We recently popped in 7 countries in a month. Ok Europe is so small, one could do 30 countries in a month 😂 That will not be a pleasant trip, don’t do it. Our seven were by chance. This is how we popped –
First hop Portugal! Let’s go!
I have always loved Portugal, all of the seven (?) times I have been there. So when Didi booked her tickets from the USA to Eu via Portugal – we had to use this opportunity. Instagram started showing her ads for Algarve as soon as she even whispered Portugal. And we thought, why not? We had loved the whole region so much four years ago, that we even thought of buying a holiday villa there with money we didn’t have.
But this time it felt different and I couldn’t help but wonder why?
We drove down straight from Lisbon airport to a spot several influencers’ had recommended, Ponta da Piedade. The official path (a fenced board path) seemed further away from any of the dramatic cliff drops I remembered from 4 years ago. Had we gone rogue last time and Swiss bunny had jumped on every precarious rock to peer at the edge of every cliff or did it look different because of the high sun, or did the cliffs erode in all this time? We left the board walk a little bit bored (hah see what I did there).
The next morning we hung out at the beach, where my hat flew away again (cough) 😛.
In the afternoon we went for a boat ride from Lagos to watch dolphins and the Benagil caves. I had 0 expectations but we found the dolphins (or rather they found us)! The dolphins happily scooted below and around us for a good 45 min! It was amazing.
However, the next stop on the boat tour – Benagil cave and a close up of the cliffs around failed to wow us like 4 years ago. Again I wondered why – the cliffs were not the same because of erosion? Over tourism (aka the silly French girls sitting behind us)? Or was it because our level of wow was upped by Corsica? The biting wind and sun, and the hard bumps on the sea were not making the experience any nicer. I would NOT recommend the boat ride to anyone.
The next day we went to Sagres, which is almost at the west most tip of Europe. The cliffs looked so amazing but it was sooo cold (wind) and the sun so biting. The fort of Sagres was well a boring European fort. Buh.
In the afternoon we hung out at the hotel pool, got stung by a bee, then hung out at Salema beach, went up and then back to Salema beach again for one last walk. It was very nice.
Country #2 Switzerland
Our stop: Wallis/ Zermatt region in Switzerland. Somehow it felt more pleasant than Portugal (have I truly become Swiss now?! 😰).
We went to Zermatt, went all the way up to Gornergrat like the 5000 other people, took cliche pictures with the Toblerone mountain, and made our way back to 37 dg without a/c to Basel.
All in all, it was nice traveling together with the extended family. The people and places were all familiar- yet all felt different.
Countries #3 and #4 were supermarkets in Germany and France 😛 (the joys of Basel).
Country #5: Denmark, a weekend in Copenhagen – see next post
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Several pictures credit to- Didi
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