Nate's Adventures: A trip to the Algarve, Porto and a couple of things in between!

A trip to the Algarve, Porto and a couple of things in between!

Algarve

We went to the Algarve! Before we went to the algarve my Dad went to get our rental car. It was very nice but small. It took us 3 hours to get there, so I had a little nap!

The Algarve’s ocean is a mix of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean sea that makes it some times warm and some times cold!!!!!! It is famous for it’s beaches. It’s in the southern part of Portugal.

When we got there, we dipped our feet in the the water. The water was so nice and refreshing. The beach was a little crowded. Sadly, the place we booked the people had double booked it. :( Don’t worry, we got a better place :). It had a pool, air conditioning and comfy beds! The next day, we went to the beach. The water was freezing at first and the sand was steaming hot. We rented chairs and umbrellas so we had shade. Dad and I went on a walk and we swam in a tunnel cave that made waves. After dinner, we went to the historic part of town. It was beautiful. We had gelato and listened to people playing music. Before we went back to Lisbon we swam in the pool.

When we got back to Lisbon, we went to a church called Basilica do Sagrado Coracao de Jesus. It was ok. My mom loved it. The church was built in 1789 and took 10 years to build. The Queen Maria I had the church made. When we entered the church we heard the monks singing. (We couldn’t see them though)

old organ

After going to the church we walked and went for shwarma for lunch. I love Shwarma.

We also went to Bellem. We saw the Tower of Bellem. It was built in the 15th century and was a fortress. We also, checked out Padrao dos Descobrimentos (Its a big statue by the water) and the Jeronimos Monastery. The monastery is 500 years old!

Tower of Belem

monastery

We went for biffana for lunch. It is like a warm pork burger. Yum!

Happy birthday to my Dad!

On my Dad’s birthday, we went to Porto. The drive was about 3 hours. Porto is in the northern part of Portugal.

It is famous for it’s port. That is a different kind of wine. Can you guess why went there??? ;) When we got there we found a park and it had food trucks. I had a bacon cheeseburger at one of the food trucks.

Food trucks. YUM!

After that, we went to a winery and my dad tasted port because it was his birthday and he loves port. Then, we got dinner and mom and dad tried more port :) . Also, we went on a gondola up to the side of the big hill to the other gondola station closer to our place.

Cool art

Port tasting

Cheers!

The next day, Dad surprised us with a convertible Volkswagen Beetle tour of Porto. The car was so cool.

It was a 2 1/2 hour tour. We saw a monastery, churches, lots of statues, a old jail and a library.

Did you know that the old jail bottom floor had no widows or light? That means that the prisoners wouldn’t get to see any light at all…EVER!!! The upper floor had light and windows but you had to pay to be up there. You had to pay to stay in a jail? Until the king visited the prison and felt badly for the prisoners who couldn’t pay to have windows. So, he decided to make windows so the prisoners can see outside and get light. That building is now a photography museum.

Old Jail

There was a library called Edificio da Livraria Lello e lrmao. It was built in 1881. It was beautiful but busy. It inspired The Harry Potter library in Hogwarts. Did you know that J.K Rowling lived in Porto and was a teacher in Porto. My sister loved it. Me not so much.

Voldermort's wand

Did you know in Porto they have a bridge that was designed by the same guy who did the Eiffel Tower. It is called the Luis I bridge.

The next day we left Porto to drive to Geres. It is a national park. It was very pretty.

My highlight was we went to a bouncy obstacle course on the water.

Then we drove to a town called Pont de Lima. There was a super old bridge there. They said it was built in the first century. There were a couple of churches too.