Jun 20, 2019

Lisbon from high up

Yesterday, Wednesday, turned out to be much better weather than the forecast.

These photos are from Colin’s early morning walkabout about.

He really does like these trams.

There are many elevators and escalators to help get up and down the hills here in Lisbon. Some are free as are the ones up to the castle while most of the others are covered by a transit pass. We purchased a 24 hour pass for 6EUR/6.78USD/8.95CAD which is good for exactly 24 hours from when it is first validated.  We started out walking and somehow missed the first elevator but I managed to hoof it to the second elevator. Colin says that I am much stronger than from when I started this trip and faster as well. However by the end of the day yesterday I could feel the back of my calves and the front of my thighs.

From the top of the second elevator there is a lovely terrace with a restaurant to sit and enjoy the views or to simply snap some photos. From there you have a few gently slopping streets to climb to get to the entrance of Castelo de S Jorge, a National Monument.  Fee for seniors is 8.5 Euro each. There were no English information pamphlets but upon asking they reached under the counter and gave us one. It has a great deal of important information and a map. We had no idea that the castle and grounds were so large.

A panoramic view from the castle.

From the arrow and three windows to the right are our French door windows.

A part of the castle wall, with what looks to me, defensive slots in the wall.

That is Colin up there waving to me, I chose not to climb the extra stairs and to take a rest.

Taken from that one level up. Colin also climbed to the top of the tower

The Moors built the fortification in the mid – 11th century. During the 12th century came the transition from the Moorish to the Christian world. From there over the centuries it has been a royal residence, a military barracks, a military garrison and was last restored from 1938 – 1940. There is a lot of see as well as some archaeological ruins but its main glory are the stunning views. However it can be dangerous due to the 2-4 inch differences in height between each stone.  With my track record I was extremely careful. In fact I only tripped once yesterday and easily caught myself. I do spend a good deal of my time hanging onto Colin this trip due to all the uneven terrain.

As we were heading down to leave we came upon a wonderful surprise. Some baby birds.

Peacock chicks.

First time I have ever seen peachicks.

After a few hours we came back down the same way passing all the tourist restaurants until we found a very tiny place on a side street. Colin had spotted a cork shop ( Portugal is known for its cork products) right next door. Once we ordered he went to check it out. He was gone a long time and I began to enjoy another nice Portuguese wine. I haven’t tasted a bad one yet, even those at less than two Euro per bottle.

Guess what he bought?

Lovely lunch. Almost the best melt in your mouth salmon ever.

Later we both went into the cork shop together and somehow even though I did not need anything, I was talked into purchasing a pair of cork shoes and an extremely light weight bag. What cinched the deal was the 10% I got off for tax free spending.

More walking and we came to Tram 12, another famous tram route around the very narrow streets of Alfama. This time we got to stay on round trip.

Colin saw this guitar in a window as we passed. Of course he wanted it but we never did get back there. Thank goodness.

Traffic jam along the Tram 12 route.  At one point we passed a live classical guitar concert that was being broadcast speaker after speaker along the tram route we were on.  How very very special, to be able to listen to this concert, as we passed through the area.

The following photos were taken as we traveled this tram route.

Best sunset I have been able to get.

Colin is down there on the left, between the hotel sign on the road and the turquoise colored taxi cab.  He truly is my hero as well as mi amore.

Again we had a full walking day.  By the time I caught up on emails and started the blog neither of us felt like going out for a large meal as lunch had been very filling. So Colin went out to pick us up something light for dinner.  Only one more day left before we start our two days of flying to get home. That in itself promises to be another adventure. But before that we will have another day here in Lisbon to share with you.

This is a bit late as I forgot to publish it.

 

 

 

 

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Jun 19, 2019

Touring Lisbon

Tuesday morning started off with a power failure. Colin plugged in the kettle and blew all the breakers. We found the electrical panel but it was totally different from what we were familiar with and Colin did not want to play with it. We no longer had internet which was a problem as I needed to contact our host. My overseas international roaming package was over the day we left Marrakech and I figured that it was not worth renewing for eight days.  I had pre researched that I could text for only .75cents CAD and I did. However the host called back and that cost me $3.50CAD per minute. Oh well, it was a bit of an emergency and likely I was under $12.00CAD which was still cheaper than paying $60.00CAD for only eight days use as a just in case situation. As we were going from country to country, it was easier to get the one roaming package rather than set up a new SIM card in each place.  Plus I seldom use the phone for data or texting.

