portugal

Lisbon Part B

~ Bel Dunbar ~ Leave a comment

What a great week we’ve had in Lisbon – we’ve loved it. I didn’t have high expectations to be honest, but I am so glad we added this to our plan. Tip: If you are planning to visit, do not cut it short, give yourself at least 5 days. We leave for Vienna tomorrow morning on an early flight (that’s going to be a struggle) but still have a couple of things we’d like to squeeze in today, which I’ll add to the end of this blog before I publish it.

Jardim do Aqueduto das Aguascalientes Livres – (or, Roman Aqueduct)

When we arrived last week, the aqueduct was something Hamish had spotted in the distance; being over 100m high, it catches the eye. After a little bit of research, I saw that you can visit it AND, it was an only a 20 minute walk from our apartment. Navigating was pretty straightforward, with stops for traffic and gazing at the planes flying in low overhead, just above the buildings, on their landing run. The entry to the site was very cheap ($12) – there is a small outdoor museum (a few very informative boards explaining the history) and then you can walk along one side, through the middle and back along the other side of the aqueduct. The aqueduct was built by the Romans (of course!) and it was one of the few structures to survive the 1755 earthquake, which devastated the city. The views alone are worth the visit – a nice little find to enjoy in the perfect weather we’ve been having.

Bertrand Livraria – Oldest Bookshop in the World

Rod stumbled across this little gem, so we set off on foot from our apartment to find it. The thing we have loved about Lisbon (well, one of the many things…) is that whilst it can be a ‘bit’ hilly, the distances aren’t huge, so it makes it easy to get around without missing the little treasures that are bypassed by a metro line. As we neared the bookshop, I ducked into an Ale-Hop looking for some packing cubes (to pack away our summer clothes for the next 5 weeks) and as we exited, the bookstore was directly across the road! Bonus here, a big section of English books, so I found one that would interest both Rod and me. The young woman at the checkout asked if I’d like the book stamped – English or Portuguese? Portuguese of course!

The bookshop is in Chiado which is a suburb next to the home of the famous Santa Justa Lift.

Christmas Tree Progress

We have checked on the progress of the HUGE Christmas tree everyday and are pleased to say yesterday all sections have been constructed and all branches attached. Today, some gold baubles have been added. We will miss the official ‘lights on’ tomorrow, but it’s been a fun side project.

Whilst researching the trip to Sintra (see next paragraph) Rod thought maybe an ‘eyes on’ the train station (next to the metro, but not part of the metro) would be a good idea. The man does love to be organised for public transport! Hamish and I left him and walked to check on the Christmas tree with a plan to meet Rod “Here, at the square with the guy on the horse” (it’s a 25m high statue – like, you can’t miss it). To be fair, metros and train stations can be tricky especially when you have multiple entrances and exits for the same line. As Hamish and I are walking back to the designated meeting point, I get a call from Rod, “I’m at a square, but there’s only a statue of a guy, not a guy on a horse.” After a bit of too-ing and fro-ing with messages, such as “I’m at McDonalds at Rossio” and “Stay there, we will come to you” we found Rod in the square NEXT to the square! He hadn’t found the Rossio train station and had gotten terribly lost in the 3 Rossio metro stations. Not to brag, but I found it the next morning from the bus – it also catches the eye.

(*not our photo)

Day Trip to Sintra (by Rod)

Sintra had been something I identified and noted before we left home, though when, weeks later, I consulted my notes on my phone, spellcheck had amended this to Sinatra. So I spent a while pondering the possible connection of old blue eyes to Lisbon. We soon realised that Sintra is a town pretty much on the western outskirts of Lisbon. We do our due diligence checking transport and attractions. There is a separate railway station to Sintra at Rossio, in the heart of town. Confusingly, there is also a Rossio on the Metro, so it takes a bit of finding. I try on my own to do so, and end up needing the McDonald’s wifi to let Belinda know that I am lost, not even in the square I started in! However, we work it out with a bit more online searching so are good to go.

