access to Google knows what Varsity Age means.

SusanP

I wondered about that, too! 😀

uppsala30

Senior😁

Maribel

Have a great trip and look forward to hearing about your Varsity adventures!

ms_go

What a difference a month makes! We were in Porto and surroundings exactly a month ago, and it was fairly rainy and much cooler. Enjoy your trip, and I look forward to reading about it.

aulop

Interesting how the same words/expressions can have different meanings to people at different locations.
Varsity in my area means university, as in Varsity team, Varsity field ,etc.

k_marie

In our/most high schools, there are junior varsity and senior varsity sports teams. I suspected OP was referring to senior varsity!

SusanP

I did think it referred to "senior," I just never heard that term used for that meaning. 😀
We also used it for teams in school.

uppsala30

Yeah - we have arrived in Lisbon. We quickly jumped in an Uber from the airport and got to our apartment this afternoon. I’ll try to attach photos. It is lovely, on the top floor with nice river views from the balcony. In spite of jet lag, I dragged my sister over to Bonjardim for dinner and we made a special trip to Luvaria Ulisses to look at their lovely gloves. My husband suggested before I left on this trip that he would like to get me a pair as a Mothers Day gift!!! So much fun.

Flying into Lisbon- we lucked out with great weather

One of the bedrooms- this room has a rack for hanging clothes

View from balcony

More view

Living room

Dining room

My sisters gloves

Yeah cute early Mothers Day gift and a sunset glass of wine

Luvaria Ulisses glove store- only twpmpatrons can enter at a time. They measure your hand for exact fit.

aulop

The first photo shows Cristo Rei, it's often overlooked by tourists.
There is an elevator inside the statute of Christ , great view of Lisbon from the other side of the river.
If you have the time to visit , take the ferry from Lisbon at Cais do Sodré to Cacilhas, then take the bus (#3001) to Cristo Rei.

quinmj57

Looking forward to hearing of your travel since we will be there in October.

Maribel

Great landing shot! I love the gloves, very fashionable.

Yes, if you do hit a nice day, the ferry from Cais do Sodré to Cacilhas, then a walk down the Rua do Gijal past the abandoned warehouses to the end, to the terrific Atira-te-aoRio or Ponto Final seafood restaurants, sitting next to each other, for lunch and the views of pastel Lisbon in front of you is a real treat!

uppsala30

We started our day at Copenhagen coffee near our apartment, then took a long walking tour. I don’t know if I

Yeah - cold beer in Chiado

Copenhagen coffee

Praca do Comercio

We actually were able to ride on the Funicular up Barrio Alto
mentioned this but my sister is having a lot of leg/ hip pain and told me before this trip that she couldn’t walk more than 4,000 steps at a time Well we broke that rule already, 10,560steps today. I’ll try and attach photos. We were walking downhill from Barrio Alto and I decided we needed lunch in Chiado. No lines at A Brazileira! Time for a well deserved beer.
in the afternoon we took a Tuk Tuk tour with Silvia Guimaraes de Moura ( +351 917 072 052). She is a wonderful guide - so much information. It worked out great as my sister could rest her hip in the Tuk Tuk.

Maribel

Looks like you´re having great weather in Lisbon! Is your apartment in Baixa? Very nice views from your balconies!

uppsala30

Good morning, yes. We are staying in an apartment on Rua da Madalena. I believe you scouted out the location for us. Thank you so much. The only issue is it’s up a slight hill and my sister is struggling with the hills and stairs.

eshamdas

Hello,
I will be visiting Lisbon in October and would like more info on the apartment, can you post some more info ? Thanks

uppsala30

Great day today- we hired a private guide from Picta Travel to take us to Sintra. We were so lucky - got a fabulous young woman - Sara- for the day. It was such a treat. We did the Peña Palace in the morning, lunch in the coast - and Quinto da Regaleira.
eshsmdas I will try and link the apartment info for you. It does have 2 bedroom and two bath, it’s on the fifth floor. But - it has an elevator which is a luxury in Lisbon.

uppsala30

I’ll try to attach

Arriving to Peña Palace

Peña Palace


Really nice sightseeing weather

Westernmost point of Europe



Quinta de Regalareira- my sister could not make the climb here. It’s too bad, the grounds were stunning

Occulus- 9 stories down. Evidently it was used as an initiation rite for Kinights Templar

Very mystical

More mystery
photos from our trip to Sintra and Peña Palace