Clapp Radical Sabbatical

Although Lagos is beautiful and the beaches are a lot of fun there isn’t a whole lot to do in the town so we rented a car for our second full day in Lagos. It’s actually pretty neat because they drop the car off at your Airbnb or hotel and pick it up there. Drew drove us about 45 minutes to the start of a hike called the Seven Hanging Valleys. The hike is about 2 hours along the ocean cliffs – think Torrey Pines but longer and with water that looks tropical. We stopped frequently and took lots of photos but it was still a medium difficulty hike since the trail wasn’t always well marked and sometimes you had to use your hands and feet to continue.

The hike ended at the Praia de Benagil, a pretty popular beach, and we had a lovely lunch at a fancy seafood restaurant overlooking the water (sweaty shirts and all). After lunch we took a boat tour of the local caves along the water. There are tons – some that are large and easy to get a boat into and some that I was surprised our driver was able to get us in and out of safely. We also saw some secluded beaches and we got to see the famous Benagil cave. After the hour long boat tour we hiked back to the car but since we knew the way and didn’t stop for many photos it only took us 1 ½ hours. After hiking in 80+ degree weather we all agreed that we had earned a cold glass of wine so after cleaning up we went down to dinner at a place called Bafi which is owned by an Italian couple. The service was extremely slow and the food was ok but the owner gave us free drinks so we’ll give it a thumbs up!

The next day we decided to go on a tour to see the other side of the Algarve region. We booked it through Vagabundo, which is owned by an eclectic, funny and calm Australian dude, Brodi, who has been living in Lagos for several years now. Our first stop was an old medieval fort, apparently there used to be loads of medieval buildings along the Algarve coast but when the massive Lisbon earthquake of 1755 hit it created a huge tsunami off the coast of Portugal and destroyed almost every single man made building. Considering the fort was on a massive cliff and the fort itself was an impressive stone structure the wave must have been unbelievable huge and scary!

While we were exploring the fort, Brodi told us some fun facts like there are 6 other Portuguese-speaking countries other than Portugal and Brazil and most are in Africa. When we were done taking photos we went to our next stop, which was a beautiful beach (although the beauty was a little marred by the 6 stark naked men in their 70s walking around and then diving into the ocean like dolphins) and we had a picnic lunch.

Our final stop of the day was used to be considered the end of the world (before the Americas were ‘discovered’) here we took a lot of fun photos including Drew and I pretending to jump off the cliff!

That evening we decided to experience the nightlife that Lagos is famous for and we joined Brodi and the other Vagabundo tour members out. Brodi quizzed us on some of the trivia from earlier in the day and Drew won a Vagabundo t-shirt (he’s very proud of this, although he found out later it was a size small). We had a ton of fun but were worse for the wear the next day so we just did some errands, enjoyed the beach, and went to an absolutely amazing Portuguese dinner at Casa do Prego – a perfect way to end our time in Portugal!

On our last day in Lisbon we took it easy since it was rainy in the afternoon. Before lunch we walked around the coast of Lisbon seeing the main city square and stopping at LOTS of souvenir shops (Andee and Darcie both had some things they wanted to get). For lunch we went to the Timeout Market which is pretty touristy and a little expensive but we all went to different vendors and each one of us love our meal and the atmosphere was tons of fun!

After lunch we went to the Sao Roque Cathedral which looks incredibly unimpressive from the outside but as soon as you walk in you are amazed by the massive painting on the large wooden planks that create the cathedral’s roof. The next thing you notice is that in the chapel to the right there must be more gold than the Inca Lost City must have had. After admiring everything the cathedral had to offer we headed back to Alfama but before we got there we saw the famous yellow trams and had to hop on quickly for a photo!

That evening we went to a small local restaurant for some decent and cheap Portuguese food and spent the evening packing. The next morning we said goodbye to Andee as she headed to the airport and the three of us headed to the bus station. It was about a four hour bus into Lagos and after locating our Airbnb host (he forgot to email us the address and where to meet him to get the keys) we were rewarded with a beautiful view of both the Iberlagos pool and the absolutely stunning Pria Dona Ana.

