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| View from the hilltop in the old part of the city |
Today we got up at 07:00AM after sleeping for about 12
hours. I will say the bed in the hotel
is comfy and is a normal king-sized bed, not that fake king-sized you sometimes
get. We had breakfast at the hotel, since it is included.
Breakfast included a buffet of bread,
pastries, fresh fruit, cheeses, sliced meats, yogurt stuff, and then your
choice of eggs made to order. I had
scrambled with bacon and Jim had an omelette.
The bacon was very thinned sliced and possibly a relative of prosciutto
and had a hint of sage to it, tasty. We
also had a tiny Pastel de Nata (egg custard tarts), which are found everywhere
in Lisbon. To drink, we had black tea, and I had a glass of orange juice, and Jim had one of their morning breakfast drink which was green and might have had cucumber in it. Then it was back to the room to prepare for
the morning tour.
Our tour guide met us at the hotel at 9:30AM for a 3 hour personal
walking tour of Lisbon. The tour I thought was very good, she was very
knowledgeable, was able to read our interests and made it feel more like a conversation
rather than someone just reciting facts.
The tour was at a good pace for us, starting at our hotel then heading
down the main avenue towards the river, then up into the old city, then back
down to the main square by the river. Note
when I say up and down, I literally mean up a hill and down a hill. Portugal is built on seven hills, so nothing
is flat. The tour guide also informed us
that all the trams that used to take everyone up and down the hills were shut
down after an accident that occurred a couple years ago. They won’t be open again util the accident
investigation is complete, so you really better be in shape when visiting. The guide also pointed out places to get
authentic Portuguese tiles and cork products.
She also pointed out some places to eat, on the tour we stopped to grab
a small pork sandwich. The pork is thin
sliced and cooked in beer with some other spices, resulting in a very tender
pork sandwich. We also stopped on the
way down one of hills at house that had a little old lady selling Ginjinha, a
cherry liquor. Traditionally, the little
old ladies would sell this from their windows or doorways as a restorative as
you make your way up the hills. In this
case we got our little shot of Ginjinha on the way down the hill. The Ginjinha was served in a little dark chocolate
shot glasses, that you eat afterwards. We also
saw they were preparing the streets in the older part of the city for the
festival of St. Anthony which starts on June 12th. Our
final destination of the tour was the large square by the river, surrounded by
the old palace.
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| Train Station |
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| Salted Cod Shop |
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| Tile work |
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| Street being prepped for feast day |
After the tour ended, we headed to a tiny shopping mall to
see if they had battery charger for my camera batteries. I forgot to pack the charger. We then stopped at the Burger King, so I could
get a Galactic Meal to get the special Mandalorian and Grogu ceramic mugs. Yes, they have Galactic Meals in the US, but
you get basic plastic tumblers not a coffee mug. Sadly,
they only had the Mandalorian mug left, I really wanted the Grogu mug. I also don’t think I was the only American in
there trying to get a mug, based on the what two other guys in the Burger King
looked like. From there we stopped at a hat shop, so I
could get a straw sunhat, while
my Tilly would work it would be too hot for this weather. Jim also got a new hat, which is better ventilated
than the one he brought. From there, we stopped at the A Ginjinha, the original ginjinha store, to pick up a bottle, then tried to find the cork store the tour guide pointed out, but took a wrong turn and couldn’t find it. We couldn’t
remember its name so google was no help. By that time, it was about 1:30 or 2:00 PM, so we headed back to the hotel for a bit, because we were both very
hot and needed a break from the sun.
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| Ceramic Mug |
We decided to cancel the late dinner (6:30PM) with Fado show,
because we both not feeling it. The location
is 40-minutes across the city by taxi and wouldn’t be over till 9:30PM or 10:00PM
and we have a sort of early day tomorrow. Because
we canceled the already booked dinner, we choose to eat at closer restaurant,
called Al Garage. I had the Caramelle
Pera (fresh past stuffed with gorgonzola and pears with a sauce of pecorino
cheese and black pepper. It was savory
with just a hint of sweetness from the pears.
Jim had something that translated to grandma’s noodles, which was
noodles with red sauce and braised ribs. For dessert we had a passion fruit cheese cake
that came with a scoop of lemon ice cream.
Overall dinner was very good all
this plus beer and wine came to about 53-dollars (us) basically on par and
edging slightly better than what we pay for dinner for the two of us in DC
without dessert.
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The cheesecake met the same fate as the
deconstructed black forest cake we had in Germany |
Tomorrow, we have a private driver taking us up to Sintra
for the day. This is good because apparently
you really don’t want to drive there, because the town is so congested and has
a lot of pedestrian streets, your not supposed to drive on.
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| You can see the Christ Statue from this viewpoint |
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