I left off on Lisbon

View of the castle from the Arch in Palace Square

We loved traveling in Portugal. The coast line is beautiful, the people are nice, the weather cooperated, and the food and wine were great. We drove up from the Algarve region in the southern part of Portugal, then hit Lisbon for our last four days/three nights of our Spain/Portugal holiday.

We started our time in Lisbon as we do in most places by just kind of wandering around the city. We stayed at the Sofitel Lisbon Liberdade, really near the center of the city and close to most of the neighborhoods we wanted to visit. Great hotel; highly recommend.

Central square in Lisbon- I love the wave design

I found Lisbon to be really beautiful. The architecture is stunning, and you can obviously see which era buildings were constructed and which/if an outside empire influenced the design; it doesn't hurt that the sun was shining and everything was blooming while we were there as well.

One of the many, many monuments dotting many squares around the city

Our first night we went to a great restaurant called Grapes & Bites. It was Portuguese tapas and had a huge wine selection, fun atmosphere, and local live music. You should go if you're in Lisbon.

 
Our first full day there, we had a private walking tour of some of the major sites. We booked with Your Friend in Lisbon, which was definitely one of the better tours we've had. Our tour guide was Adriana, and if you go to Lisbon, you should book with her. While in Seville, we randomly heard a group of women talking about their trip to Lisbon, so I decided to ask what they would recommend ...their highest recommendation was this tour, so we did it, and it was well worth it. Adriana was really good as well because she is quite the storyteller and knows lots of Lisbon history.

Here are just a few things we did and saw on the tour...

We started in the Palace Square, right on the river. It is a huge space with a monument to one of their Kings. The buildings are all primarily government buildings and are all painted various shades of gold, to symbolize wealth. The arch pictured is the one we climbed the day before.

The Lisbon "elevator" seems to be a must-see attraction for some, I guess specifically for the views. The thing is, the line for this thing is crazy, and in reality you can just go up into the neighborhood behind it and get the same views, with no line and no cost. It was originally built as a people-mover to get them from the downtown area, up the hill, and to the adjoining neighborhood.

Salted Cod is a staple in Portuguese food. Funny thing is, cod is not in the oceans around Portugal, it was brought back by explorers from the north, who had to salt it to preserve it on the long journey home. Adriana said if you ask a Portuguese person what fresh Cod looks or taste like, it's likely they won't know.

BK and I both loved this church: São Domingos Church. It is, of course, one of many churches in Lisbon, but it has a significant story attached to it. It was the site of a Jewish massacre in the 1500s, when everyone in Portugal was supposed to be converting to Catholicism. Many, many people were killed. Numerous centuries later the interior of the church burned. At that time the people of Lisbon and the Catholic Church decided to leave the interior as-is and make it into a memorial for the thousands killed in the Jewish massacre. The church us just really unique, as you typically see very ornate interiors, and this one is left with nothing.

There are small palaces all over Lisbon, with this being one. It was kind of a random stop, and was a mix of booth Moorish and European design. Baby K appreciated the opportunity to get out and walk.

This is the Lisbon train station, where the doorway is designed as two horseshoes, even though they are upside down. It's supposed to be good luck to all who pass through. As a note, we cut through the train station to get to the neighborhood behind the elevator.

The Carmo Convent is one of the oldest standing buildings in Lisbon, and one of the only structures that survived a devastating earthquake in the 1700s. Where it stands is essentially where Lisbon ended at the time.

Yum! Looks good right? We made a stop at the national bakery during our tour and partook in some of the traditional pastries. They have an egg custard filling and then you sprinkle cinnamon on top. It is said that nuns in Lisbon started making these pastries because they had so many egg yolks leftover after using egg whites to starch their habits. See, funny little tidbits we learned while there.

This is a Lisbon street car, and many of them still have this look. I think #28 is the most famous one, but you can take nearly any of them and get to the major sites. The benefit of not taking the 28? Way less crowded and much more enjoyable.

After taking the street car up, we were in the Alfama neighborhood, which is a crazy maze of streets and buildings. Above the neighborhood is a great point to look out over the bay. On a site note, this is also where cruise ships dock directly in the city.

We ended our tour with a glass of port after seeing the Alfama neighborhood and making a brief stop at the cathedral. The cathedral was interesting because it is built and looks almost like half cathedral/half fortress, which is what it's purpose was many years ago. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around some of the neighborhoods we didn't explore in-depth on our tour.

This is where our trip takes a bit of a turn we didn't expect, and unfortunately after this we got caught a little off guard by Baby K, who had developed a fever during the day. We felt bad for not realizing it, but knew our little trooper was not doing well when she didn't want to get out and push her stroller. Needless to say, we canceled our plans that evening, ordered room service and relaxed that evening. She still was not feeling well the next morning, so we canceled our trip to Sintra (I've heard most would highly recommend) and laid low all day.

Baby K was feeling better and had a lower temperature at the end of the next day, so BK and I decided to have one more night out and experience Fado music. Fado is specific to Portugal, with varying opinions on it's origin, but ultimately resulting in a sometimes sad love song. We went to a Fado house for dinner and enjoyed a show that evening.

Our last day in Lisbon we had some time before catching our flight, so we climbed to what is supposed to be the best spot to see all of Lisbon. Most think it's from the castle on the hill, but we were told to climb, climb, climb and hit the top of a hill where you could see the castle, as well as the city. The view was great, but the surroundings not so good. You would think for the best view point they would do a little more with the surroundings.

We also walked up past a park near our hotel that had great views down Avenue del Liberdade. The Liberdade area was really nice (also where our hotel was) and a great area to walk around and explore...although that's much of Lisbon to be honest.

Lisbon was really good to us (outside of Baby K having a fever) and I think it's somewhere we might actually go back to if we had the chance. I think the day trip to Sintra is a must see, so it's hard for me not to want to go back, if only to see that.

So like the majority of other places we've traveled, I would definitely recommend going to Lisbon if you get the chance. All of Portugal was great for us and overall quite relaxing and enjoyable. Who knows, maybe we'll go back, then head north to Porto, the home of Port.

We've had one weekend away since our big vacation and are off to Barcelona next. Must catch up soon!