Are we in San Francisco?

Upon arrival and learning more about Lisbon we were immediately confused as to where we really were - San Francisco or Lisbon? Lisbon has ridiculously steep and narrow streets as it is built upon seven hills just like San Francisco, it has both street cars and cable cars, and it even has the Ponte 25 de Abril suspension bridge, which is just a slightly smaller version of the Golden Gate bridge! These are just a few of the similarities, which makes it is easy to see why so many people fall in love with the city just like they do San Francisco. And although the weather while we were there was not filled with as much of the Portuguese sun as we had hoped, the city and surrounding quaint towns still managed to have a mesmerizing, charming effect on us.

Our first full day started a little slower than we had hoped (we had after all just arrived at 2 am after our delayed flight the night before - see Madrid post), but we still managed to get some solid sightseeing in. We first ventured into the Alfama neighborhood and rather than hopping on one of the street cars for a ride up the steep hill we decided to go for a hike so we could take in some of the spectacular views on our way to see St. George's Castle, which is positioned almost perfectly for vantage points of the entire city and the water. The castle was beautiful, but I think we most enjoyed the charming streets of Alfama and the miradouros in the neighborhood (look out points). No doubt the hiking was tough, but it was well worth the end result.

View from St. George's Castle

St. George's Castle and Ponte 25 de Abril

View from a Miradouro over the entire city

Later in the evening we were fortunate enough to be introduced to a friend of a friend that has spent most of his life in Lisbon. He went out of his way to give us a private tour of the center of Lisbon in Chiado, share a drink in the Bairro Alto neighborhood, and we enjoyed dinner with his family at a rodizio which is a Brazilian steakhouse that serves you endless cuts of meat (pretty much heaven for Steve)!

Palace in Sintra

The second day we ventured 40 minutes outside of Lisbon to the town of Sintra. Sintra is a UNESCO World Heritage site (1 of 2 we saw that day) and is absolutely beautiful. It is a small town surrounded with lush vegetation, two fairy-tale palaces and a castle with beautiful views of the Atlantic ocean. After wandering through the town filled with small shops and restaurants we decided to make the hike some 1400 ft up to the Castelo dos Mouros - call us crazy but with several breaks for this pregnant lady we made it up to the top and it was more than worth it. The Moorish castle's walls resembled that of the Great Wall. At dizzying heights and and intense winds it was hard to imagine what it was like for the people who were up there day after day standing guard.

At the very top of the castle!

The second half of the day led us back closer to Belem, which is another neighborhood of Lisbon. It is home to the Jeronimous monastery, the Padrao dos Descobrimentos (which is a celebration of many famous naval explorers), the Belem Tower (also a UNESCO site), and a magical pastry shop that reportedly makes the best Pasteis around. Good thing we did a lot of walking that day - I don't think those small flaky pastries filled with a heavenly cream had only a few calories!

Padrao dos Descobrimentos

Tower of Belem

All in all I don't think either of us knew what to expect when we decided to include Lisbon in our trip, but I'm pretty sure we both found that we enjoyed it and everything the surrounding neighborhoods and towns had to offer. From good food, intriguing architecture and monuments, and stunning views (that left our quads burning once we reached them) - Lisbon and Portugal were well worth the trip!