Page 28 - WDT MAGAZINE PORTUGAL

Cascais. The tour ended with our first taste of
Portugal’s most famous dessert, pastel de
nata, a fresh custard tart from the original
bakery in Belem. The tour left a delicious
impression, and Portugal skyrocketed out of
nowhere to top our must-return list.
Portugal also fit another agenda for us.
We would like to find a destination to serve as
a home base for a few months annually while
we explore greater Europe. After a lot of
homework, we narrowed the list of potentials
to Spain, Italy, France, and Portugal. Assessing
the pros and cons of affordability, weather,
cuisine, and stability, Portugal easily rose to
the top of the list, with Spain a close second.
We returned to Portugal earlier than
expected via another Celebrity transatlantic
cruise from Florida to Southampton, England.
We flew from London to Lisbon for a three-
week exploration, joined by our friends
Barbara and Ira Gruber, a fun-loving couple
from Los Angeles we met a few years earlier
on a cruise around Japan.
Our journey crisscrossed Portugal north
to south, visiting as many regions as we could
-- hopefully with enough time at each
destination to get a feel for
it. The first stop - Sintra,
the retreat of kings - was “It seems like in just the small
followed by Porto, where country is the big buzz as one of
we rented a car for the rest
of our journey. the hottest destinations in the
travel community -- and as we just
Our odyssey was full of found out, deservedly so.”
joy, surprises, and a few
misadventures. We met
wonderful people, enjoyed great food and
wine, saw incredible natural beauty, and
soaked up the country’s incredible art and
history. In the end, we fell in love with this
small country with a giant heart.

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