Fairytale Castles & More

Sintra

Today we took a trip to Sintra, up in the mountains. We took an Uber up to Peña Palace built in the 19th-century by Ferdinand II.

Peña Palace

Porto Port & Lisbon Fado

Porto

Any day that starts with custard tarts is a good day:

On the way to our scheduled destination, we stopped at São Francisco Church. No photos allowed, but it was an over-the-top baroque extravaganza inside, with gold leaf everywhere  

Floor at ticket-office entrance 

Porto, Part 1

Porto

Today we took the train to Porto. The seats weren’t as comfy as the ones on the Spanish trains we took, and overall it was a lot more relaxed (no luggage scanning, and the conductor didn’t even want to see our tickets — he just wanted to know our names. I had leftover pastel de nata for breakfast on the train  

We squeezed Porto into our itinerary, because several different friends loved it, and I’m glad we did! We walked around  had some savory pastries for lunch (randomly chosen on my end: I had no idea what kind of filling was in the mini-empanada I chose:

I spent the afternoon walking around, shopping for souvenirs and taking pictures of tiled buildings:

The world’s fanciest McDonalds:

Pastéis de Nata (Plus Some Sightseeing)

Lisbon

São Jorge Castle

I started the day with a walk around São Jorge Castle, a ruined 11th-century castle:

Nice views of Lisbon from the castle ramparts, including the 25th of April Bridge:

Olá Lisboa!

Lisbon

This morning we flew to Lisbon, since I discovered during my trip planning that there is no direct train service between Madrid and Lisbon. 

Today was set aside for walking around Lisbon, with no scheduled activities.

Daily gelato (mango & strawberry)

Tiles

I was disappointed to find out a few weeks ago that the National Tile Museum is closed for renovations — I love colorful tiles, and there are so many here. 

Sidewalk & plaza patterns 

Holy Toledo

Toledo

Today Ralph and I did our own things. I like churches more than he does, and he likes modern art more than I do, so I took a day trip to Toledo, while Ralph stayed in Madrid and went to the Reina Sofia museum. 

Madrid

First stop today was a randomly chosen boulangerie. I have no idea what this pastry is called, but it was very buttery and tasty:

Next stop was the Royal Palace. It’s past my bedtime now, so come back in a week or two for captions:

One of FIVE Stradavarius instruments in the room!

Next up was the Prado museum, which doesn’t allow photos to be taken inside (which means we didn’t have to deal with the hordes of Instagrammers posing in front of all of the art).

After this, Ralph went back to the hotel, and I took a walk down the Gran Via:

Last but not least, we finished off the day with a tapas & wine food tour.

Build-your-own Iberian ham & tomato bread in a restaurant that looks like a coloring book

Stuffed mushrooms

Peppers

Plaza Mayor

Calamari sandwich (a Madrid specialty)

Shrimp with garlic (lots of it!) and olive oil

The trough under the bar for shrimp heads & napkins

Basque butter pastries, with our choice of fillings. These were much lighter than we expected.