As we sailed to Lisbon we celebrated our final night on the ship, with a birthday party for Ed.
The cruise had been a great experience; the convenience of being transported from city to city while we eat and sleep is a luxury. My only complaint would be to have more multi day stops like Malaga, as one day always feels rushed.
We arrived in Lisbon bright and early and were off the ship by 8.30 and on our way to our Airbnb. From the ship the city looked beautiful, colourful tile clad buildings set into hills that banked the Tagus River.
Unfortunately our first Lisbon experience wasn’t so great. After a long wait for a taxi with the 2000 other people getting off we were taken the 10 minutes to our accommodation and then charged 38 euros for what should have been 8. He was much bigger than Ed and I, and had our bags, so we just paid…
Checked in, we brushed off the experience with a coffee and our first Lisbon delicacy – pan de dulce, or bread of god.
We then joined a Hop on Hop off bus to tour the city. There were two main routes, Historic and Modern, the queues were chaotic and we ended up on the Modern.
It’s a big city, with a metro population of around 3 million. We looped around a small part of it, from the old town out to the Oceanarium (which we didn’t get to see) and back.
The most noticeable thing is the tiled exterior of many/most of the buildings. It’s a legacy from the Moorish occupation and very beautiful. Bel and I both thought we should see more of it in Aus.
We completed a loop and the walked down the main tourist strip Rua Augusta to the river front. The strip is very similar to Las Ramblas in Barcelona with endless restaurants down the centre.
We finished the day with another birthday dinner for Ed (on the actual day) at a lovely restaurant called Baixamar that had been recommended to us. Very nice with many traditional dishes.
The following morning we were on the train to Sintra. It was a short walk to Rossio station then a 40min train ride to Sintra. At Sintra there is a public bus service outside the station that does a loop of sites. The hardest part is getting past all the Tuk Tuk drivers selling tours.
We made two stops while we were there. The first was the Castle of the Moors, an 8th century Moorish castle reconquered by the Christians in 1147. It was a fascinating site, with a lot of interesting exhibits. It had amazing views over Lisbon and was a therefore a significant defensive point during the Moorish rule, and the Christian rule that followed.
Inside the fortress walls you were able to walk along the walls up to the towers. We started to walk up to one tower but the low wall on one side was really kicking in my vertigo so Ed headed up on his own. Thankfully I found another way up that didn’t cause me the same issues and the climb up was worth it. The views cross Sintra to Lisbon were spectacular.
Our second stop was the National Palace of Peña. It is quite a modern palace, compared to most, having been constructed in 1850 on the site of a Monastery that was destroyed in the Lisbon earthquake of 1775. Prior to the Monastry the site was a Chapel dedicated to our lady of Peña.
It’s a beautiful Palace in a beautiful setting. Built in Romanticist style, commissioned by the then King Ferdinand the 2nd. Unlike the many other Palaces we have seen, that are austere and dominated by gold gilding, Pene was filled with colour and light.
We started our last day in Lisbon back on the Hop on Hop off bus – this time on the Historic loop. Many more beautiful sites, and many that we will have to visit next time as we were running out of time.
We completed the full loop and then walked across to the food market called Time Out Market. We were keen to try some local delicacies and Bel had researched that this was the place to go.
The market was crazy busy but thankfully Ed and Shelly arrived there before us and secured some very valuable seats. The next challenge was to decide what to eat from the too many choices. I ended up choosing the Portuguese beef sandwich- basically a steak sandwich with garlic butter on a muffin/pita style bread. It’s was delicious so Bel did the same after 4 laps of the hall. Ed had the Cod fish which is very popular here and Spain and is high on my list to try.
We then left timeout and stopped at another street market we had seen on the way to try a Bifana. A light damper style bread with pork and hot sauce. It was delicious.
We also stopped to get some empadas. Similar to Empanadas but smaller and round, like tiny meat pies. we had 2, Chicken and Mushrooms. Chicken was best.
We followed the eating with some shopping and there may have been some siestas and then it was time to eat again! So we did!