We arrive at (the correct) Rossio station with about 10 seconds to spare before the train departs. It’s an easy trip of about 30 minutes. It’s fairly chaotic at the other end, though. A huge queue trickles through 2 or 3 turnstiles before we all spill onto the street and decide what our next transport option will be. Belinda decides to chat to a Tuk Tuk driver, who turns out to be named Magda and is very lively. So we head up the hill with Magda, towards the famous Peña Palace, the main tourist attraction of Sintra. It is an amazing place, surrounded by wonderful gardens and we happily spend an hour or so exploring before eating our picnic lunch.

We then toddle off in the direction of the nearby Moorish (Moopish?) Castle, which is about 600 years old. I choose to sit this one out. Turns out to be a wise decision; there was little in the way of walls/railings to prevent a calamitous fall. Even Hamish declined parts of the walk.

From the castle there is a lovely walk back to town through the forest. A bit of afternoon tea rounds off the stay before we stroll back to the station. On the way we find some tiles appropriately numbered to erect on the front of our house. We are the only people in the car (as I learnt it is called by watching Sherlock) when we depart exactly on time. It has been a lovely day in Sintra, which is a gorgeous and interesting town, which is understandably UNESCO listed.

Belem

Today has been busy, but lots of it in preparation for our departure to Vienna in the morning. We’ve had the luxury of a car for the past month, so today was a bit of a ‘throw it out’ kind of day. Not ones to waste, we’ve used the last of our eggs, ham and vegetables.

After midday, we caught a bus to Belem, which is a suburb about half an hour away on the coast. It’s still part of Lisbon, it just takes ages in the bus! Here we planned to see three sites: Mosteiro dos Jeronimos (it’s a very fancy Monastery)

The Pardrao dos Descobrimentos (Monument of Discovery – basically a tribute to the Portuguese explorers)

Belem Tower

We were happy enough looking from the outside and enjoying the last day in Lisbon, although we did have to dodge some rain! Easy enough when there’s ice-cream shops around! For interest, the blue car below is a new car, based on the old cars and they run on electricity. They are used for tourism purposes, but look very grand driving around the city streets.

We caught a tram back into the city to check on the Christmas tree and have a couple of drinks and some food before heading home to finish packing. Ask me one day about the aggressive drunk guy who sat next to me on the tram, but spent the full 10 minutes hurling abuse (and his umbrella point) at the guy sitting on his right (I was on his left and thankfully not in his field of vision) because he told him to take his feet off a rail. Keeping things spicy in Portugal!

Lisbon Part A

~ Bel Dunbar ~ Leave a comment

As I write this, it’s Monday evening. Rod has just put a baking tray of vegetables in the oven to have with some chicken for dinner and Hamish is resting, watching You-tubers play MineCraft. Thank you for the well wishes – I still have a bit of a head cold, but the boys seem to be back to normal now (paracetamol in Lisbon is 85 cents for a packet of 20 x 500mg tablets, for those of you interested in the price comparison).

Prior to arriving in Lisbon, Rod and I decided we should return the car a week early due to the logistics of parking and the fact we wouldn’t use the car this week at all. Should have thought that one through a bit more at home, but oh well. Rod dropped the car back to the depot out near the airport in Friday afternoon traffic and caught the metro back to the suburb we are staying in (Rato). After doing two loads of washing (yes, the boring stuff never ends) Hamish and I walked uphill to the nearest market for a little bit of shopping for dinner (pre-made lasagne and a pre-made salad) and breakfast things (cereal, milk, bread, peanut M&M’s…).

Gerard and Fiona flew from Dublin Friday evening and we arranged to meet them Saturday morning at the Miradoura da Graca which is a little spot where you can sit at a cafe and look at the gorgeous views of Lisbon. Although I gave instructions for the meet-up point, we actually arrived at the wrong view point (due to our Uber driver saying “this will do” – seriously? I had already give him 5 stars before I realised what had happened!) Anyway, after a few back and forth messages of “we’re here” and “so are we – where are you?” I realised the error and we walked down to see them. What a delight it was to see them both sitting there! We spent a few hours catching up before heading in the general direction of the Time Out Market for a late lunch, via the winding narrow streets of Lisbon. It was quite an effort to find somewhere to sit in the Market, but Fiona took the lead and out of the blue a couple of women agreed to relinquish their seats once they’d finished their sangrias.