That evening we got some super delicious pizza and wine and made friends with some American ladies who were on a weekend trip from Germany (where they live now) and they gave us lots of suggestions for activities and restaurants for our stay while we enjoyed their wifi as our place had none. On our first full day in Lagos we did some errands and then headed to enjoy the beautiful beach and pool!

Andrew wanted me to name this post ‘Lisbon – You Had Me at Ginja’ because Lisbon is his favorite city so far and they have a popular aperitif that is cherry flavored which he really likes too. But I named it ‘the Twin City of San Fran’ because the two cities have so much in common. They both are on the water, Lisbon has a bridge that looks like the Golden Gate, both cities have daunting hills and they both have old timey cable cars.

Before I continue with stories, the above photo of Drew and I reminded me that I wanted to especially thank Darcie for her great photos of us on this leg of our trip. We were starting to get pretty creative since a selfie-stick didn’t make the cut in our packing list. Thanks for taking a lot of memorable photos and I know you and Drew had fun sharing photos and editing tips.

We took the train to the Belem neighborhood of Lisbon in the morning. There we saw the famous Jeronimos Monastery which took over 100 years to build and the architecture of it is called Manueline after the king who had it built. The Belem Tower is also done in this architectural style and we saw that after lunch. The Belem Tower used to be on a island in the Tagus river but the large earthquake in 1755 changed that and it now looks like it is in the water by the shore.

We walked along the beautiful shore until we got to Pradoa das Descobrimentos which is an incredibly large monument to the Portuguese Age of Discovery in the 15^th and 16^th centuries that was built for the 1940 World Fair. It is quit impressive and can be seen from many places in Lisbon. After all of our walking we needed a rest and a treat so we went to the bakery which made the original pastel de nata.

We weren’t quite done site seeing so we took the train back to our neighborhood but then trekked up the hill to the Saint George Castle where we were rewarded with absolutely breathtaking views of Lisbon. The castle itself is in excellent condition and is absolutely massive. There were also some beautiful peacocks roaming the grounds and several people performing a Fado show.

For dinner we went to this restaurant which is a fusion of Portuguese and African cuisine. It was recommended to us and the food was really great – thanks Vicky! After dinner we explored the Lisbon night life – we walked to the famous outdoor elevator where there were still long lines to experience the view. Then we went to this street that had an old cable car and several bars lining the streets. There were lots of people out enjoying drinks in the street so we decided to join into the experience and grabbed a drink. After Darcie made friends with a group of German dudes we decided to go to another spot which was more of a club but it was on the rooftop of a parking structure. Had we not known where we were going (thanks again Vicky and Hector!) there would have been no way we could have found this place but again it had fantastic views!

We landed in Lisbon and found our way to our Airbnb where Darcie and Andee were waiting for us – they had been studying in Spain and flew into Portugal the day before us. Our place is located in the Alfama neighborhood of Lisbon which is the old and/or poor part of the city but it has tons of beautiful buildings covered in colorful tile which is unique to Portugal. On our first full day we ventured out of Lisbon and took an hour train ride to Sintra.

Although I don’t think anyone actually refers to Sintra as the Portuguese Castle Capital I think they should. Sintra is home to Monserrate Palace, Castelo dos Mouros, Palacia Nacional de Sintra and Pena Palace just to name a few. We only explored two of the castles / palaces while we were there. Our first stop, after a slightly scary bus ride up the mountain, was the Moorish Castle which was first constructed by the Moors in the 9^th century. However, after the Crusaders conquered Portugal many parts of the castle were fortified including the towers and walls. Some parts of the Moorish Castle still remain though including the aqueduct and well underneath which some royalty were also buried.

Although it was very overcast and misty the best parts of the Moorish Castle were still the views of Sintra and Pena Palace.

