Lisbon with Lucy

(guest post by Amy)

At the end of April, Lucy and I took a 5 night trip to Lisbon, Portugal in celebration of her birthday.

We had a few logistical issues to resolve just prior to the trip after we found out that the airlines I had originally booked our tickets with (SATA) was planning to strike the week of our trip.  I was in Peru with Lydia and Lucy was in NYC with Celia when this news was delivered to us, so it was a bit of a scramble to get us re-routed in time.  Luckily Than was able to re-book us on United without much change to our original schedule.  At least, we thought we were on United until we arrived at Logan airport on April 23rd and found out that the United flights through Newark were being delayed/cancelled due to the air traffic controller sequestration.  At that point we thought that maybe this was a sign that we should just get in the car and go home, but United kindly and efficiently got us on a Delta flight to Amsterdam, and from there we took TAP to Lisbon.  Not the most direct route, but we arrived in Lisbon the afternoon of the 24th and luckily our  luggage arrived as well, so we took that as a good sign!

We quickly found the airport bus to town.  Our hotel was located right off the Ave da Liberdad, the main avenue leading to the historic center.  Our room was small but efficient and the hotel staff very helpful and professional.  After a quick shower we went for a stroll down the avenue and with the help of Lucy's guidebook we found a great seafood restaurant.  We each had grilled fish with vegetables and tried to learn a few portugese words after figuring out that our broken spanish was not going to be of any help in Lisbon.

The next day we went out to the avenue and noticed that there were no cars - closed due to the fact that it was April 25th, a national holiday celebrating the "carnation revolution" - liberation day in Portugal.  Instead of cars we watched runners run along the Ave in a road race.  It was a beautiful day for a run.

Here is a view of one of the "elevador" trams that you can take to go up hill in Lisbon.  There are 7 hills in Lisbon, so the trams are quite useful!

We rode the number 15 tram in the afternoon as part of our walking tour with "Lisbon Spirit".  We were the only customers on the tour, so it was like having a private tour of Lisbon.  What was billed as a 3 hour tour turned into a 4.5 hour tour -- needless to say we saw a lot of Lisbon and got lots of exercise.  Our tour guide took us to several overlooks of the city:

Lisbon is a very attractive, if somewhat dilapidated, city, situated as it is in the hills overlooking the Tagus River which flows to the Atlantic.  Many of the buildings are covered with beautiful tiles, which gives the city a distinctive look from my perspective.  Here are some of the tiles we saw:

Our tour guide had studies architecture and urban design at university, so he spent a lot of time talking to us about that part of Lisbon.  He tried to get us interested in visiting various churches, but we skipped those in favor of more distinctive elements of the city.  Here is an archway leading to the flea market:

and an example of some of the brightly painted buildings we saw:

At the end of the walking tour we flopped at a cafe and attempted to revive ourselves.  Lisbon has a cafe culture - lots of outdoor tables and plazas for people watching.

The next day we decided to take the train to Sintra, where the royal family summered.  We took the train from Lisbon along with quite a few other tourists - mostly European tourists -- we did not see/hear many Americans on the trip.  The train ride took about 40 minutes, at the end of which we caught a taxi to take us up to the Pena National Palace.  Much of it was built in the 1800s by King consort Ferdinand for his wife Queen Maria II.  It is in the Romantic style but with a lot of moorish influence.

The weather in Sintra was not the bright sunny weather we experienced in Lisbon.  It was cool and misty, so I guess we could understand why it was used as a summer residence.  After taking an audio tour of the inside, we decided to try to walk from the palace down the hill back to town instead of taking a taxi.  That was another long walking adventure for us!  For much of the way we enjoyed a lovely walking path through the park,

but after a while the path ended and there was very little signage so we had to improvise our way back to town while trying hard to avoid getting hit by the giant tour buses on the road!  Luckily we found a tourist information booth and the lady there was able to point us in the right direction.  She also gave us a lunch recommendation, so we ended up at a nice Portugese restaurant for late lunch before we caught the train back to Lisbon.

Saturday was our designated shopping day, and we had a wonderful time walking around the Baixa and Chiado neighborhoods, wandering into shops, and selecting a few gifts and souvenirs for home.  By then we felt like we knew our way around Lisbon.  After a nice rest at the hotel, we put on our dressy clothes and headed off for a night of Fado at the Clube de Fado located in the Alfama district.

Our walking tour guide told us that his generation and his parent's generation did not listen to Fado music given its association with the 2nd republic, but it is a popular activity for tourists and we figured that as we were in Lisbon, we might as well hear the "real thing".  We arrived at 8pm and ordered our meal.  I had monkfish and prawns with rice, which was pretty tasty considering that we were dining at a music venue.  The place eventually filled up with people and the entertainment started around 9:30pm.  They performed in 20 minute sets: 2 guitar players, a bass player and a singer.  We heard two different female singers and a male singer - it was all very dramatic and emotional singing but enjoyable as well.  We left at around 11pm.

The following day was a Sunday, our last day in Lisbon.  We decided to visit Belem, which is where the monuments to the discoverers (e.g. Vasco de Gama) are located, as well as a pastry shop that apparently serves the best Pasteis de Belem, an egg custard that is served in nearly all the cafes.  We soon discovered that all the other tourists in Lisbon had also decided to visit Belem that day, and the tram ride there was very crowded.  The lines at the pastry shop were a block long, so we decided on a different strategy: we would visit some lesser known places.  First we stopped at the National Coach museum, which has a quirky collection of coaches used by the Portugese royal family:

Next, we decided to visit the Palacio Nacional da Ajuda, where the royal family lived, which was about a half mile walk uphill from Belem.  Lucy had noticed that the Palacio was hosting an interesting looking exhibition by a Portugese artist named Joana Vasconcelos.  It was indeed very interesting.  Among the very traditional furnishings one would expect to see in a royal palace the artist had installed some very contemporary pieces.  Here is the throne room, for example,  The stilettos are made out of pots and pot lids:

Here is the Queen's bedroom:

and here is a most unusual chandelier.  The close up photo after it shows what it is made out of.

After all that avant garde art we visited a couple of the traditional monuments in Belem and had lunch at a pizza place.

Then we hopped on the tram back to Lisbon and went back to the hotel to pack.  Dinner was at a nearby hotel restaurant - we were too tired to walk any further!

All in all it was a fun sisters' trip.  Lisbon is worth exploring!