Portugal and Galicia Trip - Day 8

January 4th, 2016 - Porto

Our last day in Porto was also a very rainy day.  We returned our car to the airport, and then headed downtown by metro because we had a few hours to kill as our flight didn't leave until 6pm.   Our first stop was World of Discoveries a new interactive museum that opened recently in Porto.  I looked it up on the map before we left, and it was less than a kilometre from the metro station downtown.  When we got out of the metro it was raining so hard, that we couldn't walk anywhere without getting soaked.  I tried to read the map I brought, but the rain quickly made the map unreadable.  We had no idea if we were walking in the right direction, so we gave up and took two taxis.  We were so close, but getting lost in Porto in the pouring rain was not an option. 

The World of Discoveries is part history museum and part theme park.  I purchased our tickets online at a slightly discounted rate.  The first exhibits tell the history of the great explorers of Portugal. All the explanations were available in English.  The displays were interactive and very well done. The kids did not have the patience to read all the descriptions, but I think that they all learned something.  The highlight of the tour is a boat trip that takes you to all the different places where the Portuguese explorers landed.  It's kind of like the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride at Disney World. 

Cole trying on a helmet

One of the exhibits, the characters look almost real! 

Beginning our boat trip

 

Morocco

Jungles of India

China

Japan

Cool special effects

 When we finished our tour of World of discoveries, it was still pouring rain outside so decided to have lunch at the restaurant there.  We had a great lunch and it was very reasonable.  It was a buffet that included dishes from all the different countries that the Portuguese explored.

We still had a bit of time to kill, so we decided to visit the Lello Bookstore.  Built in 1906, according to some people it is the most beautiful bookstore in the world.  It is also said to be the bookstore that inspired the library in Hogwarts.  J.K. Rowlings lived in Porto for awhile.  The kids were very excited to see the bookstore.  It's incredible that even on a rainy Monday in January, there was a line-up to get in.  Due to the popularity of the bookstore, they now sell entrance tickets at a booth across the street for 3€, but once inside, you can take as many pictures as you want.  It was very crowded inside, but we were glad that we got in.  I guess at busier times the line-ups outside the bookstore can be ridiculously long.

Still raining, we found our way to the main metro station and then back to the airport to catch our flight back to Barcelona.

Lello Bookstore

Interesting place, but way too crowded

Tile mural in the São Bento train station

São Bento train station 

Portugal and Galicia Trip - Day 7

January 3rd, 2016 - Porto

I was grateful that we rented a large and comfortable house, because on Sunday January 3rd, the kids and I spent the entire day in the house.  It was windy and poured rain all day.  My parents and Bob were much more valiant and attended church in the morning.

When my parents arrived in Lisbon on December 29th, they gave us a huge board game which was a Christmas gift from Amber and Cassidy.  The game was "Ticket to Ride - Europe."  When we first saw the game we were a little annoyed because we had to carry this heavy game with us throughout the entire trip.  But in the end, the game was perfect for keeping us entertained on a rainy Sunday in Porto.  It takes about 2 hours to complete one game, and we ended up playing all afternoon.

Grandma and Grandpa left for the airport around 4pm but when they tried to return their rental car at the airport, the rental company told them that they had to return the car to their downtown office.  So they quickly drove back to downtown Porto, returned the car and then took the shuttle to the airport.  They just made their flight to Madrid, but their luggage did not make it.  They stayed the night in Madrid and the next day left on a 4 day tour of Andalusia without their luggage.   Poor Grandpa and Grandma had to wear the same clothes throughout the entire tour.  They still had a very good time, and were finally reunited with their luggage when they returned to Madrid on January 7th.

Portugal and Galicia Trip - Day 6

 January 2nd, 2016 - Porto

Before we could leave the province of Ourense, we had to visit one more hot spring.  Now all the private hot springs were open, so we decided to stop by Termas Prexigueiro on the way to Porto.  This hot spring is about 30 minutes outside of the city of Ourense and a little bit out of the way, it was not that easy to find.  We arrived at around 10:30 in the morning and the place was pretty empty, which was great.  It was a very nice Japanese themed hot spring with pools of different temperatures, and cold pools to dunk in between hot pools.  For 5,50€ you can stay for 2 hours. By the time we left, there was a line-up to get in, so we left just in time.

Termas Prexigueiro

After soaking for two hours

After the spa we headed to Porto.  Unfortunately it was raining in Porto when we arrived, but the house we rented was fantastic, a huge two story house with 5 bedrooms.  The rain was intermittent so we ventured out into the city.  I thought it might be nice to visit Parque da Cidade, which is the largest urban park in Portugal.  First we stumbled on the Pavilhão da Agua, which was built for Expo '98 in Lisbon. We arrived just before they were closing, but they allowed us to go in and explore for a little while.  It was like visiting a mini-science museum.  We were the only people there, so the staff was very attentive.  Definitely worth a visit if you are strolling around Parque da Cidade. 