It was a short walk from the Moorish Castle to Pena Palace which as far as palaces and castles go in Europe is relatively young. Pena Palace was built in 1842 by Ferdinand II, who was a lover of arts, and you can definitely see that influence in its construction. The outer walls of the palace are covered in different bright colors and have detailed stonework that include some alligator gargoyles. The inner walls are decorated in intricately detailed tiles of geometric shapes, people, or animals. It was definitely incredible to explore.

We were also able to see some of the rooms decorated as they use to be – Drew told Darcie that our next Thanksgiving table would probably look like the dining room in the palace thanks to this trip!

After making our way back down into the heart of Sintra we had a late but delicious lunch at what use to be a cheesecake factory. The old factory building is actually visible under plexi glass in the bathrooms. The food there was delicious and we tried the local cheesecake, which wasn’t like what we would consider cheesecake but it was still good however it paled in comparison to the pastel de nata we also tried.

After taking the train back into Lisbon the four of us went and met Vicky, Hector and baby Bella at a restaurant down by the water. I had ceviche and a ‘typical’ Portuguese steak with an egg on it both were absolutely amazing and so was the company!

We took a break from the hustle and bustle of city and desert exploring to get some real R&R. Enter Tenerife.  Tenerife is one of the Canary Islands off of the west coast of Africa and is owned by Spain.  Apparently it is pretty popular among Europeans to vacation, especially Brits as we’ve noticed. We decided to go here for multiple reasons: 1) it was close to Morocco and Portugal (our next stop), 2) Drew could use his timeshare so lodging was already paid, and 3) it was convenient for my parents to join us for their anniversary.

When we arrived at the hotel (El Marques Palace) in Puerto de Santiago, dad was already there and bearing flowers (good job, dad!). We got situated in our hotel and went to dinner up the street to celebrate their anniversary.

Saturday was mostly a pool day, groceries, and rental car. We decided it would be cheaper and more convenient to rent a car to explore than to take several of the different types of tours offered.  Sunday we set out to explore the island. We based our itinerary from one of the jeep tours we decided not to use.  We stopped briefly in the town of Vilaflor which is the highest elevation town in Tenerife and also their local wine region. The view from the town was limited to the cloud cover surrounding the island.

We continued to climb higher up the mountain and were impressed by the views. We stopped when we got to the edge of the Teide National Park to read the signs and take in the views of Mt. Teide. The different types of rock combinations from the volcanic activity were neat to see. We drove by the mountain and stopped at a place for lunch that had a bunch of lizards entertaining us (one was brave enough to climb on dad’s foot).

On the way down the backside of the mountain we were given another visual treat with the mountain surrounded by a thick layer of clouds.

Once at the bottom we stopped at the village of San Cristobal de la Laguna which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site to look around for a while.

On Monday we took mom and dad to the airport and bought a new suitcase since my handle broke off.  In the afternoon we went to Playa Los Guios which was a black sand beach from the volcanic rock and was very hot. The water had large rocks as well that we needed to maneuver over just to get in the water.

Tuesday we took a jog along the coast and saw the other two beaches. All of them are pretty small for a resort town.  We cooled off afterwards at the pool and went out for a nice dinner on the water later in the evening.

Today was another pool day and started packing for our next destination.

The next morning we woke up early to head out into the desert. On our way out we made our first journey through the Tizi-n-Tichka pass in the Atlas Mountains which go from lush forest to rocky mountains extremely quickly. Our first major stop was at Ait Benhaddou which is a Unesco World Heritage site where many movies have been filmed including Indiana Jones, Gladiator, and Game of Thrones. The old city is still very intact because people were living in it up until about 16 years ago. It was abandoned because electricity came to the new city.

We drove through the Hollywood of Morocco where we saw at least 10 major movie studios and several were actually filming. We also drove through what they call the ‘valley of roses’ where in the middle of the desert there are hundreds of thousands of roses growing. The hotel we stayed at in the middle of the desert (Ouarzazate) was absolutely amazing – it had a beautiful pool, which felt freezing after the sweltering heat of the desert. It was also had tons of unique and interesting statues, carvings and other artwork from all over Africa.

