On my friend Kap's advice, we flew Air TAP to Senegal, through Portugal. This was supposedly cheaper than anything we could have got from Berlin, though once you factor in the trains to and from Hamburg (the city we flew out of) and the time spent in Lisbon on our layovers, I'm not sure if it's strictly true.
But it doesn't matter, because between the length of the layovers (about 6 hours when we first flew through together, and a full 12 hours when I flew back in on my own after Senegal) and the fantastic, fast bus link into the city from the airport, this meant – I actually got to see some of Portugal! A place I'd never been before.
On our first layover, we took the airport bus into the city and wandered up to the Alfama (Lisbon's old town, and conveniently the only thing I even knew about Lisbon beforehand), poked around, then had dinner and the obligatory famous pastry, the pastel de nata, before heading back to the airport for our late evening flight to Dakar.
On the way back, I had even more time, a full day, so I took the bus into Lisbon but then continued on straight out of town by train. Kap had recommended the town of Sintra, which is apparently a top day trip destination out of Lisbon.
And with good reason, because Sintra is home to the coolest castle I've ever seen. And remember, I'm not even particularly a castle person. (Except in Scotland.) This place – the Moorish Castle – was just fantastic. Like an enormous stone playground (please don't consider me historically insensitive when I say that...) but better, way better. Words don't do it justice and pictures probably don't either, but here are a few:
Click on the image to go to the album!
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| Lisbon Layover |
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