Portugal - Part 2: Aquashow Family Park + Random S**t

[Gavin]

I keep meaning to write trip reports of parks I’ve been to that most of you plebs haven’t, but then I can never be arsed. However, since this last week at work before the Christmas holidays consists mostly of “insert a DVD” when it comes to my lesson plans, I’m finding myself with more incentive to use my brain elsewhere.

This trip was actually in December of last year, just before Christmas, and the parks involved are crap. The coaster pictures have been sitting on photobucket unused though – I don’t bother putting park stuff up on Facebook as I have mostly actual, real people on there who don’t care about parks - and it’s annoying me, so it’s about time I got this done.

Like my last, rapturously-received trip report, this trip was definitely not a coaster trip, but more of a holiday with some “there’s a cred there, so I should” moments in it. I got cheap flights in and out of Faro, but had no intention of sitting around the Algarve for a week, so I got the train directly up to Lisbon and spent a few days there.

I knew pretty much nothing about Lisbon, but it’s actually really nice, with a castle on top of a hill and buildings and stuff, so have some pictures of that to break up the reading:

^That’s a train station, which is actually quite fab considering the concrete monstrosities we have over here (looking at you London Euston and Birmingham *shudder* New Street.

This was a really old lift that took you up from the lower end of town to one of the districts higher up the hill. I thought it was cool anyway:

This was the aquarium, which was pretty decent but had no real standouts apart a couple of manta rays, sun fish and sea otters. And the actual building.

On one of my days there, I took a tram slightly west to Santa Maria de Belém. It’s still part of Lisbon, but feels like a completely different place as opposed to just a different district of the same city. Have a bunch more pictures, the amazing roller coaster ones are coming soon; I promise.

They had this really amazing monument, which was absolutely enormous and also had a lift to the top for some really nice views.

Belem Tower was pretty cool as well, sort of just sitting in the river:

Have a couple more of the Discoveries Monument, just because it’s fab:

The other point of interest here was Jerónimos Monastery, which again was really nice:

I think it was on the same day that I headed to Funcenter, which is a small shopping mall park in the Centro Colombo, a massive shopping centre – biggest on the Iberian peninsula, don’t you know?

Funcenter – the fact that it’s one work irks me somewhat – boasts Montanha Russa, a custom Vekoma kiddy coaster with less than subtle Coca Cola sponsorship.

So yeah, that’s right bitches: all that stupidly lengthy report for 6 pictures of a mall kiddy coaster. I was going to just get the whole trip out of the way in one go, but I’m bored now. I’ll add the second, slightly more involved, park a bit later. Don’t worry, there’ll be plenty of “culture” pictures to skip through then as well!

 

[Lofty]

Re: Portugal - Part 1: Lisbon Funcenter

Loving your styling of report, as always. I'm actually interested in this report especially, I'm going to Lisbon some time early next year, so I'd like to know a few "must-sees" from you.

 

[davidm]

Re: Portugal - Part 1: Lisbon Funcenter

Some groovy architecture there for sure (apart from the mall-shots at the end that is)

And you are right, that lift thingy does look cool... interesting enough for me to Google it anyway ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Justa_Lift

 

[peep]

Re: Portugal - Part 1: Lisbon Funcenter

Belem Tower was pretty cool as well, sort of just sitting in the river:

<3

Wow, never had any intention of going to Lisbon, but your photos make me really want to go. It looks like a beautiful place, the architecture <3

 

[Gavin]

Re: Portugal - Part 1: Lisbon Funcenter

^It's a great city. There's loads to see in and around the area (Sintra, which I'll include in the next part of the report, is a short train ride away and is STUNNING), it's got a really cool, laid-back vibe about the whole place and the people are lovely.

Most Brits' experiences of Portugal are just package holidays to sit on a beach and get pissed in the Algarve. It's where the budget airlines fly into and the all-inclusive hotel is king. Those "sorts" of people would never bother with Lisbon, and you rarely hear it mentioned when people talk about European capitals as it's too far out of the way to be on the usual trail, which is a shame really. It's probably one of my favourite European cities actually.

 

[ECG]

Re: Portugal - Part 1: Lisbon Funcenter

Thanks for posting this report Gavin. Lisbon is one of the cities I've wanted to visit but haven't had the opportunity to do so. I'm looking forward to Part 2.

 

[Martyn B]

Re: Portugal - Part 1: Lisbon Funcenter

Never seen or heard much of Lisbon before, but from your pictures it looks like a really nice city!

 

[furie]

Re: Portugal - Part 1: Lisbon Funcenter

Ditto. It's not somewhere I've ever seen or heard anything about before. Similarly, I just think of the place [Portugal] as a Brit-yob net so I've never bothered looking into it.

Ruined by the coaster pics though

 

[Gavin]

Re: Portugal - Part 1: Lisbon Funcenter

Before I get to the next amazing Portuguese theme park, I’m going to bore you with a bit more cultural ****. Sorry ‘bout it.

