Today was our first day in Lisbon (Logan didn’t come until the next day). Since we all took redeye flights (and none of us can really sleep on planes), it was a pretty standard first day in Europe. Jack and Brad arrived before Benton, and opted to drop off luggage, roam around Cais das Pombas, and grab food. Benton made it a bit later, and we were able to eat lunch nearby the luggage storage place before heading to the Airbnb to check in....
Today, Logan arrived in the morning around 9am. Jack and Benton were still sleeping, but fortunately Brad was awake and in bed to let Logan in. Once Logan arrived and showered, Benton also got ready, and then everyone except Jack walked to get some food. We headed to Centro Ideal da Graça, where Logan and Brad split a Berliner, and Benton got an almond croissant. Brad and Benton got cappuccinos that seemed more like hot chocolate (we found out later that cappuccino has a slightly broader definition in Portugal)....
Since the day before was pretty busy, we were all quite tired, and we ended up sleeping in. Since we had a timeslot to see National Palace of Sintra for 1pm, we were a bit rushed (as we needed to go pick up our rental car from the airport). After grabbing some quick pastries outside the Airbnb, we called a Bolt to the airport. However, the wait time looked (to Logan and Brad), like we weren’t going to make our timeslot on time, so they bailed and decided to call their own Bolt to Sintra,* while Jack and Benton went to get the rental car)....
This was the one day that we had planned a bunch in advance for (mostly credit to Logan). We started the day by packing up everything, grabbing some pastries for the road, and then driving to Peniche (a small town on the coast). Off the coast of Peniche is Berlengas Nature Reserve, and we had tickets to board the ferry which took us to the island reserve (~35 minutes). Upon arriving at the island, we were given instructions to meet for the sea cave tour in ~30 minutes, but we were a bit confused as to where we were actually supposed to meet (we were told something along the lines of “my colleague will meet you and give more instructions,” and then there wasn’t actually anyone else)....
Since power and internet were back to normal today, we had a pretty standard morning. Logan was up first and went to explore, and once Brad and Benton got up they met Logan for coffee and pastries at Cafetaria Queque de Cenoura while Jack slept in. After breakfast, we went back to the Airbnb, finished packing up (Jack had awoken and also was getting packed), and then all 4 of us headed out to see the famous lighthouse in the upper part of Nazaré (Farol da Nazaré)....
Due to us being out late the night before, we slept in quite a bit, and ended up pretty much heading straight to our lunchtime food tour. The weather was pretty brutal, and we were all soaked by the time we arrived (as were the rest of the members of the food tour). The tour itself was pretty fun, and some of the highlights were as follows: We ate a bunch of food (I linked what I could remember, but we may have eaten more): codfish cake, caldo verde (soup), pastel de nata, some cherry liquor called ginja....
Today was Labor Day, and the weather could not have been better. Logan and Benton started their day a bit earlier than the others, and headed to grab a pastry. Logan got another Berliner, Benton got a croissant with pistachio cream. After the pastry, they ended walking through Torreão do Jardim do Palácio (a super pretty, somewhat chaotic green space with lots of little nooks to explore), down to the water, and eventually across the bottom of Luís I Bridge, where they met up with Jack and Brad at Uva by Cálem for drinks, lunch and views of the river in the sun....
Today, we got a bit of a slow start (as we were up pretty late the night before). Logan and Benton went to get some pastries from Confeitaria Royal, and then we all drove to WOW Porto - The Cultural District (a super touristy area that had some stuff to do related to wine). Logan and Brad went to tour Taylor’s Port, while Jack and Benton did a wine museum. Both experiences were neat (Jack and Benton learned that Portugal has a ton of variation as far as the wine that they can produce), while Logan and Brad enjoyed their tour of the winery + drinking port at the end of the tour....
Today was our last day in Portugal, so we started the day by packing up from our Airbnb, walking to the car, and checking out (Benton got up a bit earlier than the others and went for a run around the water; see map below in orange). Since we had a car, we drove to the Belém area near Lisbon, and then walked around a bit. We saw Belém Tower, and then walked to get lunch at Restaurante Belém 2 a 8, before stopping back by Pastéis de Belém for a pastel de nata (Benton had gone earlier in the trip, but was happy to go again)....