Pavilhão da Agua

Unfortunately by the time we finished visiting the Water Pavilion, it was getting dark and starting to rain again, so we didn't really get to see much of the enormous park.  Our host told us that there were lots of nice restaurants near the beaches of Matosinhos and that we should try the famous Francesinha sandwich, so we headed over to find something to eat.  First we walked along the beach, and looked at some restaurants, but it was around 7pm and still too early to eat dinner.  So we found a grocery store and bought food for the next day, which would be Sunday. 

I really hate wondering around a city that I don't know to look for a restaurant, but I guess it's all part of the travel experience.  You win some and you lose some.  This time, I think we lost.  We ended up at a huge sports bar type restaurant.  We had trouble communicating with the waiter, they were out of most things, including the bread for the Francesinha, so they made our sandwiches with hotdog buns.  I don't know if we just got a really bad one, but I couldn't even eat mine.  My Francesinha was a hotdog bun with ham and wiener slices inside, covered in melted processed cheese, sitting in a pool of tomato-beer sauce.   I'm sure there are better ones out there, but it's not something I will try to make at home. 

"Tragedy of the Sea" statue on the beach commemorating the 152 sailors that died in a shipwreck in 1947

This was my Francesinha

Portugal and Galicia Trip - Day 5

New Year's Day 2016 - Santiago de Compostela

The city of Santiago de Compostela is about an hour drive from Ourense.  It is the final destination of the Camino de Santiago or Saint James' Way, which is a famous pilgrimage for Catholics that begins from either France, Spain or Portugal.  It is believed that the apostle James preached throughout Spain and then was called back to Jerusalem where he was martyred.  After his death, his followers brought his body back to Galicia for burial.  According to legend, in 813 a shepherd followed the light of a bright star to a field where the remains of James were buried.  The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela was built on the location where the remains where found.  The name Compostela comes from the latin words, campus stellae which means field of stars.

When we entered Santiago de Compostela, I was surprised to see that it is a modern city with tall office buildings and department stores.  I guess I imagined it would look like an old medieval village. On New Year's Day, the city was definitely not that busy and a lot of things were closed, but we were able to walk right into the Cathedral.  I understand that during other times of the year you might have to line up to get in.  It was raining and there wasn't a pilgrim in sight.  We met up with Masumi and family and did a 50m pilgrimage to the Cathedral from the parking lot.  The Cathedral is very impressive inside, especially the gold plated alter with 3 representations of St. James.  We were also able to "hug the apostle," which is the ultimate goal of any pilgrim to Santiago.  We climbed the stairs to reach the camarín or small room behind the alter that houses a medieval statue of St. James and followed what everyone else was doing.

There is a lot more to see in Santiago de Compostela, but as most things were closed, it was raining and the kids were not too excited about seeing more historic buildings, we decided to head back to Ourense so that we could sit in the hot springs again.   We went back to the Termas Muíños da Veiga as it seemed like all the other hot springs were closed or not functioning.  It was quite a bit busier than the day before, but fortunately the rain stopped and we were able to enjoy another evening soaking by the river.  

Looks like the sun did come out for a few minutes when we took this photo

Grandma and Grandpa in front of the South façade which is the oldest

The clock tower

Azibecharía Façade

Chapel of Nosa Señora do Pilar

People leaving after mass, you can see the botafumeiro hanging from the ceiling which is used to burn incense and swings from one end of the chapel to the other.  In the Middle Ages it was used to cover up the stench of all the pilgrims that had just arrived after walking for weeks without bathing.  

The high alter, which is Baroque style and completely covered with real gold leaf. 

There was also a massive Nativity Scene depicting the entire life of Jesus in the Cathedral which must have been interesting for Grandma 

This is the Obradoiro Façade, unfortunately being renovated.  It is featured on all the 1, 2 and 5 euro cent coins. 

Portugal and Galicia Trip - Day 4

December 31st, 2015 - Ourense

We packed up our stuff, left Lisbon and headed north to the town of Ourense in the Galicia province of Spain.   It was about a 5 hour drive to Ourense, but because Portugal is one hour ahead of Spain, we arrived earlier than we thought we would.  We found our rental house which was located in the small village of Cenlle, about 20 minutes outside of Ourense.  The house was huge with plenty of room for all of us and the owner was very friendly and helpful.

I told my friend Masumi, an ASB mother, about the hot springs in Ourense and she decided that they would like to visit them also.  We planned to meet up in Ourense on Dec. 31st.  There are a bunch of free public hot springs located along the banks of the Minho River and many private spas that you need to pay for, but they are all very inexpensive, around 5€ entrance fee.  Masumi, her husband Mello and kids (Enzo and Lucca) met up with us at the Termas Muíño da Veiga.  Even though the hot springs are the main attraction in Ourense, they are quite difficult to access.  It took us a long time to find the very narrow road that led to a place where you could park near the river.  Masumi and Mello also had a hard time and ended up parked on the other side of the river.

