Thursday morning we had an early start, heading out around 8:00 a.m. it was a bit of a cool, misty morning, with a nice glow from the sunrise.

Sadly, the trip to the airport was painful. Everything was going fine until we got into Lisbon, then the traffic became brutal. It got worse as we got closer to the airport, and the traffic right at the terminal was a nightmare.

It was made worse by the fact that I misread a road sign and missed our exit, so we had to do it all twice. But we got there with lots of time to spare and got Justine’s parents off on their way back to England. We would catch up with them in a few days in London, but for now, our combined journey came to an end. We had a great time with them in Portugal, making some great memories that will last!

As we were in Lisbon already, we decided to explore the area south of the city, and headed down to Setubal. The drive took us out and across the iconic Vasco da Gama bridge that crosses the Tagus River. It’s a huge bridge, and only later did we note how far the tidal plains expand out into the delta. For much of the bridge’s length, you’re not really over the river. It was still a bit misty as we drove up and over the river and part of the bridge was in the low hanging clouds. It was quite atmospheric.

Before heading into Setubal proper, we went out to explore a bird sanctuary that we noticed on the map. We drove down - it was only another 45 minutes from the airport - and found our way to the sanctuary. It was a cute little place - they had a little visitor centre with a small cafe and gift shop, so we had a small snack and enjoyed the late morning sunshine.

The charming visitor center at the bird sanctuary.

We had a snack on their patio and enjoyed the late morning sun.

The path from the parking lot to the visitor center.

The tide was way out on the mud flats.

There was a bird hide on the mud flats, close to the visitor center. We walked over to it, but it was locked, which seemed odd. As the tide was way out, there was not a lot to see. It was pretty quiet, and I suppose being close to mid-day wa snot helping us with the bird life. We did end up taking one of their trails, out through the old flood ponds that I think they used to use to make salt. We saw a few birds, but it was pretty quiet. It was really too late in the morning for it to be really interesting.

We saw this tree along our walk. We think that it’s a cork tree, as the bark was spongy and had the right texture. It wa really interesting.

A mpa of our walk on the trails. It really shows all the ponds in the area.

We found this cool street art near where we parked the car to go explore.

The highlight was a flock of greater flamingos that we could see a few ponds over. They were not close, but you could easily tell what they were. We circled back on the path, but didn’t really see much more. From there, we headed into Setubal. It was about 15 minutes away and the route took us along the coast, past all the commercial shipping ports and into the town. We found a place to park pretty easily, then spent some time exploring.

Our first bit of wandering took us down to the dock area, where two very impressive tall ships were moored. We poked around for a little bit, before heading into the centre of the town.

Sadly, this was the least impressive of all the towns we visited. It was a bit run down and looking a little faded. We walked quite a bit, starting in the harbour. There was a small market that we popped our heads into, but I think it was past its peak time as most of the vendors were either closed, or in the process of closing. Not surprising given the location, it was mostly fish stalls, and there were some interesting things on offer.

Some more interesting tile work on the inside of the harbour market.

From there, we headed away from the harbour and into the center of town. There really wasn’t a lot to see. We did find another market, this one more like we were expecting, with lots of fruit vendors, produce and artists - a smaller version of the Granville Island Market. Across the road there was a lovely park with an openair plant market going on. They had some really cool things, with lots of flowers on display.

Inside the market in Setubal.

The park was lovely.

We found a place to have lunch and tried the choco frito (fried squid) that the area is apparently famous for. Lunch was pretty good, and we ended it with a tasty desert. After lunch we hopped back in the car and headed back to Ericeira. The drive took about an hour and we were lucky with the traffic.

After we parked (we got really lucky and found a spot right away, close to the apartment), we got changed and grabbed our beach gear and headed back down to the beach to enjoy our last day on the water. Tomorrow, we were headed back to Lisbon (for just one day) before flying to London, and then home. This was our last chance to enjoy the beach and the ocean, and to go for a swim.

