2016.09.21 (Nazaré – Lisbon)
Well it’s confirmed that after more than a week on the road, my recent investment in travel socks made of Merino wool really don’t retain any foot odor. Jenny is simply thrilled by it!
After breakfast at the hotel, we felt obligated to actually take a brief stroll on the beach and take a few pictures to remember our stay in Nazaré. After reviewing more closely the town map, we realized that the bus station was less than 5 minutes away as opposed to our 15 minutes walk upon our arrival. Our one and a half hour bus ride was a breeze with wifi on-board. From the Lisbon bus station, we took the metro from across the street. After two metro connections, we were already at the door of our rented apartment in Lisbon – a good hour before our scheduled check-in! Needless to say, Jenny did not like to wait for Paulo. “The apartment owner was better to be on time!” As mentioned earlier, we were concerned about the high rating this apartment had on Booking.com. Paulo showed up promptly at 4:00pm and showed one of his three apartments that he owned, formerly his father’s property. After a few minutes touring the place, we quickly fell in love with it. Jenny was keen on trying out the nice washing machine! Paulo was very friendly, took his time to explain everything in the apartment and was informative about life in Portugal, Lisbon in particular. We then understood his high score on Booking.com.
After some snack and beverages replenishment at a nearby grocery store, we spent a few hours enjoying our new flat. We made our accommodation reservations and bought our bus tickets for our next travel segment to Évora. We headed out for our evening meal at a local seafood restaurant. At the restaurant, we chatted with a British fellow working at York University on a business trip in Lisbon.
2016.09.22 (Lisbon)
This morning, we had breakfast along the way to the Metro station. The plan was to spend the day on a self-guided walk that brought us across three of Lisbon’s popular neighborhoods: Alfama and the Castle; Baixa: Lisbon’s Historic Downtown; Bairro Alto and Chiado. After our metro ride to city center, it took us a bit of wandering to find the bus stop that would bring us to the door step of the São Jorge Castle. The route is serviced by mini-bus – once you noticed the narrow cobble streets and steep hills it took, you get to understand the use of a small bus. After spending a few hours visiting the castle, we really resumed our walk across the proposed neighborhoods. It seemed that it was University initiation week as we encountered several groups of students sitting in circles, chanting with some even dipping themselves in fountains.
We finished our walk late in the afternoon and headed back with the metro to our apartment for some rest before supper. Tired from our touring day, we had supper at a restaurant a few doors away – a surprisingly nice place.
2016.09.23 (Lisbon)
This morning Jenny was eager to try the washing machine. Everything was going well until we tried to get our clothes out. The door to the machine just did not seem to want to give our clothes back! After some convincing, the door handle finally gave in and we (well – ok Jenny did) promptly hung out the clothes on the clothing line. Our second touring day in Lisbon was dedicated to the nearby town of Belem. We repeated yesterday morning’s routine that brought us to the city center. We took a 35 minutes tram ride to Belém. There we visited: the Belém Tower, the Monastery of Jerónimos and had the mandatory treat of Pastel de nata at the “Fábrica de Pastéis de Belém” bakery who acquired the KFC-type secret recipe from the monks. We took a city bus from Belém to a few blocks away from our apartment.
With some more TripAdvisor exploration, we headed to another small Portugese restaurant for supper.
