June 16 Lisbon
We were up at 4:30 to pick up Ryan. We called the taxi and they were there in 5 minutes as promised.
It was a short ride to the airport. We got a hot drink and in no time Ryan arrived.
We took another cab back to the apartment. This one was over twice the price. I think this was the first time we were taken advantage of.
Ryan said he wanted to go right out again. He seemed pretty excited but I also think he was tired.
We headed toward the tourist information office in one of the big squares. We were too early so we stopped for food at a little place where we could eat outside. Neal and I had an amazing giant grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Thanks goodness we shared it. Ryan had toast with butter and jam. He had lovely big slices of bread. The bread here is really good.
Then we got information on how to go to the beach if we decide to do that.
We followed a Rick Steves audio guide and headed up the hill. We passed a lot of very nice things being sold along the way. We did not purchase anything. Then we saw a weird sort of Eifel Tower thing. We thought we would go up to the top for the view. First they told us it was free. Then when we got on the elevator they told us to pay. Then it cost more to go up the steps to the very top. We paid for Ryan and he headed up. It was a winding sort of scary staircase. We were glad to wait for him. Then someone came over and told us we did not have to pay. Once Ryan came down we decided not to take the elevator down. It would probably cost more money. The big department store was next to the tower and we were told we could go through it and take the escalator down. We never did find the escalator but someone showed us to what was not a public elevator and we were down.
We headed back to our hotel for a nap.
The buildings here are very lovely. Many of them have colored tiles covering most of the fronts. They are really all colors. The streets and sidewalks are mosaic. They are mostly black and white in different designs. There are no really tall buildings. Most of the city was well designed after the 1755 earth quake.
We all had a good nap and then talked about where to have dinner. It was only 4:00 and we made 8:00 reservations. This gave us a lot of time to explore. We ended up leaving around 5:00. I wanted a light snack like ice cream or pastry. We headed up hill into Alfama. Everything was closed. I was getting tired and grumpy. We just kept going up and up. I knew going down was not going to be fun. Suddenly we were at the top and there was a beautiful park. There were a few little places to eat. I was so happy.
I had lemon aid with basil. It had no sugar. They gave you sugar to mix in. I had the best food ever.
I had two thick pieces of bread that had been toasted with a little olive oil and garlic. Then brie was melted on top. Then roasted walnuts were added. The walnuts were fill with honey. I shared one of the pieces and ate the other. I will try to make this at home.
We were now thinking we would head directly to our restaurant. We were using GPS on our phone but it kept changing its mind. We knew we had a lot of down so we headed that way. We stopped in a few shops that were open just to kill some time. Eventually we made it to where we thought the restaurant should be. Neal said he thought it was behind the trolley but this did not seem likely. We were still early so we kept asking people where it was. Some older gentlemen almost got into a fight over which of them were right. It turned out they were both wrong. The restaurant was behind the trolley. It was actually in a hotel. I don’t know why they did not mention that on Trip Advisor.
We had a lovely dinner. We shared four things. My favorite was the mushroom risotto.
Then it was backing home for pastry and a glass of port.
I forgot to mention a wonderful place we found when looking for our restaurant. It is a big food market where they were cooking everything you coold imagine. We bought pastries and bread for breakfast. We hope to find it again for dinner.