Since we knew we were going to be in Portugal, I had originally convinced myself that we just weren’t going to do anything this year. Don’t interpret this as me not being into Halloween… quite the opposite… I LOVE it. Thinking up and creating unique costumes is one of the highlights of my year (my most original costume was probably my asparagus, the most sewing I ever did for one year was a group of flight attendants and one OSX leopard). So, I was worried that being in Portugal wouldn’t allow me to do Halloween as well as I wanted.

Well.

October 20th(ish) rolled around and my heart was breaking. We were going to need a Halloween costume for the little one, because I couldn’t let this “first” simply pass us by. No matter that they don’t really do Halloween in Portugal…

So I enlisted Google for some motivation and came up with the perfect costume. An hour in Lisbon’s fabric shops, and a couple of hours of hand sewing later we were done. (We being me and my very cute helper, whose preferred job was eating the spool of thread).

Cute, right?

Halloween itself rolled around and we did a day trip to Praia de Rocha, a perfect backdrop for our little sushi.

Seriously, is this kid cute or what?

We’d heard some pretty positive things about Sintra, so had decided to make it an overnight adventure rather than just a day trip. But on the 40-minute train ride from Lisbon we were worried—we thought we were supposed to be leaving the city, but each and every stop on the train was dense suburbia.

That is until we got to the last, glorious, stop where suburbia made way for parks and trees and mountains and twisty-turvy cobblestone streets. The stuff out of fairy-tales.

Our B&B, a short walk from the train, was delightful (the owners had just finished a 5 year restoration of the century-old house). They had not only provided us with a baby-cot, but also with a baby-tub and rubber ducks for Clara to play with. I think it might have been my favourite hotel stay, ever.

On our first afternoon in town we visited Quinta de Regalia. I’ve never been to a better tourist attraction—and since a picture is worth a thousand words (and even pictures don’t capture it) here you go:

Our dinner on the first night was capped off by complimentary port and pastries. Can you imagine a restaurant just setting down a bottle of port on your table and allowing you to help yourself?!

Unsurprisingly, by the end of the first day, we had decided that one night in Sintra just wouldn’t be enough. We slept so well there. The wifi fast and reliable. The staff at the hotel simply smitten with Clara. And the affiliated café (where breakfast was served) delicious. And we just felt so happy to be there.

When we awoke the following day, we filled our bellies with the hearty breakfast and then set off on what ended up being Fall Walk, 2014. We hiked up through the towns and the woods to get to the 10th century Moorish castle.

The we walked up yet another peak to get to the Palacio de Pena, this place—yet again—was straight out of a fairy tale.

Then we wandered through the gardens, and did a loop back into town. The walk/attractions took the better part of 6 hours. Clara was a trooper and let us carry her the entire time. She actually had about a two hour nap in the middle of the day as we explored the palace!

We had a late lunch of delicious sandwiches at our hotel’s cafe, and sought out the local library, with fast and free wifi. At that point we were sure we had made a horrible mistake—we should have spent three weeks in Sintra with day trips to Lisbon. That one goes into the life lessons pile for future travels!

Our plans to return to the same restaurant for dinner were thwarted by it’s being closed on Thursday, so instead we found a contemporary portuguese restaurant and had a lightened up dinner that was also delicious.

We slept soundly on our second night and then relaxed in the lovely town in the morning before—regretfully—having to get back to Lisbon in time for a call.

I love Sintra.

We’ve spent the last several days back in Lisbon working as efficiently as possible, given our internet situation; this afternoon we’re renting a car and driving down to Sagres, in the Algarve for three nights. We’re really looking forward to that. By the time we’re back in Lisbon, we’ll have just three days before flying home. I can’t believe how quickly time flies.

I’m actually very glad that I didn’t just jump the gun and try to write about it last week—I think my tone would have been very negative, as when we arrived, the weather was cold and rainy. Our apartment seemed dark and not very homey. The bed was brutally uncomfortable. Our internet didn’t work reliably (internet is sort of like electricity for us because we work pretty much full time while we travel), and we couldn’t find any good cafés for working. Our best bet seemed to be McDonalds (I wish I was joking). The city is a bit depressed (we live across the street from another dilapidated building, though I think it would be hard not to live across the street from a dilapidated building). We seriously talked about leaving: we’re in Europe, we said, we can get on a place and be anywhere else in a couple of hours. No need to be miserable for three weeks.

Thankfully, we decided to give it a couple of days while we saw some of the major sights.

So, the first Friday afternoon came (Oct 17th) and we headed up to the castle. And the weather got better (unseasonably, amazingly, better). And the castle was awesome. And the views from the castle were what I had expected Portugal to look like. And the neighbourhood near the castle was adorable. And we stumbled across some delicious, still-warm, pastel de natas. And when we got back to the apartment, our internet issues were partially resolved.

And then on Saturday we took Clara to the Oceanarium, the train station in that part of town is straight out of Star Trek.

The mall in that part of town is awesome, and it has fast and free internet (in fact, we’re headed over there today to work). And the Oceanarium was so so so good.

