In February we took a trip to Portugal. The trip was…adventurous.
Let’s start with the lowlights.
Arriving at the airport to be told that we will have to pay if we want to bring the stroller. About fifty bucks! This leg of the trip is the only time we are told we need to pay for the stroller. I will be contacting the airline.
Speaking of luggage, TAP Portugal allows a free stopover of up to five nights in Lisbon. They also feed you on the flight, which was a pleasant surprise. If you take advantage of the layover your flight becomes three separate legs for which you have to pay three separate luggage fees if you choose to check a bag. The earlier you pay for the bag the cheaper it is. However, if you are doing the stopover you cannot pay for your bag online. You must call the airline or wait to do it at the airport. Because you pay for three flights it can cost as little as ~75$ or, if you do it at check in, upwards of 150$.
Back to the trip. A couple of days in SM falls to food poisoning. Since we’d all been eating the same thing since the trip started I am fairly certain it was something he ate in Copenhagen. Fun fact about food poisoning, what you vomit is rarely what made you ill. Though, depending on what you’ve got, food poisoning can set in in is a little as thirty minutes it more likely takes between hours and weeks to set in and take hold averaging a few days. Click here to see when to call a doctor.
In SM’s case, like a tornado, it is brief but destructive. For the two days he is down Lil Bit and I explore the city of Funchal. I’d been spoiled by the many playgrounds available here in Østerbro and during our trip to Spain and was hoping to find the same in the cities of Portugal. TripAdvisor leads me to Santa Catarina Park. A park on a hilltop that, according to reviews, has amazing views, swings that let you feel like you are flying, and an impossibly tall slide that lets the kids feel like they are falling off the edge of the earth.
The whole way there I tell a Lil Bit, upset and worried about Daddy, about this amazing playground only to discover upon our arrival at the park that all of the play equipment has been removed! It must have been pretty recently because I am not the only shell shocked parent stumbling around with hysterical toddler in tow and many are native to the country if not the area. Hopefully the removal is temporary because the playground sounded amazing.
On to Lisbon.
Our second night in the city we are eating at a restaurant near the hotel when we notice smoke in the distance, about a block away. We’re eating outside and people are looking around and the restaurant staff are getting on their phones. We start gathering our things. Then one of the waitstaff comes lurching out of the kitchen, coughing, smoke billowing out from behind her. We are already halfway out of there when they announce an evacuation because the restaurant is on fire. On the plus side, free meal!
The next morning, shortly after breakfast, I feel a stitch in my side that I at first dismiss as gas. (Gas is painful, y’all!) It gets worse and I am reminded that this is what it felt like when I developed that kidney infection last year. So we all end up spending a couple of hours in the hospital, the only place to get medical treatment on a Saturday, while I am put on an antibiotic and painkiller drip to treat an infection. Turns out the painkiller they gave me is banned in most of Europe and in the UK in part because it has killed or incapacitated a bunch of ethnically British people. Fortunately, it seems to be fine for everybody else though I did stop taking it. Then I developed a headcold just in time for the flight home.
Despite all of that I cannot wait to go back to Portugal! The cities we went to were stunning, and due to the cascade of circumstances, neither of us got to see nearly as much as we wanted to. The food was wonderful, the mercado and Palacio Chiado in Lisbon were particular highlights. Both of our hotels had helpful staff, generous breakfasts, and excellent locations. People love kids and bent over backwards to be helpful with Lil Bit.
In Madeira we went on a replica of the Santa Maria (Yes, Columbus was awful ). The crew dress as pirates, they have a dog and a parrot on board, and they give you cake (rum cake, of course), and fizzy drinks for the kids or the local port for adults. Lil Bit had a ball. We then took the cable car up to the town of Monte. We didn’t toboggan down because Lil Bit fell asleep. Also, the playgroundless park was still beautiful and Lil Bit was, eventually, quite content to feed the ducks and swans and have an ice cream in the grass.
In Lisbon we saw the castle, took one of the funiculars, and in both cities we spent scads of time outside by the water. It was all very affordable with our hotels running about sixty odd USD. And Lil Bit’s favorite pastime, chasing pigeons, was free. I am not going to review any of the restaurants because there was so much going on with us I don’t feel we’ll give them proper credit. But because we spent more time than anticipated in our hotels here ya go.
In Funchal, Madeira we stayed at the Funchal Design Hotel.
The Good
Great location a few blocks from the water and the center of town and even closer to the old city. Breakfast is included and is quite the decent spread with a few a la cart items included. Service at the hotel was excellent at every level.
Our room was huge, a small apartment, really. There was a small kitchen with a table to sit four. A bedroom in which they had placed a toddler crib for Lil Bit. She enjoyed it. The bed was large and comfortable. On the other side of a roomy bathroom was another room. As an apartment in Manhattan it would go for thousands of dollars a month.
The Bad
Due to the fact that they had to work around centuries old solid stone walls the layout of the rooms was a bit awkward. In some areas there seemed to be a commitment to design over function. For example, the walls, floor, and even the ceiling of the bathroom are painted black. This eats up the light making it particularly difficult for anyone applying makeup after sunset.
The Ugly
Sugar ants. With a toddler in tow we kept fresh fruit, juice, and other snacks in the kitchen. Of course there was the occasional spill. Even cleaning everything with soap and water didn’t discourage the buggers. I was going to put this under Bad but by the end of our stay they were everywhere. This was in February of 2019 so hopefully it’s something they have taken care of.
In Lisbon, we were in the Gat Rossio.
The Good
Excellent location. The more we learned about the city the more we realized what a good spot we were in to explore it. The hotel itself is well done with a more than decent breakfast. The rooms and bathrooms are small but the three of us were able to manage just fine. They’ve done some innovative tweaks to maximize functionality. The staff were very helpful, especially with the hospital incident.
There is no bad but I do want to talk about eggs. At the breakfast buffet you have the option of boiling your own egg. They have egg baskets which have a plastic tag on the handle. Note the location of the tag! That’s how you know which one is yours. There are egg shaped egg timers but most of them were unreliable. Just use your phone. Enjoy your breakfast!
A couple of other tips and tricks. While I found our stroller to be mostly useful a carrier is definitely a better option in hilly Madeira and Lison. I mean, we’re talking about places that use cable cars and funiculars as public transportation! Don’t even bother taking a stroller to Monte or to the botanical gardens on Madeira. You can use a stroller throughout much of the castle in Lisbon but, again, a carrier is better. And if you do take a stroller definitely take advantage of public transportation rather than attempt to walk to the castle. Note that there are a lot of high cliffs with low walls at the castle.
We use a Boba carrier with a weight range of 7 to 45lbs/3.2 to 20kg. Our Lil Bit is almost forty pounds now and I am seriously thinking of upgrading to a toddler carrier, one up to sixty pounds (27kg), as it does come in handy. That said, the one time we traveled with only the carrier was a bit much for me. My “travel” stroller is a cheapie I picked up at Walmart (Yes, Walmart is evil.) Our daughter enjoys the Disney theme and I can pick it up and carry it up and down stairs with one hand.
Speaking of stairs the metro stop for the expensive Lisbon Zoo does not have an elevator. Considering this is a family attraction I thought this odd. As for the zoo itself, it may be worth the money when all the attractions and shows are running but none of them – NONE OF THEM – were on the day we went. Also, as a random aside, while at this zoo my daughter was stalked by both a tiger and a jaguar with the tiger attempting to leap at her through its plexiglass cage! I know it is the nature of cats, but damn.
In short, loved Portugal. We will be visiting Lisbon again and exploring other parts of the country in the future.