Lovely Holiday in Portugal
Enviado: quinta Oct 02, 2008 19:56Hi All Portuguise geocachers
Thank you very much for all your kind mails, and for all your geocaches, that me and my wife enjoyed on our vacation in september.
We made a plan, where to go?, and chose Portugal, where none of us had been before. Our base strategy was based on danish tour guides, The trip to Portugal, and the trip to Lisboa. On top of that we planned the basic trip, stay in Lisboa, and roundtrip in northern Portugal, we realised at once, that the Islands in the west was off limits, and the south seemed too hot for us. And Portugal IS a BIG country, so one has to limit oneself. Another important goal was not to stress, and read the books as we got along, so no strong planning, and take the life easy.
How did it go?
First we booked two Hotels from home, on the net, Lisboa and Porto, and we stayed as planned in Lisbon. 6,5 day in Lisboa seems a lot, but there is SO MUCH to see. we avoided museums (almost), but visited the MUST SEE places, and luckily you have placed caches exactly there.
. We tried and succeded to get different cache types, single,multi, mystery, and locationless (later we got earth caches.)
We also got the time to see a certain football game ( hehe..) and a bullfight
, but now we can give our opinion on a self based experience. In front of Campo Pequeno, a man suddenly asked me if I was looking for the cache, and we got a quick little talk about the missing cache. Nice to meet you!
A trip to Belem, Cascais, Expo and Christo Rei was also possible, and of course caches all over the place.
Friday we had a rented car to pick up in the airport, and started our journey. Our strategy was to drive east then north then west, see Porto, and then down to Lisbon again, all in 1,5 week time.
The first top was Evora, and we forgot to set the 60csx to a destination, due to all the stress about getting the car. So I just drove the car OUEST on some motorway, and ended up way north of Lisboa. Off the motorway, we drove southeast towards Evora, and saw a lot of corck oaks, Barrigems, roman walls, Igreias etc. When we arrived in evora, we drove past the first hotel, and ended up just outside the walls in a nice hotel.
We planned two days in each city, due to experience last year, where we drove on and on, with no rest, on our vacation in Ireland. So here, and Evora is a very nice place to stay. One of the evenings we experienced street theater with fire and dragons on the main square. Our "free" day in Evora, we used to get a haircut for me, while my wife looked at shoes (what else) but she did not buy any... (this time
). The hairdresser could not any english, but with a few words in portuguise, I succeded in explaining the obvoius, that it was hot, and my hair was too long !! Kind People 
The afternoon we drove in the country side, and one of the caches we tried to take was in a dark abandoned Chapel, and we did not bring our flashlights, they were in the Hotel !! Unprofessional
One of our problems was of course to understand the cache descriptions written only in portuguise. Some words are recognisable, but a lot of descriptions we missed on the spot, as we only had these on our phone, using smartgpx. (no spoilers either).
The next day we drove north, and took a long leg, ended up in Guarda, the highest situated greater city in portugal. Here we discovered that we missed the Serra Estrella. we decided to take the Serras, and still keep the goal for Braganca. This was maybe the decision i regret most, as the Estrella was very beautifull, and I would have loved walking the mountains a little bit more, ending up in Guarda again. We made the Torre, and the headed for Braganca, a little off the straigth way. This was bad, no caches , but the nature was beatifull.
Braganca our next stay, showed us a nice city where we walked by a cache by 20 meters on our evening walk. But we found it the day after . My wife also found some nice shoes (danish off course- Ecco, but on sale 
)
The stay day in Braganca, was used to a Montesinhos visit, almost as great as Serra Estrella, and the mobile going nuts, hopping of and on spanish networks. And of course in the middle of nowhere, dirt rows everywhere, a football goal was put up.. Really this IS Portugal..
Next day, the big overview of Braganca, and on we went to Mateus, and ended up in Braga. Here we discovered the first difficulty getting a Hotel, we quite underestimated the greatness of this town. But we ended up in the Railway Hotel with a very generous turist menu for 6,5 euro pr person incl wine!! (In Lisbon the lunch somewhere costed 68 euro!!! (both persons))
The day was used for a long walk, finding local caches, and the afternoon to visit Bom Jesus, of course. We just managed to get in the Iron age site before closing hours, and climbed around to see everything, forgetting to take the cache that was IN there (shame on you!!). We therefore decided to put one of our coins in the next cache, Iron age tracker. http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=1338788
Next day we went for Porto, and succesfully ended up in our prebooked Hotel. The carpark fee was free, as we got vouchers for this. The only downside was the noise in the street in the evening, as I think every youngster in porto gathered below our windows until late in the morning.
Porto was studied, caches taken, the tram was taken, and we went for a letterbox caches, where we did not solve the riddle. Nice dinner with a wiew to all the lights.
