Lisbon, Portugal
- Edward
- Sep 23, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 29, 2019
We arrived Saturday night and were met at the airport by a driver. It's nice to be able to just relax and be taken care of. He brought us to our AirBnB apartment which is two blocks off the waterfront and is quite beautiful. It's on the top floor of an old building on a hill, four floors up from the east street and five from waterfront side. It is bright with sun lights and very upscale overall. One of the nicest AirBnB apartments we've been in.
We had planned to do our laundry Saturday night so it could dry while we toured around Sunday. There is a nice machine in the apartment, but unfortunately the water pump was not working. It was a front loading unit that locked with water in it and it captured our clothes. It made for a late night as I figured out how to drain it manually and get access to the clothes. Once I discovered how to do it, we just went ahead with the clothes washing. It was a pain having to use pots and pans to drain the washing machine, but it worked out ok in the end and we have clean clothes.
Sunday morning I went out to get some coffee and pastries for breakfast. I went to the train station, where the host had told us there was a grocery store as well. I saw lots of people in running clothes, but stopping in to get a coffee in large groups. I was lucky to get mine without waiting.
After a breakfast of coffee, yogurt, croissants, prosciutto and pomegranate, we headed out for a walk along the seaside promenade. The run was in full swing by then and it ended just a couple of blocks from our apartment. It was a world wide run with the cause of conserving energy at least as far as we could tell.
There were artists on the beach making rock and sand sculptures and air of festivities everywhere. There were a bunch of guys wearing American football uniforms cheering everyone on. We didn't understand until their teammate came running up. That's him on the ground getting CPR from his less than strenuous run. It must have been fairly short. There were people walking pushing baby carriages and the finish line clock said just over an hour.
We turned into the city at the Terreiro do Paco and walked through the pedestrian streets, stopping to have gelato at one point. We were in search of the Elevador de Santa Justa, a famous tourist attraction made of wrought iron, much like the Eiffel Tower. At one time it was part of Lisbon's transportation center, but now it's a tourist attraction with a viewing platform on top. The lines were far too long so we just viewed it from the street while a musician serenaded us with John Lennon's Imagine.
We used Uber to get up to the Castle called Castelo San Jorge. It was 2.50 Euro. What a bargain given the steep and winding roads. Even at the point where he couldn't go further it was a steep climb to the castle. It was well worth it though. We spent a few hours there.
The National Monument was built by the Moors in the mid-11th century. It was a military castle but there were palaces nearby for the city elite. Dom Afonso conquered Lisbon in 1147 to become the first Christian King of Portugal. The castle was enlarged and renovated to make it the royal palace.
The views from the castle are spectacular in every direction. Barbara got tired of climbing all the stairs so I walked the castle walls and spied down on her. She has some pictures of me from her vantage point she'll post as well.
It was really refreshing up there. It was in the mid seventies with a nice breeze. It's going to be hot in Marrakesh so we were both enjoying the cooler weather. That's Kind Afonso's statue in the group of pictures above.
There is an archaeological site at the monument and they have found dwelling dating back to the iron age in 7th century BC so this has been a favored site for millenniums. I thought the coins were interesting. It's how they made change back in their day. The coin was based on weight so if you needed 50% of the coin you cut it in two.
On the way back to the apartment we stopped to listen to these guys serenade us from their balcony.
We went back to the room at about 4 pm and packed up. Then we took a siesta for about 3 hours before going to a local pizzeria that was highly rated. The ratings were right. Very thin crust with Portuguese flavor not an Italian pizza at all. The beer is a hand crafted Portuguese IPA which was also delicious. We finished with a baked pineapple slice and a scoop of lemon and basil gelato. Unique and delicious.
We had a more traditional Portuguese lunch up at the castle. We always eat well on vacation. I had cod and creme dish and Barbara had calamari dish with tommadoro parmigiana. Then we started tasting the port which may be why we had a three hour siesta. 555
Now it's 6:30 am on Monday and time to head to Morocco and see the PcVue crowd.
I copied the picture of the two of you with the rooftops in the background. I think you both needed this vacation and it shows that you are enjoying it.