Pizza is almost certainly my favorite food, so when I noticed that the top restaurant in Galway is a pizza restaurant, I snuck it into Dan and my itinerary on our Thanksgiving trip to Ireland! Actually, it ended up being our Thanksgiving day lunch and despite being pizza in Ireland, it was excellent!
Sintra, Portugal. Billed as a fairy tale castle city outside of Lisbon that, while not a household name, must be on every traveler’s bucket list. I visited Sintra in 2014, and I definitely had my doubts. Sintra was rumored to be terribly grandiose and was compared to the likes of Neuschwanstein and Disney castles. Despite my doubts, Sintra totally won me over! So much so that I organized a day trip to Sintra for guests at my wedding in Portugal!
Sintra Centro
I went to Paris last Summer (2016), but I never could bring myself to write about it. I love Paris so, so much and putting my trip into words seemed too daunting of a task (dramatic, I know!). But, so many people I know are traveling to Paris in the near future and I really want my pictures readily available to everyone on the internet…so I finally decided to memorialize my trip!
Ah, Paris! #swoon
If you read my post on Furnas, you know that I was iffy about visiting (thanks, Anthony Bourdain!), but I totally loved it! One of the main reasons that I loved Furnas was our fabulous hotel – the Terra Nostra Garden Hotel, where we spent 24 glorious hours!
Pulling up to Terra Nostra Garden Hotel.
Dan and I almost didn’t stay at Terra Nostra, but we made a last minute decision to stay one night at the recommendation of a friend and the reviews of Terra Nostra online! Definitely a great move, it was fun to spend a night away from our digs in Ponta Delgada, and it allowed us to experience the lavish Terra Nostra Gardens without all of the crowds (see below!).
Dan and I found ourselves flying out of Ponta Delgada airport verrrry early in the morning in September – like 7:30 a.m. flight early – on our way home from our “mini-moon” after our wedding (terribly depressing). We knew that PDL had a SATA Lounge, and we are hopeful that it would be open before our flight. And, it was! We were able to enjoy about 45 minutes in the SATA Lounge before our flight due to our Priority Pass.
The Azores. We were real sad to be leaving.
