| Marvao - from its Castle walls |
During the last two weeks of May, 2004, my wife and I had the most wonderful vacation in Portugal as we rented a car and tried to take-in as much of the country as we could. In the end, two weeks is not nearly enough time to do justice to this amazing country! It may look small on a map, but it is so packed full of history and amazing sights that you could keep coming back forever and still miss some great stuff!
Normally, I'm not that keen on big cities but Lisbon is one of the few (London, San Francisco and Montreal) that I could spend some time in very easily. We had allowed some settling-in time to adapt to the time zone and cultural differences, but our 3-4 days in the city did not allow us to even scratch it's surface!
After that, we picked up our rental car and hit the road for the next 10-days to see what else this great country had to offer. We were not disappointed! Check out my General tips for a map of our route, but we initially headed south and drove counter-clockwise around the country. Our route took us from Lisbon (also nearby Sintra and Belem) to Algarve, Evora, Monsaraz, Marvao, Monsanto, Covilha, Guarda, Lamego, Geraz do Minho, Pinhao, Praia de Mira, Obidos, Ilha da Berlenga and finally Distrito de Lisboa as we completed the 1550-mile (2500-km loop).
We saw beaches, mountaintop castles, rugged mountains and not-so-rugged mountains as well as some amazing architecture. The Portugese people were so friendly, the scenery was wonderful and the road system is fantastic! I've arranged my 'Things to Do' Tips generally in the order of our trip as we went from one location to the next.
This is a vacation that we will always cherish! |
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