Next day we went to the coast west of Porto, and here we met a very kind couple of geocachers with their son searching for the cache. Together we took the cache, placed a little too difficult for a 10 yo boy. . Then down to Aveiro, looking at the canals, and arriving in rain, the first serious rain on our trip. The evening was lovely though, looking for caches, taking some, and NF on a very nice multi.
We now headed for Coimbra, but going out to the coast first, avoiding the rain. A very nice cache day, with lots of caches. Also visiting high places with a view to the sea, and Eaculyptus trees. A pity though that someone uses the forrest for their privat needs, and littering, but in this case we refuse to enforce CITO.
The evening spent in Coimbra, and we were surprised how much the university and the students filled the streets. On the following day, when we (I) looked at the students (female) walking uphill, I went into a pole, hurting my upper leg seriously. My wify kept on laughing . So disabled we had to plan accordingly. The next stop was Conimbraga, the roman village south of Coimbra, very impressing.
Going south, we went to the sea. Here we took some caches, and decided to go for Sintra for the evening. This was a bad decision, we could not find any Hotel near Sintra, or into Lisbon, finally we got a spare room in Oeiras. We took this for 2 nights, our last in Portugal. Our concern was to get to the airport in time for the morning flight back.
From here we took a nice visit west to Estoril and earthcaches on the coast, and of course Sintra. Further we searched for a long time for a shopping center, finding a large one 800 m from the Hotel in Oeiras.
A very nice 19 days in Portugal has now ended, and we got a lot of kind memories.
One idea I have come uo with: We did need a "geocachers rough guide" to portugiuse hints, as. SI = Firehose, abaixo = at the buttom, and so on. I think such a guide is needed in every european country as the local language is not always spoken or understood by visiting geocachers.
Furthermore a quick link on your frontpage of your site to the PQ's of all PT's caches will be helpfull for other geocachers, not understanding. portuguise. Luckily iI found it in the forum. Maybe this information is of no use in a year or some, as it is an enourmous amount of information to gather. In Denmark we currently having 17 PQ to cover all Denmark, growing every minute.
After our return we discovered your fine maps and registration of foreign geocachers, with the possibility to include found maps on your profile. I did that quickly of course. Do you have ranks of foreign geocachers?
If any of you are coming to Denmark, please contact me to help you with geocaching related questions, or just normal turist information.
Best regards
Kirsten and Peter Lindemann
Thank you very much for all your kind mails, and for all your geocaches, that me and my wife enjoyed on our vacation in september.
We made a plan, where to go?, and chose Portugal, where none of us had been before. Our base strategy was based on danish tour guides, The trip to Portugal, and the trip to Lisboa. On top of that we planned the basic trip, stay in Lisboa, and roundtrip in northern Portugal, we realised at once, that the Islands in the west was off limits, and the south seemed too hot for us. And Portugal IS a BIG country, so one has to limit oneself. Another important goal was not to stress, and read the books as we got along, so no strong planning, and take the life easy.
How did it go?
First we booked two Hotels from home, on the net, Lisboa and Porto, and we stayed as planned in Lisbon. 6,5 day in Lisboa seems a lot, but there is SO MUCH to see. we avoided museums (almost), but visited the MUST SEE places, and luckily you have placed caches exactly there.
. We tried and succeded to get different cache types, single,multi, mystery, and locationless (later we got earth caches.)
We also got the time to see a certain football game ( hehe..) and a bullfight
, but now we can give our opinion on a self based experience. In front of Campo Pequeno, a man suddenly asked me if I was looking for the cache, and we got a quick little talk about the missing cache. Nice to meet you!
A trip to Belem, Cascais, Expo and Christo Rei was also possible, and of course caches all over the place.
Friday we had a rented car to pick up in the airport, and started our journey. Our strategy was to drive east then north then west, see Porto, and then down to Lisbon again, all in 1,5 week time.
The first top was Evora, and we forgot to set the 60csx to a destination, due to all the stress about getting the car. So I just drove the car OUEST on some motorway, and ended up way north of Lisboa. Off the motorway, we drove southeast towards Evora, and saw a lot of corck oaks, Barrigems, roman walls, Igreias etc. When we arrived in evora, we drove past the first hotel, and ended up just outside the walls in a nice hotel.
We planned two days in each city, due to experience last year, where we drove on and on, with no rest, on our vacation in Ireland. So here, and Evora is a very nice place to stay. One of the evenings we experienced street theater with fire and dragons on the main square. Our "free" day in Evora, we used to get a haircut for me, while my wife looked at shoes (what else) but she did not buy any... (this time
). The hairdresser could not any english, but with a few words in portuguise, I succeded in explaining the obvoius, that it was hot, and my hair was too long !! Kind People
The afternoon we drove in the country side, and one of the caches we tried to take was in a dark abandoned Chapel, and we did not bring our flashlights, they were in the Hotel !! Unprofessional
One of our problems was of course to understand the cache descriptions written only in portuguise. Some words are recognisable, but a lot of descriptions we missed on the spot, as we only had these on our phone, using smartgpx. (no spoilers either).