After lunch, it was agreed to retire to our respective apartments and meet up later for dinner. We caught the bus home and I had a good sleep for over an hour – touring and being sick can be tough! That evening Gerard and Fiona came to our apartment and we drank some bubbles to celebrate their recent marriage. After this, we sauntered down our street for dinner at the local Japanese restaurant. Gerard and Rod kept us entertained with stories from Uni and teaching rounds. To be honest, Fiona and I had likely heard most of the stories before, but Hamish was VERY excited to be hearing about what his Dad got up to as a young man in Melbourne. Ask Rod about his PhD next time you see him!

Sunday we walked into the city and met Gerard and Fiona near their apartment in the famous (and oldest suburb of Lisbon) Alfama. We had a pretty ordinary lunch in a tiny restaurant. Hamish ordered a pizza, but there were no pizza’s – the waiter said: “How about a hamburger with an egg and some chips?” Typical Hamish said, “sure”. Three of us had the recommended fish cakes with rice and salad, but I wasn’t a fan (Rod said they were good, Fiona was also kind about it) and Gerard had calamari which he described as “OK”. The so called “Chef” was very sweet, popping out of the kitchen to check on us and we all had to lie and say things were great! We found a bar later for a farewell drink and just as quickly as they had arrived, they were flying back to Dublin. On our trip back home, we stumbled across a funky barber shop and Hamish had a haircut (I had to bribe him with a Portuguese tartlet).

This morning Rod and I left Hamish with some maths to do and pottered up and down the streets of Rato admiring the gorgeous tiled buildings.

We made our way to the British Cemetery which probably sounds like a bit of a weird thing to do, but it’s quite an historical site with some renowned people buried such as Henry Fielding (British author who wrote Tom Jones). Others included well respected merchants, sailors and public figures from a number of different countries – we hadn’t heard of them, but I like to get a sense of the person from the descriptive messages on their tombstones. One woman’s said something like ‘lived a life and flourished under adversity’ – I want to know more about Kitty Gordon Aston (I will have to do a bit of searching!).

After lunch we caught the bus into the city and walked to the castle “Castello de San Jorge.” Rod and Hamish counted 115 steps from one street level to the next (which is pretty mild by Lisbon standards) and we added a few more meters of elevation before reaching the ticket office. As you are aware, we love our castles and this one did not disappoint! All the main players have been involved with this castle at one point or another since its origin in the 10th Century (Romans, Moors, Berbers, Portuguese Kings, Christians). Once inside the castle compound you are free to aimlessly wander the grounds; we mostly followed the walls on the periphery providing us with the best views over the city and river.

The wall didn’t have much of a buffer (it wasn’t very high) so Rod was feeling a bit uneasy with us peering over the edges. Things didn’t improve for Rod as we walked up the narrow steep steps to the ramparts. Again, short walls, multi-directional foot traffic, people trying to pass on the narrow ramparts some with backpacks, others with pushers or children in slings, proved to be Rod’s undoing. After being brave for as long as he could, Rod headed back to the safety of the ground, whilst Hamish and I continued to potter about. I think having this type of flexibility when you travel (you go, we’ll stay – no hurt feelings, we don’t always have to do everything together) is so important for the trip to run smoothly, especially when you’re travelling for extended periods of time.

After exiting the castle grounds, we grabbed some ice-cream, listened to a reggae band and headed back into the city where Hamish was keen to check on the progress of the construction of the HUGE Christmas tree in the Praca do Comercio (large public plaza on the waterfront). We’re still at the frame stage, but the top section has had its greenery and some decorations added.

From here, we walked back into another plaza where the Christmas markets has had a soft opening over the weekend. Today was the first of many hot chocolates and gluhweins I’m sure! The top temperature when we land in Vienna Friday is 2 degrees! Eeeek!