Darryl Bernstein Studios

09/13/2023

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08/30/2023

08/28/2023

Next day we booked a speed boat trip to see the coastline and the famous Benagil Cave or Gruta de Benagil. It truly is spectacular and amazing the way the boat operators can manage the waves and kayaks and swimmers, plus get us right up to the shore! Pictures don’t do this place justice. Also shocking to see people at opening peering in from above. Feels like it defies gravity.

It would be fun to kayak here and spend more time on the beach. Maybe be better off season for less crowds but still spectacular. We continued on and explored other caves including paradise beach cave.

All of this increased our appetite for beach time so we checked out the beaches that were easily walkable from Lagos. The local beaches west of the canal offer 3 separate beaches, separated by small cutouts that you walk through depending on the tide. That last one featured on old Roman bridge that was still intact and on private land.

The water color is truly amazing and the cool Atlantic is super refreshing on a hot August day. I just love the Algarve!

08/25/2023

And here is video of Lili at surf camp!

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08/25/2023

08/24/2023

08/21/2023

With the clock ticking on picking Lili up from surf camp, we decide to move a little closer by heading to Coimbra for a couple nights.

Coimbra is one of the oldest university towns in Europe. Founded in Lisbon in the 1100s, the university was moved to Coimbra in 1520. (Rumor has it they will leave the PAC 12 in 2024 🤪)

It’s sometimes referred to as a little Lisbon, but I think it has its own charm with lots of medieval architecture still present. In fact, our doorway was situated right under one of the medieval arches.

Street murals are abundant along with Portugal’s signature marble mosaic walkways. We found art everywhere. Even the chaos of the boys frat house seemed artfully curated, sometimes with late night raids of area objects.

But this day was too hot to fly the drone so we settled into our light filled corner apartment. I highly recommend staying right in the heart of a city. No wasted time on transportation. Just step out into the action of street cafes and live music!

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08/21/2023

Portugal, in my view, is a patient, courteous society by comparison to the U.S. You hear less agitated use of car horns, nonchalance when you park in the trolley lane and merchants like to take time to visit while you order or checkout.

But I do think I would characterize Porto as having a bit more edge to it. There is a slight ornery side. Take their annual St. John’s celebration where they sell plastic hammers to bop passersby on the head!

This leather shop has dried garlic, which is also used to annoy strangers in the street festival. The long stems allow greater reach than the plastic hammers! This shop has been saving theirs for years and they decorate the ceiling back to the opening of the shop in the 1920s.

08/20/2023

Porto is such a visually stunning city but also hard to capture in a single image. One of our visually overwhelming stops was at the Stock Exchange Palace (Palácio da Bolsa). Though no royals ever lived here, it was named a palace all the same to host dignitaries and serve as the central commerce hub of the day. Gustav Eiffel’s actual desk is also housed here though his famous little Paris project was completed after his time in Porto.

The Praca da Liberdade easily rivals some of Paris’ most famous boulevards. Unfortunately construction hampered some of our views. In fact, the famous blue and white tiles (Azulejos) at São Bento Train Station (yellow ceiling in the pics) were covered with a gauze material to protect them from construction dust. However the azulejos are on full colorful display at the inst-famous Church of Souls. The full facade is decorated and the tiles reach the street for easy selfies!

Don’t miss Porto if you decide to travel to Portugal 🇵🇹

08/20/2023

Sometimes you research a spot and sometimes a spot finds you. Leah took notice of this special little tapas restaurant across the alley from our Airbnb. It’s not an exaggeration to say we enjoyed one of the best meals of our lives here!

Jimao Tapas e Vinhos serves delectable small plates in a darling little two story spot just off the Riberia.

It is recommended that you make reservations in advance for most of the best places and we watched many people get turned away until they get used to the custom. So we had stopped by earlier in the day to secure our spot at 8pm. Kinda love the later night dining. We found our table with a cute welcoming sign and just when we were getting settled, the owner informed us they had a cancellation for prime table upstairs!

Our spectacular dinner started with specialty butters infused with herbs and peppers. This was followed by octopus on black squid ink linguine, cod ceviche with magical foam, prawns Jimao style, “mushroom and company” (unbelievable!). Each plate artfully presented. We topped it all off with “Textures of Chocolate” and we were truly transported!