Visiting the Incredible Quinta Da Regaleira in Sintra, Portugal

While researching Portugal and Sintra, there was one image that popped out to me as something I had to see in person - the Masonic initiation well at Quinta Da Regaleira.

Image from Flickr

I was immediately thrilled and enchanted by the idea of this spot - a winding staircase with moss covered stone walls and hidden passageways... and was determined to find it when we were visiting Sintra.

The Quinta Da Regaleira is beautiful and magical. The entire property is gorgeous - with outstanding park grounds full of paths and tunnels, lakes and grottoes, fountains and structures, including a chapel.

Cabo da Roca & Óbidos, Portugal

Cabo da Roca and the little town of Óbidos were two spots in Portugal that I absolutely loved. We visited both spots on the day of our trip dedicated to driving from Sintra up to Porto.

 

Cabo da Roca

TRAVEL TIP: Road travel in Portugal often takes longer than estimated when you're using smaller roads instead of highways. Along our trip from Sintra to Cabo da Roca, we got stuck on a small, winding road behind a large (especially for European standards) RV from Germany. The drive ended up being an adventure in itself, as the couple in the RV actually needed our (and other motorist's) help in a couple of tight spots! Make sure you give yourself plenty of drive time, especially if you're going on a tour or have a reservation somewhere!

London! (The itinerary!)

We're going to London later this month! I'm so excited!

Air New Zealand had some amazing round trip fares for direct flights out of Los Angeles to London, so we jumped on the opportunity to visit two friends that are living there. It's been over a year since I've seen SD, and it's been over FIVE years since I've seen CH! I've never flown Air New Zealand before, but so far it's been a great experience with them - they have a really, truly fantastic customer service line, are friendly and never rude, and gave us free London Passes with the purchase of our tickets! The London Pass is going to come in handy, too, with line jumping and free entry to a ton of attractions. 

So, what do we plan on doing? 

Nothing, and everything.

I want at least 1 day of this trip to be dedicated to not having any plans. In the other two trips I've taken this year - New York and the Wild Wild (Mid)West, our days were packed to the gills with stuff to do. Must see this, must do that, must eat here. So this trip? Not a whole lot of that. I want some quality time with BF. I want some really fun, casual times with our friends. And I want to actually be able to soak in a true idea of what London is like!

There are, of course, things I want to see - Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, the London Tower and Tower Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral, Harrods, the rugby museum, the bridges. Maybe Windsor Castle. Maybe the Chislehurst Caves. A coworker told me that the Soane Museum can't be missed. There's a DaVinci Code tour that looks my inner nerd thinks sounds awesome.  And there are bike tours and boat tours and canal tours and seven new attractions... the list goes on and on. 

On the top of my "musts" list - afternoon tea! I love, love, love tea, and I feel like it's a quintessential thing to do while visiting London. Not sure where we'll end up, but I'll be sure to post about that later! 

And someone on a TripAdvisor recommended this "marvelously cheap" outing for visitors: "Take the Docklands Light Railway from Bank station in the direction of Lewisham. Get off at Island Gardens and walk through the historic pedestrian tunnel under the Thames. Pop out in Greenwich and stroll around - perhaps eating a picnic in the park or going to the Maritime Museum (free)." It sounds good to me! 

All I want out of this trip is great escape - good, relaxing time with BF and my friends, and to feel completely NOT stressed when we get home. And I think we've got a pretty good plan (or, non plan?) to make that happen!

So, have any of you been to London? Is there anything out there that we shouldn't miss?

Oh, Canada! (Or, My Toronto Trip!)

Last October, I went to Toronto on somewhat of a whim. See, M's company was sending her there for work, and she asked if I wanted to go. I had always wanted to see Toronto (especially since they shoot a couple of my favorite TV shows there), and thought - why not??

So off to Toronto we went!

View of the city skyline from the waterfront.

Florence, Italy

As I've mentioned before, Florence holds a special place in my heart. So you can imagine that I was a little bit disappointed that our time there didn't quite go as planned.

Our first challenge: We were exhausted. We had been rush rush rushing for 10 days by the time we got to Florence, and we just hit the wall when we got there.

Our second challenge: The weather was still ridiculously hot and humid!

We still managed to see what we wanted to in Florence, and I wouldn't have skipped it for the world. But I didn't get to show off the city in the way I had wanted to.

Florence's Duomo - the photos never really do it justice!

Siena & Corsano, Italy

After a hot and crowded Rome, the breezy Tuscan countryside was just perfect. The weather was still HOT but there was much less humidity, making it a pleasant change!

We arrived in Siena in the early evening, and took a cab from the train station to our hotel. The train station in Siena is at the bottom of the hill the city is situated on, so cabs are a good way to get to the main areas.

Travel Photo Tuesday: Roman Accordion Player

Resurrecting an old favorite of mine: travel photo Tuesdays! I'll be honest here and say I probably won't do this every week, but I love sharing my passion of photography on here, so I'll give it a shot.