On my last day in Lisbon, before heading south for a couple of days on the beach before my flight home, I decided to get the train to Sintra. Somebody I’d met the evening before recommended it, so I thought I’d give it a go since I’d pretty much seen everything in Lisbon itself. It was easy enough anyway; there are trains every 20 minutes or so which only take about 40 minutes and cost about 6-7 Euros return. I’m soooooooo glad I did though, as it turned out to be the best part of the trip.

After about 5 minutes walking from the train station you get to the town hall.

Yeah, very nice, but whatever. There’s then another 15 minute or so walk around a bunch of gardens and stuff before you hit the “town centre” and one of the palaces.

Looking back towards the town hall from the terrace of the Palacio Nacional:

I had a quick look around inside as well. It was nice enough, but didn’t warrant more than about half an hour.

There were some nice views from the windows and balconies though.

It was at this point that I decided a walk up to that castle might be in order. It doesn’t look that much of a climb after all. As I made my way around the road to get to the road/path/steps/torture that led up to the castle, I saw a sign pointing to some other random **** half a mile away in the other direction. The other random **** turned out to be Quinta da Regaleira, another big house/palace sort of thing.

Inside the palace was nothing special to be honest; it was mostly just empty rooms, and I didn’t take any pictures. The grounds of the house itself though, were phenomenal, with all kinds of tunnels, ponds, grottoes a chapel and random buildings scattered around. Cue a bunch of pictures:

This Hogwarts-style tower served no real purpose other than decoration, but you can climb up it for a nice view of the main house and chapel, and it was just generally fab.

A view of the castle that I had taken a slight detour from:

This little pond with waterfall and stepping stones was cute, but there was a bit more too it, which I’ll come back to later.

Until then, have some more random pictures of the fab grounds. I should point out that they’re on a hill. The main building is at the bottom and then everything else sort of works its way up.

The people in one of the previous pictures were the only other people in the whole place, which was great as I had pretty much the whole place to myself. It was also great because otherwise I might have walked right past this “rock” at the top of the gardens:

This thing was **** ing awesome. You go into the hidden entrance into the rock to find a revolving stone door.

Seriously, what kind of Knights Templar, Harry Potter bull **** is this?!

Through the door and you get to a spiral staircase leading about 80 feet into the ground.

At the bottom is the entrance to a network of tunnels.

Which bring you out here:

So yeah, considering this was a detour while on a day trip which was in itself a bit of a detour, this place was **** ing awesome. I totally just felt like a big kid exploring the whole place. Anyway, back to the trek up to the castle, which had some nice views back down into “town” on the way.

I’m not gonna lie, it was a pretty exhausting hike up the hill. There was a bus that went part way, which I didn’t take, but even if you do take that you’re still left with a **** load of uphill paths and stairs to get to the top. It’s totally worth it though.

It’s definitely not a place to wander about in if you’re not great with heights. It’s the sort of place that just wouldn’t exist in the UK: steep, narrow staircases with very low walls and sheer drops on the other side of them. Bunch of pictures:

From the castle, I could see across to another hill with another palace shoved on top of it, so decided to walk over there next. The hill looked to be slightly higher than the one the castle was perched on, but luckily you don’t have to go all the way down to the bottom to get across to it. You do, however, have to go about half way down, then head across, then head up again. There’s a bus that goes directly up to the palace, but I’m hardcore so had no need of it.

Here are some pictures of it and the views from the precarious balconies around it. It’s called Pena Palace and is quite fab:

I went inside, but you’re not allowed to take pictures. To be honest, the outside is infinitely more interesting anyway. Believe it or not, you’re actually allowed to walk around the outside of this pink tower thing. From there, there are excellent views back across to the castle, and certain death if you trip.

After Pena Palace I walked back down the hill and eventually back to the train station, which took about an hour. Some random buildings that I passed on the way down the hill and to the station:

Sintra was amazing, but it was also one of the most physically knackering days out I’ve ever had, what with all the hills and steps. I think the only day trip I’ve taken that’s been more physically demanding is Petra. To be fair, both places could have been done more easily (buses for Sintra/donkeys for Petra, or not doing so much in one day), but I refuse to do that until I’m too old and decrepit to manage otherwise.

We’re almost at the actual park now. Almost.

Since my flight was going back out of Faro, I decided to spend a couple of days on/near the beach before heading home. Faro itself looks like a bit of a dump, so I opted for Albufeira just down the road (took a bus there directly from Lisbon).

It was lovely actually. Since it was December, it was basically dead, which meant it was also stupidly cheap. I got a whole apartment, 2 minutes walk from the beach, for about £10 a night. The town and beach were lovely, and it was warm enough to walk around in shorts and T-shirt, but it was a bit boring since there wasn’t much going on at that time of year. I imagine it would be a lot of fun in the summer with a group of friends (loads of bars/clubs around that were mostly closed for the season), but then you’d lose the “niceness” of it, too I guess.

Some pictures of Albufeira, starting with the view from my tenner-a-night balcony :

So yeah, it was lovely to chill out here for a day, but on the second day I’d seen the whole place and didn’t fancy sitting around doing nothing, so I decided to take a bus – well, two buses – out to Aquashow Park. It’s mainly a water park, but they have an amusement park section. The water park was closed, but the rides in the amusement park section were up and running.

