Spring at Sage: Portugal

Board your evening flight from Los Angeles to Portugal. Your first view of Lisbon comes tomorrow.

After arriving and settling in, explore Belém. From its tower and monastery to the Monument to the Discoveries, this waterfront tells a powerful story about Portugal’s maritime past. As you walk, consider whose achievements these landmarks celebrate and whose experiences might be harder to see. Come together for a welcome dinner and an introduction to the journey ahead.

Examine historic treaties and other sources at Torre do Tombo. What can a document decide about places its authors have never seen? At the Maritime Museum, explore the ships, navigation tools, and systems that made long ocean voyages possible. Later, take in Lisbon’s geography from São Jorge Castle, visit Sé Cathedral, and walk through Praça do Comércio and Chiado. Finish the day with dinner at a historic café and a live fado performance.

At Quake, experience an immersive account of the 1755 earthquake and explore how Lisbon rebuilt afterward. Then turn from the city to the maps used to represent it: in a cartography workshop, look closely at what maps show, what they leave out, and whose decisions shape them. A conversation with a local expert adds another perspective on Portugal’s maritime history before you see Lisbon from the Tejo River.

Look for azulejos across Lisbon, then design and paint a tile of your own. Consider how color and pattern can tell stories in places people pass every day. If it has reopened, visit the National Tile Museum for a closer look at the art form’s history. Later, travel by train to Porto.

At Porto’s Museum of Transport and Communications, take on a trade challenge: track goods through a port, weigh and measure them, and work out the duties they owe. Then explore Mercado do Bolhão to see how trade feels at street level, among food stalls, producers, and shoppers. Try your hand at baking pastéis de nata. If the match schedule allows, end the day in the stands at an FC Porto game.

Meet with Porto de Impacto to explore how people develop ideas to address social challenges. Working in a group, identify a community need, consider who it affects, and pitch a possible response. Afterward, admire the architecture of Livraria Lello and spend some time by the coast at Praia dos Ingleses.

Take a day trip to Aveiro and ride a traditional moliceiro boat through its canals. Then continue to Costa Nova, where colorful striped façades sit alongside a coastline shaped by fishing and seaside life. Back in Porto, enjoy time to browse for souvenirs and reflect on the many different versions of prosperity you’ve encountered.

Fly from Porto to Los Angeles. What will you remember when you hear a place described as having a “Golden Age”?