We stumbled upon this guy while we were wandering around the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome. I have a special spot in my heart for accordion players, and this guy was such a gem!

Slieve League Cliffs and Donegal, Ireland

Well, we've been back for over three months. Three months! And for almost each day of those three months, I've spent at least a few minutes a day daydreaming that I was back in Europe on our trip. So I decided it's high time to get around to detailing what we did on our great big fabulous trip!

THE TRIP
First up: our flights over, and our first days in Ireland, which included the Slieve League cliffs and the town of Donegal!

Neglected!

I have seriously neglected this blog since I returned from my big trip to Europe!

What can I say - life has gotten in the way of blogging. And by that, I mean I've been absolutely swamped at work, and have not had the energy to get on the computer once I'm home. But! I just might have found my blogging mojo again, and am currently drafting some posts about our amazing trip to Europe.

So be patient, anyone out there reading who hasn't disappeared in the weeks and weeks since I've last posted!

Recaps of our trip are coming soon!

A love letter to bella Firenze

View of the city from Piazza Michelangelo.

I've discovered in our recent trip planning that many people who have been to Italy either didn't enjoy Florence immensely, or could take it or leave it. It's rarely people's favorite city. And I can kind of understand - it lacks the romanticism of Venice and the vast history of Rome. It doesn't have a leaning tower or The Last Supper. It can be crowded, gets very hot during the summer, and is fairly industrial and dirty. The public transportation isn't as good in Florence as in other cities, and it's pretty pricey.

But despite all of those things, Florence remains my favorite city in Italy.

Need to see list: Rome, Italy

Fountain of the Four Rivers, Piazza Navona

Rome.

I've started to think about some of the things I want to do there on our trip next year. While I've been to Italy, and spent extensive amounts of time in the three main cities we'll be visiting, we'll be traveling with people who haven't been - and so it becomes a balance of checking out things that they want to see, and us not doing things we've done before and can skip this time around. Obviously, this means that at least for certain things, our group might split up. But, there are some things that never get old (no pun intended!) - the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and of course, the Colosseum.

Itinerary (v3)

Changes again and again. I love the process of planning a trip. And in my obsessive organization, I will most likely document our planning process on this blog. I'm ok with that - how 'bout you?

Here's the newest version of our itinerary - it's customized for me and BF, and our friend MW who has expressed lots of interest in Ireland!

Wednesday: flight to Rome from LAX
Thursday: arrive in Rome, night in Rome
Friday: Rome, night in Rome
Saturday: train to Siena, night in Siena
Sunday: Siena, day trips to San Gimignano and surrounding areas, night in Siena
Monday: WEDDING! Night in Siena
Tuesday: Train to Florence, night in Florence
Wednesday: Florence, day trip to Pisa, night in Florence
Thursday: train to Venice, night in Venice
Friday: Venice, night in Venice
Saturday: Venice, night flight to Dublin, night in Dublin
Sunday: Dublin, rent car, drive to West Coast, night in Ballyshannon
Monday: West Coast of Ireland, night in Ballyshannon
Tuesday: West Coast of Ireland, night in Ballyshannon
Wednesday: West Coast of Ireland, drive to Dublin, return car, night in Dublin
Thursday: Dublin, night in Dublin
Friday: Fly home from Dublin, arriving on Friday night

So, it's changed rather significantly, but I think it works. It has a quicker time in Italy for those who are coming for the wedding, but only want to stay for a week, and then it allows for people to split up and/or do their own thing after Venice. Plus, it balances the trip for BF, who was a little worried that he wasn't going to get to pick anything on the trip. :-)

Italy 2011 - A tentative itinerary.

So I just found out that one of my bestest friends in the world is going to get married next year in Siena, Italy! I am SO stoked, and less than 24 hours after finding out, I'm already planning my itinerary.

Wanna see what I'm thinking? I thought you might!

The wedding is in late June, on a Monday. The bride and groom are planning on going to Rome for a few days before the wedding, and having people who want to meet up there so that we can all caravan to Siena. So this itinerary is based on that - and the fact that BF and I want to make a great trip of this and go for a solid 2 - 2.5 weeks.

Flying out on a Wednesday night, and arriving in Rome on a Thursday. We're thinking of flying into Rome and flying out of Vienna.

Places I've Been: San Gimignano, Italy

This blog is entirely about one of my favorite places in Tuscany: a small, off the beaten path town called San Gimignano. It's a pretty popular tourist town, but people traveling on their own (without a tour or a rental car) don't go as often because it's not as easily accessible as other Tuscan towns.

Photo taken from ilpalio.org

Travel Photo Tuesday: Costa Maya, Mexico

As I get ready to go on Mayercraft 2009 to Cabo San Lucas, I find myself looking at all of the photos I have from other "tropical" vacations. This is one of my favorites - from a secluded beach in Costa Maya, Mexico. The weather could not have been more perfect that day, and the water was calm enough for all of us to go play. My only regret was that we didn't get to stay longer in this spot.