Not only was it a great attraction, but it was so fun seeing our little baby turn into a little girl who was totally awestruck by the views.

And then on Sunday we took the tram over to Belem (a western suburb of Lisbon) where we saw more beautiful sights, had a great lunch, and were refreshed for the week.

By Sunday night (October 19th) we had remembered that we picked this less-than-spectacular apartment because it was a steal and that it meant we could do some domestic travel, so we made a plan for the next two weeks.

We worked hard Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning and then on Wednesday afternoon set off on an overnight trip to Sintra. And Sintra deserves a post of its own.

And also, what happened to our baby?

(If you are curious about how we fixed the bed problem, I found three duvet covers in the closet and placed them between the mattress and the fitted sheet. Not perfect, but at least 1000x better.)

(If you’ve found this post looking for information about being a digital nomad in Lisbon, give me a few weeks—I’m going to write about that specifically because we had a hard time finding information other than “Lisbon is great” when we were planning our trip.)

We spent the last three days in Porto, and I hate to admit it but we were just a little bit disappointed with the city. Whether it was the weather (which didn’t cooperate), the neighborhood we were staying in (which was just a little bit sketchy), or the city itself (which didn’t quite live up to our high expectations), I’m not sure. Mostly likely, it was a mix of the three factors.

Our time in Porto started off super well, our flight was great, the airport is awesome—small, modern, and efficient—airports don’t get much better than that! We had arranged an early check in with our host, and taking the metro there was very simple (even with all our stuff)!

Things started slipping downhill when we got off at our metro stop-it just felt a tiny bit sketchy. We were just a bit on edge after the short walk from the metro to our building, and we beat our host there. So, as we waited we familiarized ourselves with our street; including the abandoned, dilapidated, building across the way! I would have taken a picture but didn’t really want to take out my phone or camera… When our host arrived a few minutes later and let us in, things continued to get more bizarre: the building felt like an underutilized commercial building. Kind of like a building in which you’d find a doctor’s office. With an apartment in it. So. Weird. Luckily, the unit itself was safe and lovely!

After a couple of hours of settling in and playing with Clara, we set off for downtown and touristing! It was a bit of a grey day, but at least the rain held off till the very end. We saw most of the major sights in our walk around the town. Some stuff was awesome (a great flea market! a green roof with a cute cafe!), but the more major the sight, the more it was swarming (summer in Dubrovnik style) with tour groups making it hard to enjoy.

After several hours waking around Porto, we crossed from the old town over to Vila Nova de Gaia (where the port “lodges” are). Knowing nothing about port, we followed the guidebook’s recommendation and pushed the stroller up a giant cobblestone hill to Taylor’s. And we got there 4 minutes too late for the last tour (even though we were there about an hour before it closed). It didn’t help that the man was a bit snooty about it. So, with a sigh and a bit of an eye-roll, back down the hill we went, and were luckily able to book a spot on a tour at Calem for about an hour later. We spent the hour at a tasting at Qunita de Noval, which was fantastic. The server was extremely helpful, and the port was surprisingly delicious!

Our tour at Calem was informative, and it was fun for us as Clara seemed to be the highlight for about half of the guests on the tour!

By the time that finished, it was getting to be dusk. We couldn’t believe how quickly the day went! The quickest way up the hill seemed to be by stairs-thank goodness our stroller is light and portable.

By the time we stopped for groceries, got home, and ate, we were exhausted (remember this was all the same day as our 5:30 am wake up call in Madrid after a sleepless night) so sleep was welcomed by us all!

Our second day in Porto was the best day! We slept in, had an easy morning, planned a route, and then set off on a walk to the giant Parque du Ciudade.

Porto is sort of the opposite of Madrid. While Madrid felt compact, Porto seemed to sprawl, so it took us quite awhile to get to the park. On the way we stopped at McDonald’s for some giant and delicious takeaway coffees. Gotta love Europe:

McCafé might just become our dirty little secret in Portugal. They were that good.

The parque was awesome, it’s maybe my favourite city park I’ve ever been too! It was big, green, full of grass and trees and lakes and some of the neatest public washrooms I’ve ever been to! Clara loved the swans, pigeons, and ducks. The park was dotted with some ruins (we think) and ended at a super cool building overlooking the ocean where we stopped for vegetable-full lunch!

In the afternoon we walked home along the ocean, I’ve never been to this edge of the Atlantic before and it is awesome. The weather just punctuated how cool it was!

At the end of our beach route, we turned into the city for several kilometers, the goal was to find a grocery store on the way home. We walked and walked and walked, no grocery store. We walked some more, no grocery store. We overshot the turn to get home by a few blocks and only then did we find a grocery store!! Might I add that we found about 20 banks in this time? It was so bizarre! We think people must need to banks to get money for restaurants, since it’s almost impossible to find groceries!

Monday was grey and dreary. While we really wanted to head downtown again (especially since there would likely be fewer crowds on a weekday), the rain got heavier and heavier as the day went on. We did go on a short walk to the Casa de Musica and the neat-o Mercado Bom Successo (and the mall next door), where we found an indoor play area for Clara and called it a day.