The host arrived within 40 minutes. Meanwhile Colin had gone out to pick us up some coffee and found everything closed until 10am. They go to bed late and start the day late (Starbucks included). The host came, sorted out that the problem was a bad kettle which he was going to replace and got all the power turned back on.  That gave us about twenty minutes to get to our free walking tour. There are dozens of them here and we had narrowed it down to one this day and one the next which we ended up canceling as most of it was covered in this first tour.

Colin chatting photography with one of the tour operators.  I was sitting and gathering my strength for the 3 hour tour.

Lovely painted mural as an homage to Fado. It was fun listening to how it started and what to look for to make sure that it is an event true to the culture.

We walked up and then down and then up again. I did keep up for the most part.

Antonio Ribeiro born in 1520 and died in 1591. He was  also known as Chiado for having lived many years in the Chiado district, on the street still called Chiado. He was a satirical poet of the sixteenth century and today they are calling him the world’s first rapper. He would spend hours rapping about the royal family and how they knew nothing and were doing everything wrong. The King found it amusing and had him entertain at some functions by rapping against the guests. This was the second statue we had seen blindfolded today; our guide had no idea why.

Here sits the poet Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935)  who had over 35 multiple personalties that he would converse with, asking a question and then moving to the next chair to answer as one of his other personalities. By varying his voice he was able to more easily explore different viewpoints and truths. I think that today he would likely be diagnosed with a personality disorder.

This bookstore, Bertrand Chiado, is the oldest bookstore in the world and was recognized in 2011 by the Guiness Book as the oldest operating bookstore in the world. It opened in 1732 and still operated the day of the devastating earthquake in 1755 and the horrific fire in 1988.

The Camano Convent was destroyed on November 1, 1755 by an earthquake said to be between 8.5 to 9.1 on todays Richter scale. It was All Saints Day and the church was lit with candles which caused a devastating fire after the earthquake. Many fled to the river to get away from the fires, only to find that the water had receded. It came back as a massive tsunami. With three catastrophic events in one day, most of Lisbon and the surrounding area was destroyed.

Next to the convent is a military museum which still has a changing of the guard. The revolution of October 5, 1910, overthrew the Portuguese monarchy and instituted the First Portuguese Republic. The political institutions of the First Republic lasted until 1926, when it was replaced by a military dictatorship. That dictatorship was only recently overthrown on April 25, 1974 by the Carnation Revolution.  There is much fascinating history to this country, including how it remained neutral during WWII and sold goods to countries on both sides of the war.

The tour continued. I think I was the only one taking notes. Another wee tidbit from the war is that Lisbon became a haven for spies to gather.  It was here that Ian Fleming came up with his story ideas and created James Bond, 007.

The Rossio Train station with some unique architecture.

The Lisbon massacre, alternatively known as the Lisbon pogrom or the 1506 Easter Slaughter was an incident in April, 1506, in Lisbon, Portugal in which a crowd of Catholics, as well as foreign sailors who were anchored in the Tagus, persecuted, tortured, killed, and burnt at the stake hundreds of people who were accused of being Jews.  Supposedly this all began during a sermon by a priest in this church.

The church was deemed to be cursed and was almost burned to the ground in August 13 1959.  Basic repairs were made in order that mass can still be said but the pillars and the interior are not in good shape.

The corridor to the commerce district on the river.

Another corridor to the Elevador de Santa Justa which I discussed in the last post.

Our tour guide brought us to what she thinks is the best place to enjoy the famous Portuguese custard tarts called pastel de nata.  She very generously treated each of us to one of these most delicious sweets.

The tour just kept going and going. Here we are in an area on the way to the Alfama district and this street is famous for its various dried cod preparations. I was most surprised to learn that codfish is not caught in local waters but in Northern Europe.  Years and years ago the sailors were mostly paid in codfish which of course was salted and dried.  They would bring it back to Portugal and soon the country was overrun with salted cod which eventually became a favorite of the people here and still is to this day.

