Lisbon, Portugal

Matt and I left on our flight for Lisbon at 12:20pm Friday afternoon. We didn't exactly make it as planned to Lisbon. Turns out all of Portugal was having beautiful weather... except for Lisbon! When we got a few minutes from Lisbon, the pilot told us that we were given a hold of 45 minutes before we could land... but because we didn't have enough fuel on the plane, we were being re-routed to Faro, Portugal to load up on fuel. Then, we would head back to Lisbon. Faro is actually about 280km south of Lisbon (at the bottom of the map below)... the total opposite direction of where we came from!



Well, we landed in Faro... super small airport. No other planes were coming in or leaving. It took less than a half hour to refuel and get back in the air. The flight attendant said she'd been flying 21 years and never flew to Faro. Flying in was really beautiful even though it seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere.



Back to Lisbon... still super foggy, but we were able to land. I don't know how, though... the visibility was terrible! I didn't even realize we were on the runway until we hit the ground!



We checked into our hotel and then walked around the city through downtown Lisbon and then through the Bairro Alto/Chiado area, which is filled with small restaurants (most seat less than 30 people). Here's a typical street in that area:



We got there a little earlier than most things were open, but we found a nice restaurant for dinner. In Portugal, it's standard for restaurants to put appetizers out on the table and if you eat them, you are charged. If you don't, you won't be charged. We went ahead and ate them... cheese, olives, bread... all very good and turns out they really didn't cost much at all. Dinner was super tasty and we drank some excellent caipirinhas!



Saturday morning, after loading up on the breakfast buffet at the hotel, we walked down to the Praca do Comercio to catch Tram 15 to Belem Tower. Lucky for us, the fog had lifted and it was super sunny and warm outside! The Praca do Comercio is on the coast and was built as sort of an entrance to the city:



On the way to Belem Tower, we saw this Lisbon Experience monument and decided to check it out. There was a nice 25 minute video that went through the history of Lisbon and then we took the elevator to the top for nice views of the city and River Tagus.



Vasco de Gama Bridge and the River Tagus:



Matt and I at the top:



Then, we walked down to Belem Tower. Belém Tower was built in the early 16th century as both a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon and as part of a defence system of the entrance of the Tagus river and the Jerónimos Monastery.







After Belem Tower, we walked over to the Jeronimos Monastery & Cloisters.

Here's a view of the monastary from the top of the Lisbon Experience:



One of the doorways to the church:



Inside the church:



The Cloisters:



We had a quick bite for lunch at an outdoor cafe. Matt had a kebab with all sorts of meats. I had pork chops. For dessert, we got an M&M McFlurry from McDonalds... they serve beer (Super Bock... bottom right hand corner of the list of drinks) at the McD's here! Matt really wanted to stop and get a happy meal and a beer before we left, but we ran out of time. : )



We hopped back on the tram towards Praca do Comercio and started the trek up to Castelo of Sao Jorge (St. George's castle), which by the way is straight uphill! We wanted to get up there to catch the sunset.



On the way up, we stopped off at the Se Cathedral. By the time we got to the top of the hill and the castle entrance, it was 5pm... the place closed at 6pm. Lucky! We bought our tickets and went inside. The sun was setting and the views were awesome! It was definitely a highlight of our trip!





We walked all through the grounds... some of the areas surprised me that you were allowed to walk through them... kind of scary! Short or no railings... big drop-offs... and people were letting their kids run around like it was no big deal!




(we actually walked up to where those people are standing later and I had a death grip on the wall... it was just a drop off behind me!)

After the sun set, we walked back down the hill to the city center. We were worn out... Lisbon is really hilly!

Matt walking through a typical street in Lisbon:



The Santa Justa Elevator at night... you can take this elevator up instead of taking the streets or a tram. There is a walkway that connects the elevator to the streets at the top of the hill. We took the elevator ride on Sunday.



We went back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner. The hotel bar was SO expensive... 12 Euros for a cocktail! So, we had a drink in the room (a half bottle of wine was only 4 Euros from the mini-bar... of course, we had to let it breathe a little before it was drinkable).

We went to dinner at Gambrinus, which was highly recommended on the GoLisbon website, saying it was the best seafood in all of Lisbon. They weren't kidding! Not that we tried that many places, but this was definitely really good seafood! Matt had the special bream and I had the seabass with clam sauce. We shared some chocolate ice-cream for dessert... we were SO full!!! I'm sure this doesn't look nearly as tasty as it was!



We stopped off for a few drinks at a bar nearby. Beers were 1.50 Euros and Caiparinhas were 5 Euros (and really strong!).



We didn't get to the metro before it stopped running for the night, so we walked back to the hotel (which, of course, was uphill!). Our feet and legs were so sore by the end of the weekend.

On Sunday, we hit the breakfast buffet again... so good! We walked around trying to find some souvenirs, but nothing was open. We sat outside and had a drink at the Rossio square, enjoying the sunny, warm weather. Here's a view of the square from the Santa Justa elevator:



We walked around a little bit and took some random pics of the city...

The streets were all brick and narrow... and a lot of apartments had laundry hanging out on the balconies.



If you didn't want to walk up the hills, you could take a tram.



Then, we took the Santa Justa Elevador up to the Bairro Alto. At the top of the elevator, there is a little restaurant and the views are great!



After the trip up the elevator, we got back on the metro to the hotel. We grabbed our luggage, and ran out of the hotel just in time to catch the airport bus... perfect timing!

The flight back to Amsterdam was direct... no random stops! But, the weather in Amsterdam was pretty crappy, so we had some turbulence for the last 10 minutes or so when we landed. I think I about ripped Matt's arm off! We made it, though.

Back at home now... we picked up some McD's for dinner and are looking through all of our pictures. You can see more pictures if you CLICK HERE.