Author Archives: Patricia Murphy

Day 2 Funchal

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I’m not going to lie. I was disappointed that it rained all day in Funchal. Of course. But we can’t complain about anything else, so complaining about the weather seems banal.

We left our hotel in Lisbon at 6:20 am and took a domestic flight on TAP airlines. The trip through security was so civilized. I had two helpers, one who placed all my items into bins for me, then there was another person to help me gather my belongings. “May I see your tripod?” Helper 2 asked. Okay. Now I felt extra crappy about being American, because 1. no one patted me down and 2. no one snarled at me, and 3. this Portuguese man knows how to say tripod in English, and, oh, 4. “May I help you put on your backpack?” he asked.

I learned some Portuguese for this trip, about 100 words. I just can’t manage to put them into any intelligible order. I also can’t use them consistently without adding in some French, English, and Spanish. At dinner last night I was lucky that the waiter spoke all 4, and we managed to converse at length using a ridiculous combination like a Saturday Night Live skit about the Atlantic rim of Europe. It reminded me of the time in Lima when the concierge laughed out loud when I answered his question “¿Dónde comprar el libro?” with “aux Estados Unidos.”

So, it’s raining. We’re at Reid’s Palace in Funchal, which is featured in my book of 1001 Places to See Before You Die, and now I know exactly why it is, although I tend to think the person who wrote it came here when it was sunny. We have walked the cliffs down to the water, roamed the gardens, had champagne and homemade cakes and madeira in the room. We’ve had high tea on the patio with finger sandwiches and petits fours. And my biggest dilemma of the day is which pillow I shall order from the “pillow menu.” There are 10 to choose from. Perhaps I’ll just ask for one of each.

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Day 1 Lisbon

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Our journey to Portugal from Phoenix started with a ride to the airport with dear friends at 8:30 am on Tuesday May 10. Trips are always better when you have a send-off from people you love. From there we had a 4 hour flight to Philly, a 2 hour layover, then a 7 hour flight to Lisbon. We grabbed a taxi and arrived to the Lx Boutique Hotel by 9 am Wednesday. Lisbon is 8 hours ahead, so door to door the trip took 12 hours. The hotel has a tiny lobby, but it is in a great location. The staff stored our luggage so John and I could begin wandering right away. This day was a “bonus” day in Lisbon, a way to get our bearings before our 7:30 am flight to Madeira on Thursday. We will be coming back to do Lisbon “properly” after our stay and race in Madeira.

We started by walking down to the square for a look at the government center and the river. Sky, who knew you could be so blue? What a lovely contrast between the pastel colored buildings. There is a lot of construction in Lisbon, and the city prides itself on the combination of old and new.

Past and future: historical buildings and cranes.

From there we took a walking tour through the area known as the Alfama. We saw several beautiful churches, some antique stores, and more beautiful pastel buildings with orange tile roofs as far as the eye could see.

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We walked until around noon, when we stopped for a Plate do Dia back at the square.

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After a well earned nap at the hotel, that we struggled to end since we could have slept for just about forever, we took off up the steep hill to the Barrio Alto to scout a few dinner spots. While there, we ran across a lovely wine bar and decided we must have a taste.

Enjoyng a sip.

Although we had planned to eat dinner at a spot in Barrio Alto, we ended up going to a quiet, newer restaurant in nearby Chiado called Clara Chiado that John read about on Trip Advisor. We chose it because we must be getting old. The hawkers in Barrio Alto were too much for me. I don’t want to eat at a place where someone stands at the door and yells at me to come in.

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This little restaurant turned out to be just the spot. They had a wall of shelves stocked with wine all with price tags, and you get to “shop” for your bottle. We chose a white from the Douro Valley.

Shopping for Wine.

Dinner was lovely. What did we eat? Well, Pulpo of course. My favorite.

Pulpo, of course.

After a wandering walk back to the hotel, we enjoyed a few minutes of Internet surfing before falling straight to sleep. Their wifi is heavenly.

1 Day 3 Hours

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John and I spent the weekend running last minute errands and running through several packing configurations. We have decided to check our bags and for two very good reasons. First, after 5 weeks of physical therapy, I re-injured my shoulder and am back to pain levels I had on day 1. I don’t need to be lifting any bags, or dragging them around, for that matter. Plus, we have a big bag of snacks to bring with us.

We’re really looking forward to this getaway. We’ll be updating you on our progress soon.

Eight More Days: Packing Run-Through

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Were you getting anxious about the Packing for our trip to Portugal? I hope I haven’t waited too long to tell you I have completed my Packing Run-Through. And boy am I glad I did, because the Packing Run-Through made it painfully clear that I needed some more tops and bottoms. The Packing Run-Through sent me off on a shopping trip to fill in some blanks in the wardrobe.

I started the Packing Run-Through a few weeks ago but got distracted and put it on hold. In the interim, John made some funny additions to my packing list. Ha ha ha. I wish!

