Don't Touch the Animals! Travel with the Baysides: Portugal with Friends

The Guimarães library

We have been traveling in Portugal since April 9th, visiting Guimarães, Lisbon and, now, Obidos. Lisbon was the best because we got to meet up with our friends Ron and Valerie! More on that shortly.

First, our first stop: Guimarães.

Guimarães felt like a big city after the small villages we visited in France and Spain earlier in the month, but seeing the old town with its castle, churches, palaces, and old cobbled streets made it well worth visiting. It's well preserved, if touristy, and dates back to the foundations of Portugal in the 12th century. Earlier, Romans and Celts settled the area, and there are some wonderful archeological sites nearby. We had wanted to visit the site of Citânia de Briteiros, which dates back to somewhere between the first and second centuries BCE with Celtic settlements, but it was another rainy day, and sloshing and slipping through mud just wasn't appealing, so we contented ourselves with the Martins Sarmento Archeological Museum in the old town.

While in Guimarães, we stayed just outside the city walls in an old water mill, built originally in the 14th century. The inside was refurbished and comfortable, if IKEA-inspired. We slept in a modern little loft above the kitchen. (I liked it, though I hit my head on one of the beams every morning.) In addition, we had a kitchen/dining area and living room, and out back we had a small patio with a stream flowing underneath. The "breakfast" part of our stay could have had a bit more to it, but I loved that we'd just hang a bag on the door each night and magically there was bread in it by morning.

The medieval Guimarães Castle

Walking through the old town from the castle toward the main square, with a quick stop at the fountain

The narrow streets of the old town

Studying our tourist map in the old town square

One of the many artifacts at the archeological museum

And the archeological museum's beautiful courtyard full of arcades and gardens

Easter bunnies!

Our next stop: two days in Lisbon with our friends Ron and Valerie! Together we had a great time exploring, having dinner, and generally exhausting ourselves with long walks that always seemed to be uphill.

Unfortunately, the first museum we planned to visit, the Lisboa Story Centre, was closed due to a strike. (And Valerie already had tickets for us!), so we had to improvise a bit, but it all worked out. The Resistance Museum was still open, so we walked over and spent some time there. Learning about Salazar and what it was like in Portugal under dictatorship was sobering. After the museum, we wandered over to the very crowded Mercado da Ribeira to browse food stalls and see what was on offer. It was too crazy! We made a circuit and headed to the Convento do Carmo. How everything was entirely uphill, I have no idea. Well, maybe I shouldn't have led us through all of Google's shortcuts. We finally made it to the Convent do Carmo a bit winded. The convent was built in the 14th century and was one of Lisbon's great medieval buildings at the time. It was destroyed in 1755 when the city was devastated by a massive earthquake. Now all that remains are the arches and exterior walls. There is also a small archeological museum housed here with different antiquities from around the world.

What remains after the great earthquake of 1755 in Lisbon

The archeological museum at the Carmo Convent

The next day, before we left for Obidos, Ron and Valerie invited us to join them for a tour of Sintra's Palácios -- the Nacional, Monserrate, and Pena, and the Quinta da Regaleira, a very interesting and strange mansion from the early 20th century, complete with parks, grottos, and a famous well that winds down into a cave where you emerge, supposedly, reborn. Hmm. My favorite place by far was the Monserrate Palace with its amazing textiles and beautiful filigree work. It was peaceful and the surrounding park was mediative and serene. And everywhere but Monserrate was filled with people and lines and craziness. I had no idea there would be so many tourists, but it was Easter break and our wonderful guide, Cat, did warn us. Nonetheless, the four of us nobly carried on and enjoyed the day, the sites, and each other's company.