We headed down to the beach, and found a spot on the sand to camp out for a while. It was warm, so it didn’t take too long for me to head to the water. It was cold (still not Galiano cold) but refreshing in the hot air. The waves were big - maybe even bigger than our first day - just not as frequent. I dove in right away and floated and played on the waves for a while. Eventually I headed back in and gave Jus a chance to go for a swim. She got in as well, but didn’t stay in quite as long as me. After sitting and watching some people play beach volleyball for a while, I headed back in for a second swim. I was still pretty cold after the first swim, so the second did not last quite as long.

After sitting on the sand and warming up for a while, we headed over to the beach bar and claimed some beach chairs, grabbed a couple of beers and watched the people for another hour or so. Before long, it was after 5:00, and we figured we should head back home and think about what to do for dinner.

We showered and I made us a couple of gin and tonics and finished up the appies from the previous day, and we went up to the deck and watched the sun set over the ocean, for the last time for this trip. It was lovely. Eventually we figured that we should head out and find some dinner.

Our afternoon snack, all laid out.

One last drink on the patio.

The sun set on our time in Ericeira. It had been a great trip.

We decided to try the sushi place near us, and quickly discovered that our rule of no sushi outside of Vancouver is a rule that should not be broken. The sushi wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t great, and we get spoiled with what we get in Vancouver. After dinner, we headed to a small brewery tap room that we had seen the night before.

The name of the place is called 5 E MEIO, and apparently they named if because the first beer they made was 5 1/2% (the direct translation from Portuguese).

There is not much craft beer in Portugal, from what we saw. The big breweries seem to still be the bulk of beer productions, making average lagers. It’s OK, but it was nice to find something different!

It is a small place, with only room for a dozen people maybe, but they had 8 beers on tap. I ended up trying 6 of them I think, and they were pretty good. Their Hazy IPA was the best, and they had a couple of unusual ones that you could not put a style to. They were unlike anything I’ve had. It sure I’d have them again, but good for them for experimenting.

We each had a flight, then I also had a small draft of the hazy before calling it a night. We did wander a little bit to check out another bar nearby, but the vibe wasn’t right, so we just called it. We had a glass of port while we started to pack, as it was time to head to Lisbon tomorrow.

A Last Day in Ericeira and Off to Lisbon

Friday morning we lounged a bit and finalized our packing, as we had to head to Lisbon for our last leg in Portugal. We managed to get everything into our bags, which seems a minor miracle! After moving everything to the car, we headed out to explore the town a little more. We really haven’t explored as much as we would have liked.

It was another amazing morning. The tide was way out and the beach was empty.

We wandered north a bit, with the loose goal of a small cafe we had noted on a previous walk. It gave us a chance to explore the narrow streets, and we found so many pretty little houses in the alleys of the village.

We found the cafe, and had a light breakfast while people watching. The pastries were delicious and apparently the coffee was very good. We continued our wandering, as the sat heated up.

This cool building was just around the corner from our apartment. I assume it’s an old church (the bell?), but we did not dig into it much.

It’s so typical of the building in the area, and so beautiful in its simplicity.

It’s hard to believe this building is so run down, in the middle of the town.

Some cool graffiti.

As we wandered, we came across some beautiful homes.

And some with cool art on the walls.

We had wandered through this square a number of times over our stay.

This is the main church in the town. Sadly, every time we went by, there were a bunch of cars parked out front.

Eventually we turned south, heading to the large beach at the south end of town. The surf didn’t seem very high, but there were a ton of surfers out - easily the most we had seen all trip. We sat on the beach watching them for a while. We also noticed that there was what looked to be a daycare group swimming in the natural lagoon at this end of the beach. The kids were pretty cute, screaming and playing as the waves came in, and seeming to have a great time. The advantages of growing up in a surf town I guess.

Walking down to the beach, we could the see the surfers out on the waves.

It was easily the most surfers we had seen on the trip.

The kids were playing in the tide pools.

We moved from the beach to a cafe on the street above the beach and ordered a drink and a chocolate croissant and watched the surfers for a while. It was a lovely way to enjoy the day. But eventually we needed to be on our way to Lisbon.

Watching the surfers from the beach side cafe.

We walked back along the ocean to where the car was parked, exploring the ocean-side streets. We went past the the ill-fated restaurant, along the cliff and past the cool cannons standing guard. Eventually it was back to the apartment, and one last “farewell” to our little beach and our fun little surf town.

