June 20 Portugal
Another delicious cheese and jam breakfast. We found bread we all really like. We have two kind of cheese and Neal has a selection of salami. We bought this cheese that is a giant version of those waxed ball shaped cheeses. This one is so soft that when you break through the top of the wax you scoop out the cheese with a spoon.
It will be hard to go back to my usual yogurt and fruit.
We gave up on the beach idea. No one seemed to want to take charge of the plan. We looked at the top three things to do in Lisbon and we had not done number three. Rick Steves had a nice walk all laid out in his book so we headed for the Gloria Funicular and went to the upper town.
The views from up there are spectacular. We took lots of photos and started our walk. We visited a beautiful old church. This church felt like a real church although it is filled with gold and carvings and tiles and art from the late 1500 to the early 1600s. We sat quietly for a while and soaked up the peace.
Then we found the oldest brewery in Lisbon. It is an old monastery. There is still a place for someone to stand and read the bible to the monks who were eating there meal. The servers were wearing monk outfits. Neal and I split a burger and Ryan had garlic shrimp. We were served some appetizers that included pickled beans that I could not stop eating. I guess they were a local version of beer nuts. We had local beers along with our meal.
We did a little shopping and went into the department store that is the free way down to the lower town.
So far for any transportation. When we checked into our apartment we were given a stack of travel cards to see if they still were good.
We did a little more shopping on our way home and all took nice naps.
We have not paid
We left here at about 7:00 in the evening. We went to a sidewalk restaurant so Ryan could have sardines. We ordered one order and shared it.
Then we headed up hill to the Fado place and stopped in a couple of shops. We were early so we sat on a quiet bench and people watched for a while.
For most of the evening there were only two occupied tables. Our reservation cost included wine, food and music. They started us off with several small plates of different salads and Ryan had octopus for the first time. We also had bread and yummy cheese. Then we had a fish sort of thing and that was followed by meet and rice. At a break in the music we had dessert. The food was home made and pretty good. It was a good way to sample local foods.
The fado was good but not as good as in Porto.
Then we walked back down hill to our lovely beds. There was no Port for us before bed, we were all too tired.