There’s only one coaster here, a huge Mack water coaster. It was the biggest in Europe, which it isn’t now since that thing at Mirabilandia opened this year. Apparently it’s 20 feet taller than the one at Europa (and a clone of the ones at the Sea World parks?), but it didn’t seem to really ride any differently. It was closed when I arrived just after ten, so I had to hang around for about an hour and a half in order to getthecred.

In the meantime, I rode a couple of flat rides and took a few pictures. The camera battery ran out before the coaster opened, so no action shots I’m afraid. Saying that, there probably wouldn’t be any anyway as they were waiting for the ten people in the park to “fill” the boat before they sent it round. After my two goes along with the entire guest population, nobody bothered with it again and I left the park anyway.

When I first saw this I got excited, thinking it was a bonus cred (the best kind!)

But it clearly wasn’t. The cars moved very, very slowly around the track. I’m sure some people on here might count it, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

They had a reptile and birds of prey show that I didn’t want to hang around until 2pm for.

They had a Fabbri swinging thing, the same model as Flip Flop at Flamingoland, but without the water and theming.

The best ride here though was a Zamperla Air Race. I’d already been on the one at Coney Island (the prototype model I think) and really liked it. I liked this one as well. They really don’t look like much, but they’re a lot of fun and don’t leave you feeling anywhere near as sick as you might expect.

It was all a bit of an effort and expense for one coaster to be honest, and I was back on the beach with a book by lunch time. It wasn’t difficult to get there or anything, and the bus ride was pleasant enough. Maybe in the summer, if you took in the water park as well, it might be worth it. Having said that, the water park section didn’t look up to much either.

To sum up:

Portugal - what I saw of it, and away from crowds of drunken Brits – is **** ing gorgeous and I couldn’t recommend the place enough.

Portuguese “parks”, however, are s**te.

F**k me, that’s just taken me two hours.

 

[Gavin]

Why do I **** ing bother?

Here, have a picture of a Disney castle:

Bastards.

 

[Thekingin64]

Sintra looks amazing! Now just to persuade my mum to go...

Would love to go as soon as possible though. Those views from the castle are amazing!

 

[Martyn B]

Because I'm sure a lot of people enjoy reading them, I know I do. But a lot of the time I can't think of much to say other than "nice pics"and "looks lovely" etc, so I don't bother.

 

[thx]

Great TR and photos!! Always nice to see some culture as well. Brings back many memories, been to Lisbon and Sintra twice, yet somehow managed to miss the revolving door place and the spiral staircase tunnel area, pretty gutted now haha. Also it's nice to see some photos from around Algarve, as I've been thinking of going there, yet hesitated just because I thought it would be too "tourist resort"y. Also thanks for the TR as I had completely forgotten that I've rode that Vekoma shopping mall coaster, 1 more cred to add, yay :lol:

 

[nadroJ]

That castle doesn't even look real, like it's made of Lego or something, gorgeous <3

You said the water coaster was the tallest in Europe but it's a clone of thingy at Europa Park, no? So is it like, just slightly taller or something?

I always expected Portugal to be like Spain but it looks a LOT nicer, cleaner, etc.

 

[Gavin]

^According to RCDB, the water coaster is 20 feet taller than the one at Europa, and the park's website had it listed as the tallest watercoaster in Europe. The Atlantis things in the Sea Wolrd parks are listed as the same height, so there must be a taller version of the Europa one.

I couldn't tell the difference though.

 

[Mysterious Sue]

Why do I **** ing bother?

Here, have a picture of a Disney castle:

Bastards.

Easy Gavin dear, some of us have real jobs and don't get to read CF every day ;p
(also, you should have named your TR 'Another Florida')

For what it's worth, I loved your photos of Portugal - they've actually inspired me to go one day. The sunshine and seaside look beautiful, and we all need a bit of culture now and then.

The park itself looks a bit pants (although you'd have to do it if it just happened to be where you're going, I agree). That terrible plane 'cred' is the same as Zooooooooom at Flamingoland they opened last year - I counted that so.....

 

[peep]

That revolving stone door to the spiral staircase of epicness is amazing. That whole place actually looks beautiful and interesting.

As others have said, it's nice to see PTRs of places not many of us go to/know about. I think I'd totally brick it walking along those castle walls though. I totally bricked it at a similar place in San Marino, I stayed well away from the edge and going down the stairs I was really clinging on.

 

[Gavin]

^The castle reminded me a lot of San Marino actually, but even less safe.

That terrible plane 'cred' is the same as Zooooooooom at Flamingoland they opened last year - I counted that so.....

Nah, it's not like Zooooooooooom. It looks like it, which is why I was a bit excited for the bonus cred when I saw it, but it's just powered very, very slowly all the way around. It's more like an inverted Splash Battle than anything.

 

[Mysterious Sue]

Just spent ages comparing the two and your right, they are completely different...add yet almost exactly the same cosmetically - how odd!

 

[Rachel]

Great trip report and stunning photos.

Portugal has never really been on my list of places to visit, always imagined Brits drinking beer on the beach on a package holiday, but will definitely consider it after looking at your photos.