But, it was worth the trouble, the Termas Muíño da Veiga are amazing.  There are 5 open-air pools of varying temperatures.  The pools are clean and well maintained and it's completely free and open to the public all year round.  The hottest pool was around 45˚C.  It was too hot for Cole, but perfect for my parents.  The largest pool was cooler at around 35˚C, but perfect for the kids to play in.  It was such a treat for them to swim outside on December 31st!   It was cloudy, but not too cold and we were fortunate that it wasn't raining.  We spent a good two hours in the hot springs and I am sure the kids would have stayed longer, but everyone was getting hungry.

It was around 7:30pm when we left the hot springs and so began our next adventure: trying to find somewhere to eat on New Years Eve in Ourense.  I honestly didn't think it would be that difficult to find a restaurant, but in the city many restaurants were actually closed and the restaurants that were open were completely booked or too expensive.  We could not even find a MacDonald's or corner store.  The streets of downtown Ourense were oddly deserted and we wandered almost an hour unable to find anything.

Finally I looked on Google Maps and was able to find a Chinese Restaurant a few minutes away.  We know from experience that you can always count on the Chinese to be open and willing to feed you.  We had a similar experience in Malaga on New Years Eve last year.   The restaurant is called Gran Muralla and even though they were completely full, they set up additional tables in their front lobby for all 12 of us.  The kids were happy, we ordered sushi and lots of other Chinese dishes.  We finished eating just before midnight, and thought we could ring in the New Year at the main square.  People had gathered in anticipation of some kind of celebration, there was a large stage set up and even police presence, but at midnight absolutely nothing happened.  It was so strange, maybe the organizers were on strike or forgot what day it was.

further down the river there were other public thermal pools, but unfortunately they were not hot.
Maybe they are only open certain times of the year or they were down for maintenance.

Cole is trying to make himself look skinny, not sure why

Kids relaxing in one of the pools at Muíño da Veiga

Yep, this is Galicia's best kept secret!

Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed themselves too

The best Chinese meal ever (we were really hungry)

Portugal and Galicia Trip - Day 3 (cont.)

December 30th, 2015 - Sintra & Lisbon

We were able to pack a lot of stuff into one day.  After visiting the Palácio Nacional de Pena, we headed over to the Quinta da Regaleira, also in Sintra.  It was still raining lightly, but every once in a while the sun would make an appearance.  When we arrived at the palace, there was no where to park.  We were fortunate enough to find enough space down a very narrow street nearby, but I think at any other time of the year, it would be almost pointless to come to Sintra by car, because you would never be able to find parking near any of the main attractions.

The palace, gardens and chapel of the Quinta da Regaleira were commissioned by António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro, an entomologist who inherited a large family fortune.  Apparently he had very eccentric tastes and there is hidden symbolism all over the buildings and gardens of the estate.  

Again, even on a rainy December day the Quinta da Regaleira was quite busy.  We visited the gardens first and actually had to wait in line before we could enter some of the narrow pathways.  The gardens are spectacular and the kids could have spent the entire day exploring the towers, caves and tunnels.  The tunnels are like secret underground passageways that take you to different areas of the garden.  The kids loved it, because the tunnels are low, completely dark and you have no idea where they will take you.  I had to use my cell phone as a light in order to find our way through.  One of the coolest elements of the garden is an old well shaft with a spiral staircase going from the bottom to the surface.

The gardens of Quinta da Regaleira

Looking down from the top of the well

Looking up from the bottom of the well

The palace

One of the many ponds with subterranean caves

kind of blurry family shot

One of the towers in the garden

You can see Cole and Nathan crossing the pond

Here we are in a cave at the other side of the pond about to enter one of the tunnels

Going through a tunnel 

another tower in the garden

part of the wall that surrounds the estate

The unfinished well

little chapel on the estate

We left Sintra in the early afternoon and headed back to Lisbon.  We decided see the Torre de Belém on the way back into town.  The Torre de Belém is one of the most famous monuments in Lisbon, but I'm not sure it's worth the wait and the entrance fee to go up the tower.  It was raining and getting dark, we didn't have to wait too long to get into the tower, but then once you are inside, there is only one staircase to go up and down.  When you are on the first level you have to wait until enough people come down before you can go to the second level and then wait again to go from the second level to the third.  Once you are at the top of the tower you have to wait for people to come up before you can go down the stairs.   A lot of waiting, but there is not much to see inside the tower.

On the first level

View from the top level

Nice family shot in front of the tower

Since we were close, we also saw the Padrão dos Descobrimentos