Scotland

So we escaped to Edinburgh over the weekend to Sam and Jo. I didn't eat a deep fried mars bar or tried Irn-Bru .. but I did have a great 25th birthday.

Enchanted Woodland

Portugal, the whole thing.

I know. Only a couple of months too late. But here it is...

Porto- Douro- Aveiro.

We started our trip un in the north of Portugal, in Porto, and drove straight away out to the Douro Valleys along the Douro river. Now, let me put it this way, we had "car issues" our first day... So we couldn't stop our car. So we couldn't stop and eat,  which kind of ruined our trip through the valleys since our driver (read Josh) was hungry and scared of the traffic and mostly swearing and saying that we should never go on a holiday again . But putting that aside, Douro Valley was one of the most beautiful places I've EVER seen. It was stunning, and while Josh was very loud, I was speechless when looking out over the wineyards. 

WOW.

 

 Next stop (yes we did actually stop the car there ) was Aveiro. Such a lovely and picturesque small town. It's called Portugal's Venice, because of it's canals and "moliceiros". The houses were so cute with their tiles with patterns on, the people were so lovely, and once we sorted out the "car issue" we could really relax and truly start our holiday, with some nice food and ice cold Sagres. 

A couple of minutes drive from the centre was Costa Nova do Prado . This little place was like something out of a fantasy. Everything was striped, and I do love stripes.

Before we left there, I beat Josh in minigolf. Again.

 

Aveiro- Peniche - Óbidos.

After that we drove down south along the coast, towards Peniche. Along the way is Portugal's best surfing spots, and a couple of weeks before we arrived, someone broke a new record by riding the biggest wave ever in Nazare. We stayed in Peniche, which was a small coastal town that didn't really offer much more than amazing beaches and lots of surfers (this would've impressed me much more a couple of years ago but after living in Australia, I'm not as easily impressed when it comes to beaches... ) After a day at the beach and an amazing portugese steak, we had seen it all.

  ... So we took a short drive to the old medieval town of  Óbidos. It was really like stepping back in time, such a well-preserved example of medieval architecture. There was walls around the town, with a big castle. We took a walk around the wall, and I learned something new about Josh; He is afraid of heights.

(terrified)

 

But let me tell you this, Peniche did have a lovely sunset..

Peniche- Ericeira- Sintra.

Ericeira

Sintra is a town not too far from Lisbon, where we stopped over for a day on our way down to south of Portugal. The main attractions there are the  amazing royal castles and buildings from the 8th-9th century.. they are all placed on different mountaintops, which you can climb by foot, if you want to spend the whole day walking... but we wanted to see as much as possible and was going around on a shuttle bus up the narrow roads . My favourite castle was Pena national palace.. it was like something out of a fairytale, and the view was undescribable..

Pena national palace

Castle of the Moors

 

( I've been trying to find out why Finlands flag was on the top of the Moors castle... but still have no clue?)

Sintra - Vila nova de milfontes - Lagos - Lisbon

After Sintra, we drove past Lisbon and down South. Our stop for the night was Vila nova de milfontes, and I fell in love with this quiet coastal town. The morning after I took a walk along the beaches there, and it was just crazy beautiful... too bad we didn't stay longer....

.. A bit tight on time, we kept on driving down south, to the Algarve coast, to Lagos. Our hotel was located just above Praia dona ana, so we couldn't have been in a better location! Lagos was very cheap and lovely during the day. During the night it was cheap and not as lovely (being full of drunk Aussies that all seem to come to this spot...) , but it was definitely a good place to stay a couple of days. We got a guided Cayak tour along the Algarve coast, that took us into the grottos and we got to see some pretty spectacular views !

praia dona ana

 

After a couple of days in Lagos, our beach holiday was over and we took the motorway straight up to Lisbon, where we rented an cute little studio apartment in one of these houses :

 

The main reason we went back up to Lisbon was to go to Optimus Alive, and I didn't know what to expect from the city really.. but it was awesome. The architecture have strong arabic influences everywhere you go, and it was just a nice mix of old and new. You can or just spend the days strolling around on the small cobble stone streets, or go on the old, slow and very charming tram around the town to get a nice view of everything. And like everywhere in Portugal, people were very friendly..

Graças portugal, I've fallen in love with you...