Portugal
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Portugal
Porto - Dec 24-26 (3 days)
- Dec 24 - arrive at 7:40am, walking tour 10:30 at Praça General Humberto Delgadotry, Livraria Lello, saw Clerigos Tower, Christmas dinner with the hostel
- Dec 25 - Christmas lunch with hostel, sunset walk, Fado at 6pm
Dec 26
- Conservas Pinhais sardines factory tour 10:30-12pm
- Meet Sara and Eddie 6pm for the show
- Porto: Spiritus Multimedia Show Admission Ticket at 6:15pm (location) Clerigos Church and Tower
- Dec 27 - Take the train at 11am
Ideas
- Explore the historic Ribeira district.
- Leitaria da Quinta do Paço - eclair that Eddie and Sara recommended
- Take a boat tour on the Douro River.
Food
- Francesinha – most famous sandwich in Porto - Café Santiago ($) – Porto’s most famous francesinha; try the specialty at one of the three locations
- Lareira ($) – Lareira is my favourite place to eat in Porto! I come here for their yummy steak and fried egg sandwich.
Lisbon - Dec 27-Jan 1 (6 days)
- Dec 27 - arrive at 11:32am, check in hotel at 3pm
- Dec 28 - Tagus Estuary Birdwatching Area (EVOA)
- Dec 29 - azulejos workshop 2-4:30pm,
- Dec 30 - 9:15am Sintra tour, 9pm rooftop bar
- Dec 31 - Livraria Bertrand oldest bookshop, Pasteis de Belem Portuguese tarts, Topo, count down at night
- Jan 1 - fly to London at 10am
- Sara & Eddie - Walk around Chiado The area I would suggest in Lisbon is called Chiado - it is very walkable. It has a very old cafe called A Brasileira which I would recommend- it is all art deco inside and it used to be the hangout for poets and writers ‘back in the day’
- Livraria Bertrand - the world’s oldest bookshop
- martim moniz - rooftop bar called Topo Martim Moniz
Maybe
- LX factory - refurbished warehouse/factory with lots of different artsy things
- fabrica braço de prata - similar to ^
- galeria ze dos bois - gallery/concert venue, catch a show there
- Visit Belem Tower, Jeronimos Monastery
- miradouro da graça - look out point (similar to todo?)
- Explore the historic neighborhoods of Alfama and Baixa.
Food
- As Bifanas do Afonso - famous sandwich (have cash) - closed on Christmas eve, earlier close time on Saturdays
- Pasteis de Belem - Portugese tart
- Maria Catita - Cataplana fish stew (has reservation)
Pics
- Azul class
Portugal
4. Algarve (4-6 days):
- Relax on the beautiful beaches.
- Explore Lagos, Faro, and Tavira.
- Consider some outdoor activities like hiking or boat trips.
5. Coimbra (2-3 days):
- Visit the University of Coimbra and Joanina Library.
- Explore the medieval streets of the city
Departure flights
Jan 14
Lisbon → London
- Dec 31 - 10am $94/person
- Jan 1 - 10am $158 /person
We took an 8 hour birdwatching tour with in Portugal with a guide Antonio, who's been a forester for 25 years. He can identify a bird just by their chirps and how they fly from the distance, is disappointed when seeing a sick cork tree, and has opinions on bullfighting. He explained to us how estuary works, ways animals adapt to the human cycle, and EVOA’S conservation efforts. His favorite bird is a raptor.
Their conservation efforts include wine, olives, meat, cork, forest, conservation.
“You have to go to bathroom during a road trip right? Estuary are just birds’ gas station through their aerial highway” - on the topic of migration
There are no flamingos in the winter
Birdwatching - guide Antonio
- Estuary
- Nutrient, tides coming in (salt water)
- They have slopes
Big cities are near estuary and flood planes
- Flat, salt water
- They're natural filter for pollutants from boats, stored in the mud of river bed
- Rice planted spring. Harvested late summer fall
- Animals adapt to the human cycle (ex. Rice) - fall and winter birds like it
- Rice fields are maintained with different levels of water 5-20 cm create patch to habitats similar to different water levels
- Forester - environmental assessment, policies
- Portuguese government is not as involved as they can be
- Oversimplication of message to public
- Wisdom and common sense
- Not reduce carbon, but decarbonize but humans can't live carbon free
- Zero fire
- Louisiana gray fish is invasive
- Gold finches
- Raptor
- This is no chemical zone
- Common buzzet
- Black bill
- Shell ducks
- Green Shane flying
- Castro
- White marshiana
- Video teals 10k
- Stone chat
- Yellow crown bishop on fence
- Starlings
- Estuary are birds gas station during migration through highway
- Cork natural adaptation to fire
- 30 years for new cork to grow
- Takes 9 years to grow back to have chemical and physical to be debarked
- Tree creepers
- The forest is artificially planted 200 years ago
- Debarker earn $200-$300 a year 3 mk tha. Year
- Benali eagle
- Business they're involved in - wine, olives, meat, cork, forest, conservation
- Starks at the end
What did the do to help the environment
- Audit
- Making suggestions
- Working with universities to restore population of Benneli eagle (their food rabbits have diseases), barn owl habitat (barn owl to sleep in)
- Testing processes for other countries before they introduce owl for instance
- Serving as examples what other places can do (ex. Establish retirement home for old bulls)
IG
- took an Azulejos tile painting class!
- a star tile (Tiger's) and a rocket tile (mine)
- Canadians are nice to each other
- descending down the well in Sintra
- Oldest bookstore in the world
- Most west point of Europe
- Sleepy dunlins and avocets from our 9-hour birdwatching tour
- A cork tree forest that’s debarked every 9 years
- Terracotta roof everywhere
- Ending 2023 with my hostel
Pretty red buildings
Fun stories
- Flip coins on top of St Anthony's statue - if lands on the book then get married soon and if land on the ground, don't pick it up for bad luck
- There's a church that 16 couples get married in every year and there's a national panel to vote for them and national broadcast for their back story
- In Porto, one or all university that has a tail to indicate you're in a relationship and stitch it if you're heartbroken
- Chiado means squeaky voice guy who's a chain smoker and makes jokes to passerby