Portugal was on my “destinations list” for a couple of years. Finally we managed to go there on holiday this year, 18-28 July.
Accomodation:
We stayed at
Hotel Sana Rex, located near Park Eduardo VII and Marques de Pombal square – very conveniently situated.
I really liked this hotel, we had an amazing view from our balcony. The only downside was the breakfast – not very varied and 10 days of eating the same thing can be quite frustrating.
Transportation:
For getting around in Lisbon we mainly used the subway. A day-pass for subway, bus & tram costs 4.2 €, which is more convenient than paying 1.2 € for a one-way ticket.
Generally, taxis are a very convenient and cheap means of transportation, if you don’t want to buy a daily pass. For example, the trip to / from the airport was cheaper by taxi (6 €) than by bus (3.5 € / person). It should not cost more than 10 € to go between anywhere within the city and the center (Baixa).
Lisbon is famous for its wooden trams, but my recommendation is: on a hot summer day, only get inside one that was ALL its windows open! Otherwise, you’ll experience a sauna effect like never before!
When we rented the car, we were unpleasantly surprised of how expensive the highway toll was... nearly 20 € for 250 – 300 km !
Lisbon:
On the first day, we walked on the bank of river Tagus, from the
Monument of Discoveries ( Padrao dos Descobrimentos) (also worth visiting at night) to the
Belem Tower. Climbing up to the tower was quite a task for us – the staircase was incredibly narrow and steep and it was virtually impossible for people to pass through from both ways. Of course, there were some tourists who couldn’t accept this idea and insisted to squeeze their way... It was worth it though, for the views and the nice platform on top of the tower.
Across the street from the Tower is the
Modern Art Museum. We’re not big fans of museums, nonetheless modern art, but this center in particular had a lovely garden and refreshing water mist sprinkling from the ground – a good reason to spend some time there :)
Up the street, we stopped at the
Jeronimos Monastery - the resting place of Vasco da Gama. I liked the cloisters in particular, maybe because I’m not crazy about interiors... This doesn’t mean the monastery itself wasn’t an impressive piece of Manueline architecture.
On the second day we climbed up to St George Castle.
It’s construction started in the 6th century and most of it was destroyed over the years, but it still includes a long extension of walls and 18 towers. And climbing 18 towers can be energy draining, especially on a hot summer day :) Walking along the ramparts is nice because of the panoramic views of the city. Actually, most places in Lisbon are all about panoramic views, so I wouldn’t bother climbing every single tower / hill / elevator – for sure you’ll get to see everything in the end, from one place or another.
We spent the afternoon in the new part of the city - Expo Park (Parque de Nacoes). There’s a big contrast between this part and the old town, between the modern glass buildings here and the old houses covered with tiles in Alfama. What we enjoyed best here was the “water pavilion”, with its water volcanoes and the water wall, but it was also nice to stroll down the promenade by the river and soak in the view. The Vasco da Gama shopping mall is also located here, so for those who are interested in a bit of shopping it might be a good opportunity to check it out.
Our third day in Lisbon was all about walking down the small streets in the old town, admiring the colored buildings, the trams, the nice little restaurants on the sidewalk. We took the bus up to the castle, and then strolled down the hill through the streets of Alfama, with a nice break at Miraduoro de Santa Luzia and at Rua Augusta. 
In the evening we went back to Alfama – the area is known for its fado restaurants. We had a reservation at one of the restaurants, but didn’t like it too much, so we moved to another one nearby. What’s funny in this area is that, because the restaurants are so close to each other and each one has live fado music, it’s difficult to hear JUST one song... so the entire street is one big un-synchronized fado concert :) 
Last day was reserved for going to the beach. We took the train to Cascais. 
I had heard of a nice beach to watch the sunset – Guincho Beach. We took the bus there, but eventually stopped at Cresmina Beach, just before Guincho, because it had sun-umbrellas. The beach itself was beautiful – not very big, not at all crowded, a small sandy beach enclosed by rocky cliffs... It was a surfers’ beach, meaning it was very windy and with huge waves. The wind was a bit of a problem for us, because it only took about 2 minutes for the towels to get completely covered with sand; it was difficult to even keep your eyes and mouth open :) Not to mention that applying sun-cream was a deadly trap – in 30” your skin became a sandy armor! The only escape from the blistering sand was to keep standing, so we spent most of the day strolling on the beach and exercising gymnastics :P 
After the beach we headed back to Cascais and stopped at Boca do Inferno - located on a cliffy seashore where the seawater has access to the deep bottom of the chasm and vigorously strikes the rocky walls.
By car:
We rented a car for 3 days – a Fiat Grande Punto which barely dragged itself when we needed to climb a hill.