Today I picked up where I left off and completed the Packing Run-Through. I don’t know what it’s like packing at your house, but here’s what it’s like at my house.

John "writes in" some items on my list.

John “writes in” some items on my list.

 

Kitty really does want to come to Portugal

Kitty really does want to come to Portugal

Here’s the final list of what I am taking. I have 12 dresses so far. John mentioned I should probably pack more. He’s a good man.

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Final Packing List

Some Restaurants

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You already know we will be running two races in Portugal, a 25K trail run and a Half Marathon. So I’m sure you understand that we will need to make up for that calorie deficit with some fine dining.  In fact, my mouth is already watering over these dinner reservations:

May 12 Tea at Reid’s Palace Tea Terrace will include delicious cakes and finger sandwiches.

May 14 also at Reid’s Palace we will enjoy a Gala Champagne Dinner at the Main Dining Room.

May 17 we will walk up the hill from our hotel in Lisbon to experience a 7 course tasting at 100 Maneiras.

We’re still working on the rest of our choices for dinners and lunches in Funchal, Lisbon, and Porto. Any recommendations?

Training Adventure

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I’ve been having some busy few weeks. Going to Physical Therapy 3x a week for my rotator cuff impingement, attending work events that last up to 3 hours past my bedtime, finishing up the semester’s 3 classes, completing Issue 7 of my magazine, planning my summer of travel to Portugal & Vermont & Minnesota. And, oh, there is that little nagging thing called training for two races: a 15.5-mile trail run and a half marathon. Our trail run is on the island of Madeira, and it starts at 3000 feet and drops to sea level. My training needs to include some elevation change–as much as I can manage in the desert.

So this morning, after a frenzied week of work and etc., all I wanted to do was stay home in bed with a book. What do you think I did?

Right. I ran from my house to the top of  South Mountain, through Hidden Valley to the Buena Vista Trailhead, down Summit Drive to San Juan Road to Central Avenue. Because, well, that’s relaxing #sarcasm.

Now that I’m home with a burrito in my belly, I can tell you that it WAS relaxing #notsarcasm. What a beautiful way to spend a Saturday morning. I can’t wait to do it again. Want to come? Here are the details.

The Lodging–Five Hotels in Portugal

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Our approach to planning the Portugal trip, I will admit to you, was a little sloppy. We came back from Peru in December feeling manic. We tried to plan an Italy/Croatia adventure for August, which is the perfect time to get out of Phoenix, but we couldn’t make the flights happen. So then, we tried Portugal in May, and it worked. We spent about a month thinking we would go to Morocco as well. We’re going to Madeira, which is off the coast of Africa, so we thought it would be easy to hop on over. Well, to get to Morocco we would have had to fly back to Lisbon. We were looking at only about 32 hours in Fez. I really want to spend more time in Morocco, so we’ll dedicate a future trip completely to it.

That decided, and our races picked, we looked for places to sleep. John found our Lisbon hotel lx boutique on Tripadvisor. We booked it, and later it showed up on Conde Nast’s 2011 hot list for Europe. We’ll stay there a total of 4 nights, though they are spread out: our first and last night, and a couple in the middle. We’re hoping it will be a nice home base.

Lisbon: lx Boutique Hotel

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We looked into staying at the race launch point in Porto Moniz, but all the hotels were booked, and I have to say thank goodness since we waited a few weeks, and a package for Reid’s Palace came up on Luxurylink.com. This is an Orient Express hotel so the service has already been impeccable. The concierge has made my dinner reservations, arranged a car on the day of the race, and promised to pick us up at the airport in a limo. Since I haven’t been in a limo since prom, this is going to be fun!

Madeira: Reid’s Palace

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Back to the continent, we are going to take several days to drive from Lisbon up the coast to Porto. I’m interested to see the two cities, since Lisbon was devastated by an earthquake in the 1700’s, and Porto was not. I wonder how much difference that will make in landmarks and architecture? Our first stop on this drive up the coast is Obidos.

Obidos: Casa d’Obidos

Also on our drive, we’ll stop in the town of Coimbra where I can’t wait to stay in this elegant manor.

Coimbra: Hotel Quinta das Lagirmas

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We are running a half marathon in the Douro Valley, so we wanted a retreat where we could relax afterwards. When I emailed and inquired about rooms, I got a sweet note from Ursula, the owner. She said “It’s hard to believe our little half marathon made its way to Arizona. Sometimes I feel like we live at the end of the earth.” Well, I can’t wait to see her end of the earth. And soon, I will!

Pinhao: Case do Visconde de Chancelerios

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Pretty Morning

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It is a gorgeous morning here and what better way is there to start the day than my favorite mountain bike ride? It only takes 45 minutes and it’s easy to ride clean. I need to remember to do this more often. Here’s the route.

Trish Loves a Mtn Bike Ride

Trish Loves a Mtn Bike Ride