We wanted to go somewhere warm after enduring our first cold winter in a long time, so we started planning a trip to Portugal, Spain, and Greece for the spring. We reached out to our friends Mike and Steph who were excited to join us on the Spain and Greece section in May! This was a fun trip where we got to check a lot of things off our bucket list, and it was made even more fun by the excellent company.
Itinerary
- Lisbon (and Sintra)
- Granada
- Madrid (and Toledo)
- Barcelona
- Santorini
- Athens (and Delphi)
Lisbon
We spent all of our 4 days in Portugal in and around Lisbon. The historical center of Lisbon is quite compact, so we didn’t have to travel far to see everything and got to know the area fairly well. The hill on the east side of the city has a fun castle with great views of the city, while the hill on the west side of town is full of good restaurants and bars, often on a small peaceful square.
We spent one day an hour northwest of Lisbon in Sintra, a small, beautiful town in the mountains with a strong history of castles and palaces. All within walking distance of each other you can find a very old medieval castle from the Moorish period, a practical royal palace from the Christian period, and a whimsical romantic castle built for fun by a recent king with more money than sense! This was a really fun, contrasting set of buildings to explore in the same day.
Further west of the city is another area, Belem, that has some interesting attractions from the earliest days of Portugal. It also has some of the best Pasteis de Nata we tried in the city! The focus of a lot of the traditional Portuguese pastries is a simple custard that was plentiful in the area for historical reasons, and we tried nearly a dozen different pastries that incorporated it in some way or another.
We enjoyed so much great seafood in Lisbon, but the various cod dishes really stood out. Bacalhau com nata (cheesy baked cod casserole) was both of our favorites! Of course, we also managed to try some different port wines most days, including a Taylor Fladgate tasting flight (Emily’s favorite was the 10-year tawny, and Andrew preferred the 20). We had Vino Verde, a refreshing and slightly effervescent Portuguese wine, before or with dinner most days and have been drinking it some at home now that we are back!
Grenada
Although it took most of a day to travel to Granada from Lisbon and almost half a day to get to Madrid afterwards, we are very glad that we included Grenada in our trip! The entire purpose of the detour was to visit Alhambra, which is a very well restored site of an old Moorish palace and fortress from before the Christians arrived. Like in Sintra the site was modified and its purpose was slightly changed over the centuries as different rulers made their changes and additions, but the original Moorish palace is still absolutely stunning!
We also got to visit the palaces, as well as some more modern royal gardens, at night! The lighting and lack of crowds gave the areas a very different feel. Because of the timing of the night visits, we didn’t have any spectacular regional foods at dinner, but we did enjoy the still present Moorish influence when we ate some excellent kabobs for lunch our first day.
Madrid
We planned the trip to arrive in Madrid on the feast day of the patron saint of the city, Saint Isidro. There were events going on across the city, but we eventually made our way to San Isidro Park where most of the action was. The crowds were overwhelming, but we eventually managed to get a chorizo sandwich from a street vendor with some beer to wash it down. Afterwards we tried a variety of the traditional feast day doughnuts (which were fairly underwhelming) while we waited for the fireworks show.
The next day we were joined by our friends Mike and Steph! Spain was a great place to travel with friends because the tapas culture allowed for plenty of fun, delicious, social evenings. We ended up going on a “food tour” of Madrid which let us sample a ton of different styles of food and drink as well as educate us on how to find good tapas bars and know what to order there. One big surprise was how much we enjoyed the sweet red Spanish vermouth, popular as a before-dinner drink, but it has been hard to source it back in the states.
Madrid has a really good mix of art, architecture, and history while still feeling like a vibrant non-touristy city. We toured some beautiful old churches but also got to see amazing artwork by Picasso and Dali. We explored well maintained outdoor parks and gardens as well as the stunning and decadent private Lira Palace. Of all the cities we visited on the trip this would probably be the easiest to actually live.
Just outside of Madrid is a cute tourist trap city called Toledo, which was the capital of Spain before Madrid. It had an interesting mix of Moorish and medieval architecture, along with an amazing cathedral more beautiful than any in Madrid. There was a military and history museum build right on top of the ruins of a former castle which gave great insight into the background of the town. We ended the tour with a stop at the Manchego cheese museum, which gave us a chance to compare half, one-, and two-year aged cheeses with a refreshing glass of wine.