On our second day on the private guided tour we headed out further into the desert. Our first stop was Todra Gorge and that was my favorite stop along the tour. The massive cliffs on either side are daunting and there is a beautiful cool little river flowing through them. We also saw a man climbing the cliffs and it was terrifying just to look up at him.

The Moroccans that are local to the desert are called the Berbers and we made a stop to try on some traditional Berber clothes and hold the Berber flag in some fun photographs before we headed to the staging area for our camel ride. We also stopped at some underground dry wells that formed a tunnel system to provide water back in the day.

During the journey out to the Sahara my poor mom had food poisoning and as many of you know I had the same ailment when Andrew and I went to Peru and saw Machu Picchu, so Drew dubbed me Mucho Poopoo. My poor mom also had to suffer Andrew’s torture and received the nickname Madre Mucho. She was a trooper though and we made it out to our camp in the Sahara where she was rewarded with ‘glamping’ instead of ‘camping’ – our glamorous tent had a full bathroom complete with a porcelain toilet and shower, electricity and three comfortable beds.

The luxurious accommodations were very much appreciated after enduring a fun and adventures but extremely smelly camel ride. I was the last rider and Andrew’s camel (the one in front of me) seemed to suffer from the same ailment as Madre Mucho. Nevertheless Andrew and our tour guide got some excellent pictures of our trek.

After arriving at camp we made our way up to one of the sand dunes and watched the sunset before dinner. After dinner we listened to the guides play songs on their drums and sang ‘Mama Africa’ together around a campfire. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience.

Marrakech is a completely different world from Europe even though it was only a little over an hour flight from Madrid. On our first day we walked through the souk including the fruit market, the spices, the metals and other housewares and the clothing. We also walked over to the main or largest mosque in Marrakech. The tower is the tallest in the city and can be seen from pretty much everywhere. There are smaller mosques on almost every corner as well.

We went to dinner around 7:30 local time so Drew could see a football match. It was a Sunday and on our way home the streets were flooded with people trying to purchase shoes or fake Lacoste shirts. It was both amazing and unnerving trying to weave our way through the streets. In fact Andrew tried to get a picture of the snake charmers and when they started walking towards him with a snake I bolted to the other side of the market and Drew was worried because he couldn’t find me at first.

Our Riad feels like a little oasis in the madness and poverty of Marrakech. Riads are not hotels but private residences that have rented out rooms. Most of them have beautiful and relaxing courtyards and ours had two turtles basking in the sun. We were greeted with local desserts and mint tea.

Our first full day we decided to venture outside of the Medina (or old city) and we went to Jardin Majorelle. It is a private garden that is now a tourist site, museum and café. They have lots of local plants but also plants from all over the world including agave. It was relaxing and surprisingly cool in the garden. We ate lunch in the café and enjoyed some local juices.

Afterwards we went to the Saadian tombs. They were quite remarkable and were discovered in the 1920s. The detail of the carvings and decoration are absolutely amazing and similar to what currently exists in the local mosques today (we were able to see inside one as we walked by).

In the evening Andrew went and picked my mom up from the airport and we had a traditional Moroccan dinner at our Riad – complete with chicken tajine.

This post is entitled ‘finally this feels like vacation’ because although it has been a fun and grand adventure it definitely hasn’t been the most relaxing vacation – between constantly being on the move, planning the next steps while we are trying to see everything a city has to offer and keeping up with posts it can be quite tiring. I know you don’t feel sorry for us 😉

Today however we really got to relax. We went to Hammam Al Andalus which is one of four Arab baths here in Spain. It is kind of like a spa – it has 3 large baths (or pools) one hot, one cold, and one medium temperature and a steam room. They also provide two traditional treatments – we tried 15 minutes of each. The first is like a body scrub, basically they pour hot water over you while you lay on a stone table, put a fine scrub on you, then take a soapy pouch like cloth thing and squeeze soapy bubbles all over you and then scrub you. When it’s all complete they rinse you off. The second is more like a traditional massage with a scented oil (you get to choose from four scents in the beginning). Although the treatments we had only lasted 30 minutes total we got to enjoy the baths and steam room for another hour and I almost fell asleep floating in the warm bath!