The next day we drove north, and took a long leg, ended up in Guarda, the highest situated greater city in portugal. Here we discovered that we missed the Serra Estrella. we decided to take the Serras, and still keep the goal for Braganca. This was maybe the decision i regret most, as the Estrella was very beautifull, and I would have loved walking the mountains a little bit more, ending up in Guarda again. We made the Torre, and the headed for Braganca, a little off the straigth way. This was bad, no caches
, but the nature was beatifull.
Braganca our next stay, showed us a nice city where we walked by a cache by 20 meters on our evening walk. But we found it the day after
. My wife also found some nice shoes (danish off course- Ecco, but on sale )
The stay day in Braganca, was used to a Montesinhos visit, almost as great as Serra Estrella, and the mobile going nuts, hopping of and on spanish networks. And of course in the middle of nowhere, dirt rows everywhere, a football goal was put up.. Really this IS Portugal..
Next day, the big overview of Braganca, and on we went to Mateus, and ended up in Braga. Here we discovered the first difficulty getting a Hotel, we quite underestimated the greatness of this town. But we ended up in the Railway Hotel with a very generous turist menu for 6,5 euro pr person incl wine!! (In Lisbon the lunch somewhere costed 68 euro!!! (both persons))
The day was used for a long walk, finding local caches, and the afternoon to visit Bom Jesus, of course. We just managed to get in the Iron age site before closing hours, and climbed around to see everything, forgetting to take the cache that was IN there (shame on you!!). We therefore decided to put one of our coins in the next cache, Iron age tracker. http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=1338788
Next day we went for Porto, and succesfully ended up in our prebooked Hotel. The carpark fee was free, as we got vouchers for this. The only downside was the noise in the street in the evening, as I think every youngster in porto gathered below our windows until late in the morning.
Porto was studied, caches taken, the tram was taken, and we went for a letterbox caches, where we did not solve the riddle. Nice dinner with a wiew to all the lights.
Next day we went to the coast west of Porto, and here we met a very kind couple of geocachers with their son searching for the cache. Together we took the cache, placed a little too difficult for a 10 yo boy.
. Then down to Aveiro, looking at the canals, and arriving in rain, the first serious rain on our trip. The evening was lovely though, looking for caches, taking some, and NF on a very nice multi.
We now headed for Coimbra, but going out to the coast first, avoiding the rain. A very nice cache day, with lots of caches. Also visiting high places with a view to the sea, and Eaculyptus trees. A pity though that someone uses the forrest for their privat needs, and littering, but in this case we refuse to enforce CITO.
The evening spent in Coimbra, and we were surprised how much the university and the students filled the streets. On the following day, when we (I) looked at the students (female) walking uphill, I went into a pole, hurting my upper leg seriously. My wify kept on laughing
. So disabled we had to plan accordingly. The next stop was Conimbraga, the roman village south of Coimbra, very impressing.
Going south, we went to the sea. Here we took some caches, and decided to go for Sintra for the evening. This was a bad decision, we could not find any Hotel near Sintra, or into Lisbon, finally we got a spare room in Oeiras. We took this for 2 nights, our last in Portugal. Our concern was to get to the airport in time for the morning flight back.
From here we took a nice visit west to Estoril and earthcaches on the coast, and of course Sintra. Further we searched for a long time for a shopping center, finding a large one 800 m from the Hotel in Oeiras.
A very nice 19 days in Portugal has now ended, and we got a lot of kind memories.
One idea I have come uo with: We did need a "geocachers rough guide" to portugiuse hints, as. SI = Firehose, abaixo = at the buttom, and so on. I think such a guide is needed in every european country as the local language is not always spoken or understood by visiting geocachers.
Furthermore a quick link on your frontpage of your site to the PQ's of all PT's caches will be helpfull for other geocachers, not understanding. portuguise. Luckily iI found it in the forum. Maybe this information is of no use in a year or some, as it is an enourmous amount of information to gather. In Denmark we currently having 17 PQ to cover all Denmark, growing every minute.
After our return we discovered your fine maps and registration of foreign geocachers, with the possibility to include found maps on your profile. I did that quickly of course. Do you have ranks of foreign geocachers?
If any of you are coming to Denmark, please contact me to help you with geocaching related questions, or just normal turist information
.
Best regards
Kirsten and Peter Lindemann
) country planted by the sea.
