Easter in Portugal — CHLOE HYDE

After enjoying Barcelona so much over Easter in 2018, we decided to head in the same direction this Easter, but this time to Portugal. Lisbon had been on my list of places to visit for a while and I had also heard plenty of good things about Porto so we decided to visit both cities over five days.

We flew into Porto first as the flights were cheaper this way around - although the general advice we received was that it's better to visit Lisbon first. Porto was beautiful and sunny for the two days we were there. It is a small city - its sunny weather and quiet nature reminded me somewhat of Australia. We chose to stay slightly out of the centre of Porto at Porto City House, which was still very easy to get around. This is quite a new boutique hotel with very friendly staff.

We had pre-booked dinner on the first night at the incredible Cantino do Avillez, a contemporary Portuguese restaurant. I had one of the recommended dishes, a fish dish with 'exploding olives'. We then walked through the city and over the famous Dom Luis I Bridge. We managed to cross this bridge both at night and day, both providing beautiful views across Porto. The city is beautifully lit up at night so a post-dinner walk is definitely worthwhile.

We started our first full day with some rather filling food for brunch. I had the Francesinha, a famous Porto sandwich filled with various types of meat, topped with an egg and a huge amount of cheese, and sitting in a pool of beer-flavoured sauce. It's worth trying but be warned - it's as rich as it sounds! We then wandered around the beautiful streets of inner Porto to admire all of the intricately tiled buildings.

We walked past the Chapel of Souls and Santo Ildefonso, both old churches with beautiful tiled facades. We then made our way to Se do Porto, an old cathedral with an interior courtyard surrounded in more beautiful tiles. Later in the afternoon, we visited the beautiful Jardins do Palacio de Cristal. This park has an absolutely stunning view across the river and is an ideal spot to unwind.

We came to Portugal craving some good seafood so when we read about Matosinhos, we had to visit. Many restaurants have large barbeques at the front of the restaurant with outdoor seating. We had some amazing grilled seabass and octopus - the best seafood we have had in a long time.

I started the second day with some delicious pastel de nata at Manteigaria. This large cafe serves breakfast and lunch as well as a lot of freshly baked pastel de nata. It was so good, I'm tempted to say I preferred the pastel de nata from Manteigaria over Pasteis de Belem! I then wandered through the city before crossing Dom Luis I Bridge to try some Port.

We enjoyed some amazing 20-year-old port at Kopke. If we had more time, I would have loved to have done a port tasting but with limited time until our train to Lisbon, we decided to instead take a boat tour up the river. This was a nice way to while away the afternoon and get a better sight of Porto.

The train ride to Lisbon was easy and took us into the city centre. We stayed at the picturesque Inspira Santa Marta Hotel, a spa hotel just back from Avenue da Liberdade and within walking distance of central Lisbon. We walked into Barro Alto to have dinner at a small wine bar on the first night. The tapas style food was delicious - we had an amazing Flambé Portuguese sausage. We then had drinks at a cosy wine bar called The Old Pharmacy - themed as it sounds.

Our first full day in Lisbon was spent in Sintra, a hilly area about one hour out of Lisbon, filled with old castles and amazing views. We decided to visit Pena Palace first, a colourful castle that looks like something straight out of a fairytale. The castle has an amazing exterior and interesting rooms inside. We then made our way to the National Palace, a white building with humungous chimneys and themed rooms.

We headed back to Barro Alto for dinner again, this time to have Portuguese steak. Barro Alto is a beautiful area with cobbled streets lined with bars and restaurants. It was very busy on Sunday night when we arrived in Lisbon but surprisingly quiet on Monday. This is definitely a good area to visit if you're looking for dinner in Lisbon.

We spent Tuesday wandering the streets of Lisbon. We walked from our hotel to Graca to see a few Obey murals. The murals were conveniently close to Miradouro da Senhora do Monte, the starting point of our self-guided walking tour. This lookout has a sweeping view across Lisbon. There are also a lot of little tuk-tuks that can take you up to this lookout. We happened to be on this walk on one of the few days that the Feira da Ladra (Thieves Market) is open so we had a wander through the market stalls. This is a nice place to find handcrafted gifts and vintage items. We had lunch at O Prego, another Portuguese steak restaurant.

I didn't want to miss visiting Principe Real so we rushed there for a quick look and I loved it - I would definitely spend more time here if I went back to Lisbon. There are some amazing shops that are worth a visit if you have time. We also had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Principe Real on our last night.

We couldn't leave Lisbon without visiting Belem. We spent a few hours in MAAT, a contemporary museum. There are two buildings and you can choose whether to visit one building or both. We bought tickets to both buildings but I would have been happy to have only visited the new building, which had more art (the older building is more of a museum). The architecture of the building itself is worth a look at, even if you don't have time to go in. It is also conveniently close to Pasteis de Belem, the drawcard in Belem. A top tip for Pasteis de Belem is to walk straight in a make your way to the queue for seats - this is considerably faster than joining the takeaway queue outside! You can also buy extra pastel de nata to take home from your table.

The final stop was the Timeout Market. We almost didn't fit this food market into our itinerary but made it there in the end and it was worth it! There are a lot of food stalls, many offering a modern take on local produce.