Since photos were not allowed, to describe the ambiance there was a very dark, stone corridor with candles and a small amount of natural light coming through covered windows in the bath ceilings. The first thing you have is the steam room on the left, then you have the hot bath and warm bath on the left further down the hall which are very shallow pools. There are multiple entrances into the baths from the hallway by arched doorways. The baths are separated by stone dividers and the walls are a dark red stone. Across from those baths was a small stone tub of cold water. At the end of the hall was a relaxation room with various scents to smell and tea.  Finally across the hall from that is the room with the stone massage tables.

In the evening we again took advantage of the fact that the Reina Sofia museum is free from 7 – 9 pm. The main attraction there are the vast number of Picasso works they have including the Guernica. And although Guernica was quite impressive after spending a couple of hours viewing cubism, modern and abstract art I can definitively say it’s not my thing. Andrew and I both preferred the Prado museum. We ended the evening with a stop by a carnicera for some patatas bravas with prosciutto and then went to a restaurant called Brutal for a beet and raspberry gazpacho that was amazing and grilled meat which was the best we’d had so far and we even got a free dessert! The dessert isn’t normally free, it was ordered by Oompa Loompa’s bachelor party and they left before receiving them.

The next day we again took an organized tour to two more Unesco World Heritage sites – Salamanca and Avila. Salamanca is pretty far from Madrid in fact it’s only 80 km away from Portugal. Salamanca is interesting because it has the oldest university in Spain and it was where the Queen gave Christopher Columbus the funds to go to America after all the academics told him it was a stupid plan. It also has a incredibly large cathedral which is actually the combination of two cathedrals (the old and the new). We only got a glimpse inside the new cathedral because they were holding services to celebrate the cathedral’s anniversary which was pretty neat to see too.

Avila is a very small city and it was built primarily as a defensive city to defend the Catholic or Christian frontline. It was pretty much abandoned after Spain was made completely Catholic because it was no longer needed to defend them and their water supply ran dry. This ended up being a great things for us because it means that the entire wall of the city was preserved and it is quite amazing to see. Even their cathedral is built into the city wall and looks like a fortress.

We were dropped back off in Madrid at the Plaza de Toros where a bull fight was going on. After reading about it on Wikipedia and watching a YouTube video we had decided not to go to one but it was still interesting to see the atmosphere and revelry around it.

On our second full day in Espana we took a tour to Toledo and Segovia. If you go look at organized tours from Madrid to these two cities you’d probably be surprised to see that they are a little out of our daily budget and you’d wonder why we decided to do a paid tour when Toledo is easily accessible by train from Madrid. The reasons we decided to book a tour is 1. when you are doing this much traveling it is sometimes nice to have someone else worry about getting you from place to place 2. it would have been really hard for us to see both of these cities in one day without a tour and 3. I really enjoy the information about the cities that the tour guide provides (Drew doesn’t care though he just wants cool looking pictures – so don’t forget to checkout the pictures page).

Toledo was interesting for a couple of reasons. The first is that it was the capital of not only Spain but the Holy Roman Empire before the capital was moved to Madrid. Due to the fact that it was the capital and then abandoned there are some quite remarkable buildings there that were well preserved including the cathedral and the residence of the bishop. The thing I was most intrigued about though was that for hundreds of years (before the King Fernando and Queen Ysabell united Spain under Catholicism) Jewish, Muslim and Catholic communities lived very peacefully in the small little city – something it seems we still can’t do today. This led to some really interesting buildings as well – for instance we saw a Jewish Synagogue that looked more like a Mosque from the outside

Although Toledo was very interesting Andrew and I both agree that Segovia was more picturesque. The first thing that you are amazed by when you arrive at in Segovia is the Roman Aqueduct that still exists and provides water from several miles away to this little city. The stones in the aqueduct have no mortar in between them they are held together by tension and compression which is incredibly impressive since they were built almost 2000 years ago. The next spectacular thing we saw was the Segovia Cathedral which is unlike any cathedral we have ever seen (and trust me we have seen A LOT of cathedrals). The finale of the city was the Alcazar which is a palace that is now owned by the royal college of artillery (for a long time they actually tested gun powder recipes in it). We were able to tour a large part of the castle and it was wonderfully restored and absolutely beautiful – it definitely rivals Neuschwanstein and looks like was Disney fairytales are made of.

