Business and Pleasure in Portugal

I’m not writing this to brag, but June and July are very busy traveling months for me. From the third week of June to the first week of August, I am only in London for about 10 days.

Besides heading home to Canada in mid-July to sort out my side of the sponsorship Visa, I am also meeting nine of my best friends in the south of France to celebrate the beginning of our third decades – or, less eloquently, our dirty thirties.

But before both of these big adventures (which I will write about in future blogs), I have just returned from a trip to Portugal, which was an exhausting, fun and perfect combination of work and pleasure.

Now, the first time I traveled to Portugal I mainly expected to find a country that resembled the larger landmass to its direct east. I’m not the biggest fan of Spain – mostly due to the fact that my sister and I were robbed there during the backpacking adventure of 2004 – so you can imagine how surprised I was to fall in love with Portugal. Turned out the country, famous for its mouth-watering pastries, passion for football and stoic symbolic roosters, is pretty damn unique.

So I was thrilled to find out that my magazine’s annual Employee Benefits Summit, which has been held in Monte Carlo the past two years and in Spain before that, was being held in Sintra, Portugal, and even more thrilled when I found out I got to go along. My publisher sourced a beautiful five-star Ritz-Carlton-owned hotel called the Penha Longa Hotel Spa and Golf Resort.

I arrived last Wednesday morning on a rather rough 7:30am flight out of Heathrow, with my colleagues Nicky, Tynan, Pete, Lucy and Lorraine, as well as 40 of the summit’s delegates. Before long we had de-boarded in humid Lisbon and were herding the weary, but excited, delegates to an air-conditioned bus. Shortly after that we were pulling up to utter paradise.

The resort grounds – which includes an internationally recognized golf course, outdoor pool, sprawling forest, restaurants, hotel and 15th century monastery – are all set about 20 minutes from the fairytale village of Sintra, where medieval Portuguese kings would summer and Lord Byron called an “Eden”.

Delegates were welcomed by the whole EB team, sipping drinks on a balcony overlooking the monastery where the conference sessions would be held. That gathering, followed by an al fresco lunch, kicked off two days of sessions on a variety of hot topics in the industry, including total reward, the 2012 pension reforms and sickness absence, and a very busy time for both EB staff and delegates.

By Thursday evening’s black-tie gala we were all fairly exhausted, and the champagne, wine, and exquisite food (coquille St. Jacques tartare – raw scallops – with crème fraiche and Tobiko sauce; a lovely tender steak with potato, mushrooms, bacon, chestnuts and red wine jus; a fine sampling of Portuguese cheeses, and a dessert which I seem to have forgotten – obviously too enamoured of my first three courses) went down fairly easily. From the gala in the monastery to the golf course for more drinks, it turned into a rather late one, as the stragglers finished off Super Bok beers in the hotel lobby around 4:30am.

The next day, rebelling against my all-consuming hangover, I recruited Nicky for a visit to Sintra. I had never visited the town, a UNESCO World Heritage site on account of its 19th century Romantic architecture, and the fresh air and stunning scenery sorted me out immediately. We wandered around the adorable village, saw the Palacio Nacional with its twin chimneys, and climbed up through a natural park to see the Pena Palace and the Castelos dos Mouros (Moorish Castle) from the 8th and 9th centuries.

Back at the hotel we had just enough time to rinse off the sweat and dirt gathered from the three-mile hike, then met the rest of the EB team (or those who had not yet returned to London) for a short drive to Bar Guincho on the coast. It was the perfect evening to end the summit, sipping mojitos and Sagres as the sun set over the sand, swapping stories about the event, and feasting on black pork, dried cod and burgers.

Nicky and I awoke the next morning the only two members of our team still at the hotel. We spent a couple of hours lying by the pool, taking a few dips, enjoying the scorching sunshine, and stuffing ourselves with melon pieces and frozen marshmallows passed around by the cute pool boys. Eventually, we had to get on with our day, so we ordered a taxi, waved goodbye to the Penha Longa, and were soon en route to Lisbon.

Though my memories of Lisbon were somewhat patchy – we’re going back 7 years and probably one of the wildest few days of the our Europe trip – I barely got lost taking us to our pensione. Okay, I did get properly lost, but that is one of the best ways to explore the city’s narrow, cobblestoned streets. And we were climbing up to one of Lisbon’s steepest districts, the Bairrio Alto, which is a challenge even without 35-degree weather and pull-y suitcases.

We dropped off our gear in our tiny double room (€20 each) and headed back out to explore the Bairrio Alto, Chiado and Rossio districts, first by cable car then by foot. After a few café stops for combinations of espresso, fresh lemonade and beers, we found the Cervejaria Trindade, the oldest brewery in Portugal, where monks were brewing beer and cooking authentic local food in the 13th century.

We sat in the cloisters, sampling the home brew, stuffing ourselves with homemade bread, quejo (cheese) and olive spread, then ordered some dinner. For Nicky, Lombo de Salmao a Monsignor – salmon fillet roasted on a bed of potatoes, cushioned with brown crab vinaigrette – and for me, Acorda de Gambas a Moda do Popa – bread soaked in olive oil and coriander, garnished with prawns and an egg yolk. We were so happy.

Though exhausted from a grueling summit schedule, the previous day’s hike through Sintra, and the energy-depleting humidity of the city, we made one last stop before retiring to our little pensione. At the Solar do Vinho do Porto we sampled a delicious 1988 Calem Colheita port in exquisite air conditioning.

The following day we had an early rise following a restless night that was tempered with stifling heat and every sound you could imagine coming through our open window (Festas do Lisboa is on, not that this city needs an excuse to party). Determined to get the most of our last day in Portugal, we took a cable car through the Alfama district to explore the castelo, with striking views of the terracotta-ed roofed city below and the Rio Teja that curves along its harbour.

Finally, fed up with the ridiculous heat and feeling fairly disgusting, we picked up our suitcases at the train station and caught a bus out to the airport. It was a very full five days in Portugal, from the five-star lushness of the Penha Longo and a fantastic EB summit, to the bustling, steaming passages of Lisbon.

That’s trip one of three down. Now the countdown begins to this Saturday when I meet up with my best ladies in the south of France for a lively week of beaches, wineries, bread and cheese. I am such a lucky girl!