Barcelona
The Sagrada Familia is possibly the most beautiful church in Europe, if not the world. The shapes, colors, and sheer size of the building join together to form a truly remarkable environment. The facades are beautifully detailed, the towers provide breathtaking views, and the stained-glass windows drown you in brilliant colors. The scale of the building, especially compared to its surrounding neighborhood, is simply comical – the church stuck out like a sore thumb in every other view of the skyline we had in Barcelona!
There were plenty of other Gaudi-designed treasures in the city. Park Guell was a fun place to explore, with so many architectural features that looked like an inspirational mix of Dr. Seuss and nature itself. Guell palace was a really interesting tour through a compact, practical, but lavish city home. Between Guell palace and the Lira palace from Madrid it became obvious that being a rich family in Spain was a way better situation than actually being the king or queen!
Barcelona definitely had plenty to do besides gawk at Gaudi’s architecture. It has a great naval museum boasting a full-sized royal galley in one room (we went to plenty of naval museums on this trip!). Of course, there is also the standard opulent cathedral you expect in any Spanish city (which offered great views from its roof!). We had an amazing experience at an FC Barcelona match one night, despite the long walk back to the hotel. We also really enjoyed taking a walk along the beach, which reminded us of passing through the various neighborhoods along the coast in Los Angeles. Lunch that day centered around a giant, delicious seafood paella that might have been the culinary highlight of the city.
Santorini
Greece was absolutely delicious. Of course, the first thing we did after landing in Santorini was head out to find a gyro wrap and a greek salad! We followed that up with a less traditional dessert paired with some interesting craft brew cocktails. Other nights we had more traditional foods, and every morning we tried different pastries with our coffee. We also got to sample some local wines at a vineyard near Thira.
We stayed in a really amazing complex just outside of Thira. The pool and lounge areas made it really easy to relax after our long trip through Iberia. While it was hot during the day (and almost unbearable in the sun) it cooled off dramatically at night. This was especially apparent on a catamaran tour we took around the island where we started by swimming just to cool off but were bundled up by the end!
During the other day we spent in Santorini we got to explore inland a bit more. At the south end of the island there is a large, covered architectural site with an entire ancient city. Additionally, the walk between Thira and Oia was just one spectacular view after another. After eating dinner in Oia we got to experience the best sunset of the trip.
Athens
After landing in Athens, we immediately took a day trip to Delphi to see the ancient ruins of the oracle site. Not much was left standing, but a few reconstructed buildings helped give a good impression of what the site would have been like in its prime. The Delphi site reminded us of Vatican City because it operated as a mostly independent religious power within or adjacent to an ever-changing series of larger political forces that were careful not to disrupt it for over a thousand years.
The next day we visited the acropolis of Athens, along with about 10,000 other people. It was very crowded and extremely hot, but it was hard not to appreciate just how ridiculously old (and big) all of this stuff was. The acropolis museum had all of the smaller bits and pieces on display and did a good job showing what the original structures and interiors looked like. We got to explore other sites around Athens throughout the week and the thing that stuck with us the most was just how much rubble there is and how hard of a puzzle it must be to try and piece it all back together.
We had so many great meals in Athens! From simple gyros and greek salads to fancy multi-course meals we got to sample a wide spectrum of foods! Some of the most interesting food came from a tapas-style fusion food and cocktail bar place, and we always found great seafood at any local restaurant. There were also plenty of delicious sweets to try.
On a recommendation from a friend, we visited the Museum of Ancient Greek Technology. At its core it is a collection of inventions, usually using tricks involving gears, pulleys, siphons, and orifices, that were conceptualized in ancient Greece. Most of the devices had interactive displays to go along with them! There were even a few ancient board games to play. It was a great place to visit as mechanical engineers!
Summary
Because of our newly flexible employment situation, this was our first trip together where we didn’t feel rushed to squeeze as much fun out of precious vacation days as possible. As a result, we never really had more than one big thing to do in a day, with the rest of the time left over to relax, take a walk in an interesting neighborhood, and look for various foods and drinks we knew we wanted to try. It was an excellent pace, but after three weeks we were ready to go home.
Fantastic trip!