Christmas Vacation in Portugal
We sort of have a go to itinerary for friends that come to Portugal and spend a few days with us on their holiday. Our standard Alentejo highlights include visits to Monsaraz, Evora and Estremoz. Typically our guests have already spent a few days in Lisbon or elsewhere and are then looking to spend a few days with us in the country. However, on this occasion, our guest in coming between Christmas and New Years and staying for a week, so I’ll need to do a bit more planning to give our guest both a taste of Portugal (Lisbon and the Alentejo) along with the festivities of the holiday season.
We begin with our guest arriving in the early afternoon at Lisbon Airport on TAP Airlines. Since it’s Christmas Eve, we decide to park at Centro Vasco da Gama, which is a large shopping mall attached to Oriente Metro Station, to avoid holiday airport traffic. Although it seems counterintuitive to choose parking at a shopping mall on Christmas Eve to avoid traffic, this actually works perfectly, since we arrived early and it allowed us to do some last minute shopping. From here it was a quick three stop Metro ride to the airport.
Lisbon Airport is fairly small and super efficient, with lots of shops and restaurants and easy access to Lisbon via car or Metro. The airport did a beautiful job decorating, which was a nice touch for travelers spending the holidays away from home.
After picking up our guest, we took the Metro back to Vasco da Gama shopping center to drop off travel bags in the car and hop back on the Metro and head to the Baixa-Chiado Metro stop to begin our tour. Exiting the Metro at Largo do Chiado, and coming up to street level, you are immediately thrust into a holiday wonderland. Decorated store fronts, dangling street signs, shoppers everywhere and cafes filled with customers sitting outside enjoying the somewhat warm weather.
We head down Rua Garrett. The entire area is beautifully decorated for the holidays. Our walk is timed perfectly to arrive at the Basilica of Our Lady of the Martyrs (https://paroquiadosmartires.pt/) to catch the end of a Christmas Eve mass. The church interior is spectacular.
After leaving the Chiado area, we make our way to Rua Augusta, which is a pedestrian street, and head towards the Tagus River to Praca do Comercio where they have a huge Christmas tree in the plaza. On this beautiful day, this area is filled with people and activities.
Artists were building sand and rock sculptures along the water.
Our last stop for the day is the Time Out Market, just a short walk from Praca do Comerio, for a quick bite. After walking around the market for while to look at all the food options, we settle on O Frade (https://www.timeoutmarket.com/lisboa/en/comer-e-beber/pinoquio/) for wine and appetizers. We’ve been here a few times and it’s always very good.
Before leaving the market we stop at Nos e Mais Bolos bakery (https://www.timeoutmarket.com/lisboa/comer-e-beber/nos-e-mais-bolos/) to grab dessert for our holiday dinner back home. We then head back to the Metro to get our car to head home to Sao Miguel de Machede (about a 1 hour 20 minute drive) for Christmas Eve dinner. This year we decide to make a Beouf Bourginion. We made it the day before since we knew we’d be back a bit late from Lisbon on Christmas Eve. Plus, this recipe takes 3.5 hours to cook.
We then sat down to dinner at our tiny bistro table. At some point we’ll set up the dining room once we have furniture.
Our next big activity was on the Tuesday following Christmas Day (everything is closed Christmas Day). We joined an afternoon walking tour of the Evora city center. Elza was our amazing tour guide (https://www.takefreetours.com/evora-free-tour). We’ve done this tour once before in the summer and each one was totally informative and enjoyable. The tour lasts a couple of hours and takes you through various parts of the city within the ancient walls. It’s a great way to get an overview of the city and it’s history. I also made notes along the way of places that caught my attention that I want to return to later (shops, museums, churches, restaurants). Below are some photo highlights from the tour.
The Walls
Cobblestone Streets
Architecture
Churches
Gardens in Winter
Peacocks in the Park
Holiday Decorations Throughout the City
On the next day of our tour we head to Monsaraz. The village was decorated for the holidays with a variety of interesting life size characters. The views from this hilltop castle village are always spectacular. You can read more about Monsaraz from a previous post Monsaraz Day Trip.
After a few days spent in the Alentejo countryside, we decide it’s time to head back for another day in Lisbon. We scheduled a walking tour of Alfama using the same walking tour company we used for our Evora walking tour https://www.takefreetours.com/alfama-free-walking-tour. Below are some photo highlights of the tour.
The main highlight of the tour was a stop to visit Alice. Known as a ‘grandma’ of Alfama, she has lived in this neighborhood her entire life. A number of Alfama grandma’s have a plaque with their photo beside the door where they live. Alice had some of her homemade sour cherry liquor waiting for us to sample. It’s called Ginjinha and is served in an edible chocolate cup. Very yummy.
We also did a quick tour of the Gulbenkian Museum (https://gulbenkian.pt/museu/en/). This is a wonderful museum and definitely worth a full day. I love looking at the textiles and tiles.
On our last day of the holiday Portugal Tour we visited Estremoz. We come here often for the Saturday antique and farmers market (Estremoz Saturday Market and Castle Tour), but since this was a Friday, we just wandered up toward the castle to give our guest a sampling of this wonderful town and the marvelous views of the countryside from the hilltop.
We couldn’t head home without buying a few gifts. Estremoz has excellent shops. We stopped into one of my favorite shops in town called Casa Galileu. They sell all kinds of equestrian related items and clothing but also some home decor items and solveniers. Our guest picked up a Portuguese style wool cap which you’ll often see men in the countryside wearing. I bought a beautiful wicker basket with leather handles to store reading material beside my favorite chair.
Looking forward to many more friends and family visiting us in 2024 and lots of new adventures.
HAPPY NEW YEAR / FELIZ ANO NOVO