The drive to Lisbon was pretty uneventful and we made our way to the centre of the city where our hotel was. We managed to find a place to park, so we could drop our main bags while we took the rental car back to the airport.

Our hotel in LIsbon (downtown this time) was small but in a perfect location.

Dropping the rental car was a bit of a nightmare - but I picked all the right turs this time, and we made it on the first try! The rental car terminal was a disaster, but we got it sorted and were on the subway back to the hotel to get checked in.

The room in the hotel in Lisbon was nice - a good size and great AC! We dropped off our gear and got organized to head out. We did not have a lot of time to explore Lisbon - an afternoon/evening, plus a few hours tomorrow morning, so we had to be strategic. I have been to Lisbon a few times, so it was more about getting in a few sights for Justine.

We hopped back onto the metro and headed down to the river and the historic part of the city. It was pushing 3:30 and we hadn’t really eaten lunch yet, so we stopped at a little street side restaurant and had a light lunch.

From there, we started climbing. We headed up the hill towards the castle, with a first stop to take some pictures of the Se (cathedral). It’s in a bit of an awkward spot, very tight and you have to dodge pedestrians, cars and the trolleys that go up and down the hill.

A close up view of the Se.

It was quite busy - not really a surprise.

As we continued to climb up the hill, we came across a lookout that I remembered. As I mentioned, I’ve been to Lisbon a number of times and have been lucky enough to have time to explore. I think I’ve taken the same photos at this viewpoint on every trip I’ve made.

I have taken this photo so many times over the years.

This is the view I think of, when I think of Lisbon. More than the castle, I love this setting.

After that quick stop, we continued on to the castle. We contemplated paying the entrance fee to go inside, but in the end decided that we did not have enough time to do it properly. It was one of the few places without a huge line up to get in.

We did walk around the outside walls a bit, but the crowds were a bit much. In that wandering, we did come across a sign in one of the local churches for a "viewpoint". Intrigued, we went inside and discovered that for €5 we got a drink (in our case a glass of rose) and entrance to walk up the very narrow 50 stairs to the church bell tower! And we had the place to ourselves! It was beautiful up there, with lovely views out across the city. There were still three of the original bells mounted in the tower, stamped from the 1750s. It was a pretty great find.

The view from the bell tower was quite nice.

I got the focus wrong on this one…

I barely fit up the stairs. Clearly they were built for smaller people.

After enjoying the view from the bell tower for a while, we headed back down, and started making our way all the way back down the hill and into the heart of the city.

We discovered a local brewery on one of the back alleys (interestingly enough, right near the hotel Justine’s parents had stayed at), so we popped in to discover that it was happy hour.

That was fortunate timing for us. As it turned out, we also beat the rush and got a table, which would not have happened if we were a bit later. It filled in quickly after we sat down. They had their own beer on tap, plus a surprisingly good selection from across Portugal and around the world. As I mentioned before, Portugal didn’t seem to have much of a craft beer scene. We focused on the beer that they were making themselves, which was quite good.

The outside of the brewpub was inviting…

…so we went inside and tried a few!

We stayed for a while as the atmosphere (and the beer) was good, but eventually we needed to have some dinner. We had decided to try and find another version of the rice and seafood dish we had eaten previously, and there were lots of restaurants nearby that offered it. We picked one and headed the short walk over.

Dinner was good. It was what we were looking for, but surprisingly, not as good as the touristy place on our first night in Lisbon.

Dinner was good - surprisingly not as good as the first place - but nothing spectacular, but it did hit the spot. We had desert as well, before heading out. The restaurant was close to one of the major squares and there was a night market going on. I almost wish we had noticed it before dinner, as the food looked amazing. We wandered a bit, but as it was mostly food (and we had just eaten), it wasn’t as much of a draw.

One last drink before calling it a night.

It was starting to get late, but we decided that we needed one last drink and headed back to the brewery. I had tried a salted caramel gose that was pure dessert in a glass, so I had another one of those and Justine had another of their red ales, and it was a fine way to wrap up our final night in Portugal. From the square it was a short walk back to the metro and a quick journey back to the hotel and off to bed.