By the time we got back home, it was pouring, so we settled in for an afternoon of work and TLC (the channel). Sidenote: how distributing is Toddlers and Tiaras? Yuck! The weather did clear up for a bit around sunset, but it was just too late for us to head out so we roasted a chicken, had a huge dinner, and an early night. The lesson learned there is that if we are going to be tourists in a town for just a few days, we’d be better off to stay in a good location to the sights. That way, when the weather cleared up we could have gone for a short walk.

This morning we caught the train to Lisbon, where we are as I post this! The views over Porto as we left were beautiful (the sun came out at a perfect time), and we’re excited about he next leg of our adventure in Lisbon. We’re also excited that this train has wifi!

The week was spent working (both at home and in cafés), playing with Clara, and eating delicious food.

We finally ate at our favourite café for working, Federal, and it did not disappoint! We may have splurged and got the chocolate Guinness cake–who doesn’t need lunch dessert?

On Wednesday evening we took one of Clara’s first library pics and then went for a mini cañas crawl, basically stopping at a couple of places to drink €1(ish) beers and enjoy the free tapas that come with them! The first place we went was adorable, it’s pretty neat that in Europe we’re welcome to bring our baby places like this!

By the end of the second stop, Clara was way bored of cañas crawl (despite dancing on the bar), so we headed home for dinner. Clara’s been eating like a champ this week; her most successful meal ever was on Wednesday night: spiral pasta with meat sauce. We simply spooned a big serving of pasta onto her plate and she went to town! Baby-led weaning has been perfect for our lifestyle. When we go out for meals we just feed her tastes from our plates. And, rather than getting bored waiting for said meals to arrive, she eats bread with us (her lack of teeth means one hunk of bread lasts for quite awhile). She’s getting really good at eating bread-I’ll be curious to see if this makes her less sensitive to crusts when she is older (since she only gets crusty bread)!

On Thursday, after a bit of shopping, we went for a walk to track down what, a first glance, looked like my dream shop: helado (ice cream) and patatas (chips). Turns out it was actually olives and chips (a more logical-albeit somewhat disappointing fit), but we did indulge in a small bag of fresh chips for the whopping price of €0.40. We stopped for one more caña at a hole-in-the-wall on our way home, this one was a “doble” for €1.20, but it didn’t come with a tapa… Oh well, you can’t win them all!

(We ended up getting the pants and the pink sneakers—they are still a bit big but at least will protect her little feet when she wants to wander around outside!)

On Friday we took shorter work spurts and went for a spanish menu del dia at about 2:30 for lunch. I don’t quite remember how I came across BarAmor, but it was delicious. This menu cost €11.50, but included a starter, main, dessert, a bunch of wine (1L-ish for the two of us), a gaseosa (to make tinto de verano), and a café con leche. The food was delicious, the boozey-lunch was super fun (since we don’t usually do that), and the place was adorable. It was the perfect way to cap off our time in Spain!

One of Clara and her dad’s favourite things in this apartment has been bath time! So we took a few pictures to commemorate. Who needs to pay for bath toys when your host provides you with sweet hotel amenities!

Sadly, Friday night was brutal, the neighbours across the street turned up their turntables at about 11pm and it went on … all … night … At one point we just gave up and relocate to the living room to sleep on the couch. Our 5:30 am wake up call came much too early on Saturday morning, but then it was onwards to Porto!

With that in mind, I would still recommend the awesome apartment we rented—I’d just recommend not staying over a weekend (or if you are there long term, travelling or partying on weekends, or simply just starting out on the couch.)*

*At the time I posted this post, the name of the apartment indicates it is in Barcelona, that’s not true—it’s actually an apartment in Madrid.

We divide our days between Clara duty and work time; one person always gets to work uninterrupted while the other person gets to play with the baby! Since she’s so active at the moment, Clara duty often involves hanging out at the apartment so she can crawl and cruise around.

It also involves taking her to some of the local parks. Doing laundry. And protecting her from the dangers of the balcony (including pigeon feathers).

In the evenings we explore the city, to one of the highlights of Madrid that there’s not really much to see. (I’m not being facetious, when we go to a city to live/work we don’t want to be distracted by a bunch of “must dos”, instead we love just wandering around neighbourhoods on our evening walks!)

We take the weekends off, and this last one was fantastic. Saturday morning we set out to go to El Retiro, the big central park of the city. It was a beautiful fall day and we happened upon a giant book market, the beautiful crystal palace, the best craft market I’ve ever been to, and some other sights!

Clara was a trooper for most of the day! Including when we didn’t go home, but instead went for a late lunch in our local square at 4:30pm!

(Our apartment is the top floor on the right; it’s 70 stairs up and down every time we go home)!

Sunday was my birthday and we set out to the big flea market (El Rastro). It was good, but a little overwhelming! We walked home along the major tapas/pinxto street (where only one enterprising place was open at the early hour of noon).

We had a mid afternoon snuggle back at home, followed by a birthday glass of wine back at our square!

All in all, it was a fantastic week!