The next day we took it easier and stayed in Madrid. We went to Plaza de Cibeles which has the Madrid City Hall that currently has a “Refugees Welcome’ sign hanging from it  and explains the large mixture of cultures Spain has. Next we walked around Parque Del Buen Retiro which is a beautiful park and we would have loved to do a picnic lunch there but it was rainy so we were just happy to watch the ducks, black swans and copious turtles swim around. This park also houses an absolutely amazing rose garden and a quite striking Palacio de Crystal which typically has exhibits from the museum but was currently getting some new glass installed.

After the park we took advantage of the fact that the Museo de Prado is free from 6 – 8 pm and viewed a lot of the exhibits. Our favorites were the works of Ruben which we’ve come to enjoy after visiting his home in Antwerp, Belgium several years ago. We completed the evening with a Flamenco show. If you are like me when you hear Flamenco you think of a woman in a long ruffly dress dancing with her arms above her head which the show did have. So understandingly, Drew was excited to get a seat right next to the stage. However, the majority of the show was men and the only way I can describe it is really fast tap dancing. The result was Drew had men in tight pants shaking their behind uncomfortably close to his face. It was hilarious. I enjoyed it and I’m glad we went though I don’t think I’d go to another one unless maybe it was world renowned Flamenco dancers or something like that.

Between dropping off our rental car, a 3 hour flight and losing an hour we spent the majority of the day getting to Madrid but we were rewarded with beautiful sunshine and finally some warm weather! We had dinner in Plaza Santa Ana and reveled in an enjoyable summer evening. The next day we of course had to start our journey in Madrid with another free walking tour which started in Puerto del Sol which is a huge square where many demonstrations are held and which has some interesting statues including the famous Bear with the Strawberry Tree (although strawberries don’t grow on trees) and the point where all major streets converge to in Spain.

Our tour guide showed us the oldest hotel in Spain and how you can tell whether a business has been in Madrid for longer than 100 years (it has a plaque in the street outside) but the coolest old business she showed us was the oldest restaurant in the world, Casa Botin which opened in 1725. Hemmingway, Dickens and even Nancy Reagan have all eaten there. The best part was that we were able to go inside the restaurant which has three levels of dining and a super creepy old wine cellar.

We also went to Plaza Mayor which is celebrating it’s 400th year this year so they were setting up for a large concert/festival as one of ways to celebrate the anniversary. We of course also had to view the Madrid Cathedral which is extremely new for a European capital cathedral at only 24 years old (there were some problems with funding and issues with the arch bishop of Toledo when the capital was moved to Madrid so it took a long time to build). The cathedral is right across from the palace so we also got a good view of the outside.

Our tour guide told us ‘in Spain we live to eat’ so in the afternoon we tried to experience that as much as possible. We started by going to a very local bar which is loved by many (our tour guide told us that you can tell a place is good and local if the average age of the clientele is over 60 and there are lots of napkins and toothpicks on the floor). There we had the tapa special which was fried cod and their Vino Tinto. Next we went over to Mercado San Miguel which is a little more touristy but we were able to try tons of tapas by easily walking around the little market. We had olives with cheese, meat, and sun-dried tomatoes, red sangria, shrimp with fruit, caba, burrata with bread and prosciutto, vegetable paella and passion fruit yogurt. To top it all off we walked over to the famous churro and hot chocolate place San Gines and split the delicious dessert. Afterwards we had to participate in another old Spanish tradition – the siesta.