Lisbon

So much to say about Lisbon, it was an interesting way to end our trip. The weather did not cooperate with us so much while we were in Lisbon, raining on and off, but we managed to make the best of it and still see much of the city. There was only one evening during which the rain was heavy and after having a nice long dinner just two blocks away we retreated to the sad hotel bar.

So as you may remember, it rained most of way from Spain through Portugal to Lisbon. The sun was shining and it was warm when we finally arrived. I was behind the wheel when we reached Lisbon and things got a little tense. In our attempts to pull up in front of the Sofitel and check in we missed a turn. When I tried to correct it I ended up high up into the Bairro Alto neighborhood where the streets and parking look like the above photo. Lots of cars plus hilly roads plus stick shift equals extremely stressed driver. We found our way back out and high-tailed it to the car return instead of trying the hotel again. It was only a 10-minute walk away. Upon arrival the woman in the Hertz garage must have seen the anguish in my face and did her best to put me at ease. Looking back it's rather humorous.

Our first night there FC Barcelona was actually playing Real Madrid again for the final of the Copa del Rey. Our best luck with watching soccer so far on the trip had been Irish pubs so we went for that again. The crowd for this one was really lively as there was also a big match going on with local favorites FC Porto. Show above is Jake's dinner. Hidden under that egg and potatoes is a steak with bacon. Good stuff. It rained a little on our walk back that evening.

Tile is very prominent in Lisbon and we had to be careful as it got a little slippery when it rained. The above picture is the under-side of the large arch that leads to a big waterfront plaza that you'll see shortly. It was so cool light up. The next day we got up early to find clear skies, at least to start the day. We stopped for a quick pastery breakfast and headed out to explore. There are pasteries of all types everywhere in Lisbon which made finding breakfast pretty easy (and delicious!).

We first made our way back towards the main waterfront plaza to check it out in the light. Along the way we passed the train station and a number of large fountains and statues. People were out doing shopping along the main corridor, the city seemed lively.

The plaza did not disappoint. I even decided to foolishly try my hand at an all-popular "jump in the air" photo, which Jake captured perfectly. We soaked up the atmosphere for a bit and then decided to follow the route of the popular tram 28 on foot up to the Castelo Sao Jorge. We made a few stops along the way as dictated by a walking tour laid out in our guide book. It was a nice hike and I'm glad we walked it instead of riding.

The irony here was something I had to capture. For what it's worth, the Portuguese are very welcoming and helpful to tourists so I'm not sure what this sentiment stems from.

It took me a minute to realize it, but this guitar player was actually playing "Your Song" which is one of my absolute favorites. I melted just a little bit.

We reached the castle and were enjoying the views from its surrounding terraces when the first rain of the day came through. It got a little heavy so we ducked into the castle museum to check out artifacts from the archeological site adjacent to the castle. In about half an hour the rain stopped and we headed up into the castle.

We grabbed lunch in the little town surrounding the castle and began the descent to city centre below. We were originally going to go up in the Santa Justa elevator but after realizing we'd just seen some pretty awesome views of the city from the castle, which is higher, we wandered up to the old city cathedral instead.

The cathedral which you can see above, the building with the arches, has no roof. The entrance fee wasn't that much but in the most timely manner possible, it started to rain instead. So we opted to head to a nearby extention of the modern art museum where we waited out the rain checking out, among other things, a really great photography exhibit. Afterwards we decided to wander through the Bairro Alto neighborhood, which is supposed to be one of the more lively neighborhoods. We stumbled across this awesome park that overlooked the city, including the main avenue where our hotel was.

That evening the rain came in pretty hard and didn't let up. We'd made a reservation at Restaurante Sancho (Sancho as in Don Quixote's sidekick) which was 2 blocks from our hotel. We made our way carefully under our umbrella and enjoyed, leisurely, a wonderful meal. I had fresh grouper and it was wonderful. My only complaint, as with many European restaurants, are the crazy add-ons. They charge for bread as well as pate and olives that were already on the table. Not being one to argue I didn't make them take it away. We just enjoyed because we were on vacation after all.

The rain was just too heavy that evening to wander anywhere else so we retreated to the hotel bar (which was way lame) and had some wine. We rested up as our plan for the next day was to head out to Belem, a historic and cultural center of the city. We made our way there via double-decker bus, which was awesome, until it, of course, started to rain on us. Fortunately the rain ended shortly after we arrived in Belem and stayed away for the rest of our day in Belem.

The sites we visited in Belem included the Discovers' monument, Belem Tower and Geronimos monastery (World Heritage site!), the Maritime History museum and the original bakery of Pasteis de Belem (or pasteis de Nata as they are also called).

Portugal has a very rich maritime history with many, many voyages beginning here long before the US even existed. In the monastery's cathedral are tombs for both Vasco de Gama and a famous poet, Camoe, who wrote much about the explorers.

It was good Friday and most of the sites in Belem were free... and packed. Belem Tower was really cool but we only ventured up two levels of it. The wait to get up and back down the one spiral staircase that connects its floors was too long, not to mention the place is small inside and I was beginning to feel claustrophobic.

The pasteries were these egg custard things that the Portuguese are famous for. The best place to have them is at the original bakery in Belem. The cafe is huge but it was packed. We happened upon a table luckily and ordered two for each of us. They were warm and delicious. Jake wanted to go back a few hours later to have more but we opted for a more proper lunch.

We spent a lot of time going through the Maritime History museum. It was a very thorough collection, I was impressed, plus, like the other sites, it was free the day we were there. Since we could not find a chess set (our usual souvenir purchase) on this trip we opted for a fun nautical themed tic-tac-toe game from their gift shop.

We finally hopped a bus back to city centre after grabbing lunch in the area and planned our last night out. We wandered around a bit taking photos before seeking out what is said to be Lisbon's only real Irish pub. (Yes, we are obsessed.) It was worth it though, at 11:00 a live band came on playing traditional Irish music. We ran into a few Irish tourists there who actually thought I was Irish too, until I opened my mouth and horrible English came out, ha ha! It was a great time.

In order to get there and home we walked up this street, seen above, which is served by these crazy funiculars. They weren't running on our way back and, of course, the ground was wet. After telling Jake to be careful not to step on the metal rails as they would be slippery, I managed to step on a metal plate, slip and fall on my butt. It didn't hurt too much and was a kind of funny way to round out the end of our trip. The next morning we hopped a cab to the airport to come home. As I suspected it flew by and I'm missing it very much.