The tour continued to Alfama which was not destroyed during the earthquake.  It was where the fishermen lived as well at the prostitutes and the lower class. There is a good deal of thought as to why they survived and not the Catholics and in the end the church admitted that there might be a greater force than God! Way too much for me to communicate the details to you. The photo here is to portray how narrow and twisted the streets are in this area.  By now the tour was at four hours and still going strong.  We were done. I put a nice tip into her hand and said that we had to leave.  The rest were on their way to some tasting of a cherry liqueur. FYI, there is a month long fiesta of sorts in June and hence the decorations.  I could add a lot more but this post is long enough.

We came across a very small Italian restaurant where we shared a wonderful bottle of wine and possibly the best pasta meals we have ever had.  This lunch was one of the highlights of our trip.

Next we wanted to take a tour on the famous Tram 28, there was a one hour wait in line.  We later found out that an accident had caused the delay.

By the time we boarded I was pretty tired.  We just keep going and going. The day had also gotten much warmer and I was overheated. Fortunately I was able to peel off a few layers and roll up my sleeves.

This tram system has been going since 1873 ( pulled by horses ) and in 1901, it was electrified.

Because of traffic, it was almost an hour trip one way to the far end. Do I look like I am fading? As you can see the temperature had dropped again.

At the end of the tram line we all had to get off and line up all over again to get back on in order to get back to where we had started. The wind picked up and it started to drizzle.  Eventually we got onto a tram which was hot as blazes inside as compared to outside.  I think  that I was done at this point. Eventually the lady in the blue shirt got up and offered me her seat!  Do I look that old?

As it turned out, the rain had started again as we were bounced along the tracks. Suddenly we both recognized where we were and rang to get off.  We were only a few blocks from home.  However the sidewalks were treacherous due to the rain and we walked ever so slowly so as to not fall.  It was great to get back inside and to relax with a glass of wine.  We did not go out for dinner but ate leftovers.  That was a long day.  We were gone just over nine hours and spent most of that time walking.

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Jun 18, 2019

Lisbon, Portugal

Not taken today but the metro station is at my back and that salmon and white colored building on the right was the location of our Airbnb here. Perfectly suited to enjoying Porto.

We had no problems getting from our apartment to the train station by metro. Door to door it only took 15 minutes. We were early which is always better than being late. As it was a nice day we went up to the platform to wait for our train which ended up being about 20 minutes late but we still got to Lisbon on time.

Photo taken by a lovely couple from Texas. We had such a wonderful chat as we waited for the train.  Please do send me that follow up email as we would love to visit you down there in Texas some year in our RV.

Relaxing on the train. The current fare for travel on this train from Porto to Lisboa is 30EUR.  By booking 3 -4 months in advance we each only paid a promotional fare of 9.5EUR/10.90USD/14.60CAD.

We had about 6 – 10 stops at small towns along the way.

We spent the 3 & 1/4 hour trip working on what else but the blog and I finished an  e – novel I had ordered from our library back home.

We took a taxi to our Airbnb. Click here to see the details of our apartment.  Again it is all about location and this is about as central as it gets.  This is our most expensive at $167.00CAD/125.00USD. Once we get back I will work a few figures out for you such as our average cost per night, etc. Our host was there to greet us and provided a wealth of information about things we needed to know about Lisbon and kindly had a bottle of wine for us as well as water, soft drinks and beer in the fridge.

We are on the 6th floor which is the top of the building and this is our view towards the Tagus River.

Looking the other way.

Once we unpacked ( last time until we get home ) we headed out the door looking for lunch and a grocery store. We found both and dropped a few bottles of wine off at the apartment and off we went again. We ended up covering a good deal of the area and were surprised at how much we did in half of a day. Initial impressions are that Lisbon is a huge city at around 506,000 while Porto has a population of just over 215,000.  Porto is a clean city and we find Lisboa to be littered with scraps of paper and garbage and ever so many cigarette butts. A city of smokers.

The uneven cobblestone roads.

