It´s been a long time since an update on this blog. One reason is our daughter, who is by now two years old and quite demanding, and we prefer spending our time on playgrounds. The other reason is Covid and coming with it the associated restrictions which put us somehow off. I don’t have the impression of returning to normal any time soon.
All this is of course no excuse for us to not post anything of our trips since the end of 2019. Maybe the good old travel times will return soon enough (at least one can dream about it) and maybe Portugal is a potential destination for you.
In October 2019, we traveled to Portugal with Tilda and oh my, we had such a good time. People, who follow this blog more or less regularly, know we love Portugal. If you get married in Portugal, why not bring your baby here?!
To start with: Traveling with a baby is different. And the way we traveled was totally right for us in that situation. Our travel pace was way slower than without a baby, which was actually nice. We did see a lot, nevertheless. Furthermore, because of breastfeeding, I couldn’t enjoy all those delicious Portuguese wines, which I will catch up on later.
This is relevant because people traveling to Porto would love to do one of the many offered wine tastings (shout out to the beautiful Douro Valley) and will not make a find in this post.
I will tell you a little bit about our trip with baby because this is still a topic for some people. If you’re not interested in this, just click on the links below this text to get to the different posts. We made a little trip from North to South. Starting with Porto (with detours to Guimarães, to Braga with its Bom Jesus do Monte church, and to the Douro Valley), continuing with Sesimbra and the Algarve. In the end, we drove back to Porto and made a break in Aveiro.
For this, we rented a car. A larger one than we used to because of all the stuff we needed to bring for the baby. They need so much, and I am 100% sure I didn’t pack too much. Baby car seat and baby buggy and bottles and toys and clothes. Jesus Christ!
Getting there with the Baby
Again: If you’re not interested in this stuff, skip it. (People without kids are usually not into this stuff.)
Our departure was at 7 a.m. This meant being at the airport at around 4 in the night. She was awake the whole time. We really wished she would sleep during the flight. But no. It was all too exciting. Bottom line: we were so naive. This stuff is not predictable.
We arrived at 9.30 Portugal time, got out of the airport with way too much luggage, and picked up our rental. While she was busy delighting everyone at the airport as if she wasn’t tired, the crying started at 10.30 as we left the airport. Our little sweetheart decided to process the whole trip right now and we had to make our first stop very quickly.
As we weren’t allowed to check in this early, we thought carpe diem and acted like we were not half in a coma. We decided to continue driving: Guimarães and other stops. Tilda caught up on sleep in the baby carrier. We slept early that day and the whole night was a good one. Thank God!
What else?
Otherwise, most of the time was relaxed. The time in the car wasn’t always easy, but we didn’t expect anything else. Tilda was around seven months old at that time and made a very good job enduring the several hours in the car in its Maxi-Cosi prison. She is just the best!
During our time at the Algarve, she was teething very badly. This forced us to change our plans and we chose to do things a bit slower and skip some trips. We had a very good time doing so. It was a lesson for both of us. Before Tilda, we were convinced not to be able to do relaxed trips only. Now we like both. I really love the changes our little one brings to us and we’re not getting bored for one second.
Travel route Portugal
And here are the links and the travel route for our trip. Enjoy!
Porto and surroundings – the north of Portugal!
Sesimbra, Setubal, Parque Natural de Arrabida!
And again, the Algarve!