Flights from Boston to Lisbon were cheap at $550 round trip with Iberia, so we decided to make Portugal the first country of our European vacation. Even though Portugal was open for tourism, it still required us to take a PCR test to enter from the US in addition to proof of our covid vaccination. Once we made it to Lisbon, we spent a few days exploring this hilly city. It was our second time visiting the capital of Portugal and we enjoyed it despite the heavy spring time rain that poured down in late March. After Lisbon, we linked up Becky’s brother Tom and his family in beautiful Mafra and used their home as our base for 5 days. Day trips from Mafra included: Sintra (Pena Palace, Moorish Castle, Quinta da Regaleira, & Monseratte Palace), Cascais, Estoril, Óbidos and Nazaré. We were so lucky to have Tom as our tour guide and it was lovely spending time with Richelle and Abby! Our last 2 days in Portugal saw us renting a car and exploring Alcobaça, Batalha, Tomar and Coimbra before zipping back down to Lisbon to fly to Seville, Spain for the next country on our trip. At the end of our European adventure, we flew back to Portugal for 2 nights on the way back to the US and visited the lovely seaside village of Ericeira. Even though we didn’t have as much time to spend in Portugal as we wanted, this was a fantastic experience and we will definitely be back to check out the Azores, Madeira Islands, Porto and the Algarve.