On the first day we went to
Algarve, because I had booked a ticket for a dolphin interaction program at
Zoomarine. The park itself is quite disappointing in terms of fun, but I spent some of the best moments of my life there :) Swimming with dolphins was one of my greatest wishes (on my personal “to-do” list) and actually doing it was even better than I had imagined. Nevertheless, I decided I’ll never do this again with captive dolphins (no matter how well treated they are), and I hope I’ll get the chance to repeat the experience with free dolphins...
On the second day we drove to
Porto. We all had high hopes about Porto but unfortunately the weather was soooo bad that we barely got out of the car. By the time we got to Porto, the wind and the rain were so heavy that they had caused a massive traffic jam, stopping us from even getting into the city. So we had to stop for lunch and a coffee in a mall outside of Porto, waiting for the weather to get better. After about 2 hours (with full bellies and with new warm clothes) we ventured into Porto, but it was already late and we couldn’t do anything else but drive around for 20 minutes then head back to Lisbon.
The third “car-day” was destined for
Sintra and
Cabo da Roca.
We all thought Sintra is a small town with not much to do...but in fact, it’s quite big! Located in a mountain area, it has a castle/palace on almost each peak/hill. We realized that it would be impossible to visit everything we wanted, because the walking time between the castles was very big (1.5 – 2 hours of hiking through the mountains for 4 couch-potatoes). So we chose to just go at the
Pena Palace and the
Castle of the Moors. The Pena Palace in particular is lovely – it looks like it’s made out of cardboard! The gardens of the palace are also worth checking out, especially the lake area.
In the evening we drove to
Cabo da Roca to watch the sunset. Cabo da Roca is the most western point of continental Europe. This cape looks like it’s from an imaginary world – incredibly peaceful and beautiful – just the cliffs, the ocean and a lighthouse. It’s very romantic...
The evenings:
After all the day-time activities, we didn’t have much energy for night-life. Most of the evenings, we just went for a drink downtown. Finding a bar or a restaurant open after 12 am is a challenge, most of the places are open just until 11:30 pm...
We also tried out clubbing in Lisbon. The taxi drivers recommended
Lux Club as being THE PLACE to be on a Saturday night. I still fail to understand what’s so cool about this club!! We arrived there pretty early, before midnight, so we avoided the entrance fee and the queue. The lounging area was deserted, except the bartenders, some misplaced tourists and us (of course!) there was nobody else. After about an hour or so, we asked around and found out that the club itself only opened at 3 am ... there was no way we would spend another 3 hours drinking their expensive cocktails, so, by the time the good people of Lisbon were dancing in Lux Club, we were sound asleep in our hotel rooms.
Food: 
Of course, fish and seafood are available at any restaurant. This made me very happy and I didn’t eat anything else during these 10 days. One fish dish in particular was among our favourites:
Bachalau a Braz - cod fish with scrambled eggs and fried potatoes. Prices for one dish vary between 8 and 13 € in the regular restaurants. As we understood, there are hundreds of cod dishes in Portugal, but I think not a day went by without a good bachalau a braz :) We also tried Bachalau a Noiva... Both of them were “finger licking good”!
Before we left, everybody told us that 10 days is more than enough and we’ll eventually get bored...Well, we didn’t! In fact, we would have needed at least 10 more days to do everything we wanted to do, and to have time to also relax a little bit. And to eat some more Bachalau a braz :)
* More photos here
We wanted to ski in Austria at the end of 2009. And we did. We will do it again for sure at the end of 2010 at well. If not same place, same country! We booked our Lufthansa flights towards Munich 2-3 months before (the tickets costs about 330 EUR for 2 persons, both ways). We landed in Munich on the 30th December and stayed for 2 nights at a very nice and quiet hotel, not very central but good value for money. The main idea was to party for the New Years Eve in Munich, drink all the beer from the Beer Hall, eat a lot of pretzels and Scwein haxes and, if time will allow it, to visit some parts of the city. We menaged to do all of that.
Munich it’s a nice city, but a quite expensive one. Meal for 2 persons wasn’t bellow 30 EUR for 2 persons, no matter what was the restaurant.
On the 1st January, around 1 PM we took the train to Finkenberg. The ticket costs about 37 EUR one way for person, and it takes about 3 hours till Mayrhofen (it’s interesting that you have to get down from the train at the station Jenbach , and switch the train to other direction). 
The ski pass for 7 days was 217 EUR, but was fully worth it. It included a Green Line Bus from each village to any bottom lift you wanted, access to 49 lifts, a grand total of 620 km of marked slopes and plenty of fun.
Be sure to check out the Tux weather channel in each morning to know if it’s worth it to go to Hintertux glacier (3250 m). From the top of the glacier, you can reach every resort - even Mayrhofen - which is the last of the "chain".
Besides skying everyday until we couldn't feel our legs anymore, we did a lot of photo magazine shootings
If you are a ski fan, you will enjoy this resort!