The very smooth and slippery limestone street, even more dangerous when wet.

The Elevator de Santa Justa is a major tourist attraction that people line up for over an hour to be whisked to the ‘almost’ top for 5.5 Euro. Then you have to pay another 1.5 Euro to get a ticket to climb the final two staircases up.  The view is the same.

Lisbon is called the city of seven hills. While that may be true I managed to find many smaller hills every few yards that left me huffing and puffing.  You walk up a ways, sometimes at a reasonable angle but not always, then you might get lucky and be able to walk a bit on a flat surface before you head downhill and then start uphill yet again.

Some of the scenery.

A very old cafe from where espresso was first introduced to Lisbon.  It was not well received as it was too bitter. The owner had spent a great deal of money importing the machinery, etc so had to come up with a new plan. He put up a sign indicating that this new drink needed to be drunk with sugar.  Very quickly it became popular as the Portuguese like sweet things.

This is called a Tuk Tuk and they are all over the place in different sizes and colors. Each driver decorates their machine in order to stand out from the others.  They all claim to be the best at offering you the perfect site seeing tour.

The Convento do Carmo, from which there is a free stairway up to a walkway to the top of the Elevador de Santa Justa and from there you can pay that 1.5 Euro if you want to go to the very top.  Point is, you don’t have to wait in line for an hour to get up nor do you have pay that 5.5 Euro each to get there. My research saved us 11 Euro.

The free walkway across.

For that extra 1.5EUR you can climb this staircase up.

There is a mesh screen across from which you can easily look through as well as take photos as the following show.

There is a castle up there. More to that story next post.

Finally, a sunset shot.

While patio restaurants were plentiful in Porto, here you have to find them. In certain touristic areas they are plentiful along with high prices and not quality cuisine. Turns out that many restaurants here are down a tiny alley which opens onto a square that holds two to four restaurants. By the time we found one, it had become very cool plus I was tired so we sat for a drink while we waited for two medium sized pizzas to be prepared.  I do believe that they were up there with some of the best we have enjoyed over the years and now we have leftovers for another meal.

I feel like we put in a full day from 4PM on  🙄

 

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Jun 17, 2019

Our last day and time to move on

Once again we eased into our final day in Porto on Sunday. But once we got going, we didn’t stop. We started by taking the metro to one stop further along and got off at General Torres which was next to a very gentle walk down to the river. A good stroll down with wonderful views. Easy to do and well worth the effort.

The metro is well thought out to the point of having to stand behind a line in order to let those getting off have a clear path out so that we might board easier.

Views of Porto from the Gaia side as we walked down the hill.

Back down to the Gaia waterfront.

We walked until we got to the Mercado we had seen yesterday. Our plan was to have lunch here. We found an interesting place for pasta and ordered one meal which we chose to share.  I then walked over to a wine booth to get us two glasses of new to us, green wine. A huge pour for 2,9 Euro each.  The pasta was great but we needed just a bit more and got a large bowl of pumpkin ginger soup to share for only 2.2 Euro. Such a special treat.

Penne with tomato sauce, cream, shallot, Smoked Salmon, Vodka and chives.

I purchased our wine at a different booth, saving us a few Euro.

As we ate, Colin mentioned that we ( he ) had  not purchased anything here in Porto. I  immediately came back with the reply that we had already spent 65 Euro / 98.00CAD in porto related expenses. Between the bottle for the apartment, the cellar tour and the two patio tastings, we had spent a few dollars.

After lunch we went to the Bar Soares for another round of five port tastings for five Euros each. The one yesterday was on the far side of the Mercardo and this one was on the other side of the Mercado entrance. From left to right, Burmester Ruby Porto, Extra Dry White, the Offley Rose Porto, the Burmester Tawny Porto and the White Porto.

Enough said.

It was a very special day for us. Colin mentioned that he was ready to prolong our trip by a few weeks. Fine with me as long as he figured out all the details.

Now that is a very cool ride and something that I could handle.

You never know what you are going to see around the next corner.  It looked to have been constructed from recycled materials.

Waiting for the water taxi.

Here it comes.

More shots as we walked up the hill.

Pointing out the sales at the port store.

The street is very sloped as are those tables at that cafe. Quite the feat to keep the food and beverages on the table.

Two street musicians were setting up to play and I loved this table and their individual choice of beverage.

Eventually it was time to get back to our place and start packing.  We took the water taxi again and walked back up the hill and took the metro just two stations.  Our plan had been to pack and then go out for dinner but again we were not hungry so we just stayed in.

We are off by train in the morning to our final destination of this trip.

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Jun 16, 2019

Getting to know Porto

While I slept in a bit, did laundry, washed my hair and worked on the blog Colin took off for a few hours on one of his walk abouts. Laundry machines here in Europe take much longer to do a load. What would take me 37 – 50 minutes at home to wash takes about two hours here. Then everything needs to be dried on a rack. A much longer process. I made a point of booking an Airbnb that has a machine every second place, again something that needs to be planned ahead.

Photos from Colin’s walk about.

It was sunny and warmer yesterday, a lovely Saturday and the city was full of locals and tourists alike. It was a perfect day to simply meander and take in the sights. We eventually stopped at one of the many cafes lining the main street heading down towards the river. For some reason the soup appealed to us.

This elderly gentleman was doing rope tricks to the sounds of Frank Sinatra, doing it his way!!

We had wanted to try the green wine but they were sold out so we went with the rose, which we have not tried much. However at 7.5 EUR for a bottle versus 2.5 EUR per glass it was only logical to get a bottle. Perfect choice for a mid afternoon lunch.

Looking pretty relaxed.

Tomato soup with cheese, best soup ever, garlic included. The fresh basil was the perfect touch.

We each had a bowl of soup and shared this tapa of cod croquettes with beans, egg and  a bit of cheese. Just enough for both of us.

I had been hearing wisps of operatic sounds as we ate and here they were. Simply brilliant. The soloist with his cape was very dramatic.  They were worthy of my donation to their collection guitar case.

As we walked this group who appeared to be from a specific region walked past. I think that they were a folkloric group but they only walked past.

Yet another refection photo. We were having such a wonderful time. This might be too much information for some, I am drinking a wonderful bubbly champagne wine courtesy of my host as I am working on this post.

After our leisurely lunch during which I had the pleasure of watching an artist sell five originals, we strolled down to the river. We had no plan and ended up in line to take Tram #1 for a ride along the river to the Foz district. However we waited for close to an hour before it came and we saw that there was only room for perhaps 28 to sit and the rest were crammed in standing.  We had spent a good part of the wait chatting in Spanish with two ladies visiting from Valencia. Colin became concerned that we might have a long wait getting back so we decided not to board. Instead we walked along the river and took the water taxi across for 2 Euro each. We soon found ourselves sharing a table with two ladies from the UK. They told us that they had done the tram earlier that morning and did not think it very special. Cariss was from Wales and lived in ?shire and her friend Melody was from Liverpool, where the Beatles were from. Sorry if I got some names confused. We had a lovely visit as we enjoyed our port.

The red building is where we had our cod lunch yesterday.

The tram that we did not take.

Here we are on the water taxi.  Great way to save time and energy for only 2 Euro each.

Yes that is us with our port tasting, five different ports for five Euro each. Great deal.

We started with extra dry port on the left ( not my favorite ) then a white port, a rose port, followed by a tawny port  and then a ruby port.

Colin decided that we needed some cheese and bread to complete this tasting experience.

It turns out that the WC’s were inside the adjoined building, the Mercardo. What a neat discovery, a food and wine fare as well as fresh food sales. Best mercado that we have been to.

This vegetarian buffet appears to be the best value.

We took a taxi up to the metro and came back to our wonderful apartment to rest and I worked on the blog while Colin had a nap. We headed out again by metro to catch the sunset from the other side of the river. Our three day pass has come in very handy. It was literally less than ten minutes away, whereas down the hills and up the hills would have taken us a minimum of 40 minutes.  Our apartment is in such a great location.

The food trucks up here are unique and so interesting.

After the sunset we purchased dinner to bring back here ( it was still warm) to enjoy with wine. We did not get back until 10:45pm. Another special day here in Porto.

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