As usual, the downside of international travel is the huge amount of time on planes, and waiting for planes. Peter does a much better job of enduring this than I do - especially in his quest to speed sketch the various fellow travelers we encounter:
He loves it when people stay put for at least 10 minutes!
We arrived in Lisbon at 11 am on Sunday the 9th. At the last minute before departing we decided to book a private car and it was a delight - for about the price of a taxi we were given a mini-tour of the coastline from the airport to our drop-off point at the Museu do Fado. Our Air BnB host was preparing our lodgings and we hung our at a nearby cafe. At 2 pm we we met by "Miss Rita" who led us throughout narrow, uphill, and winding streets to our Villa.
We love our lodgings and love being in the center of the Alfama district, the oldest part of the city.
Balcony view
This is the back window to the restaurant we have frequented 3x-right next to our balcony!
This is the stair leading down Rua de Gale - as seen from our balcony.
Peter's sketch of that stairway view.
Monday was spent getting our bearings and obtaining a Lisbon Card for 3 days of tourism blitz. I've found Trip Advisor to be hugely helpful for scoping out cafes, bakeries and "don't miss" sites.
Great bakery breakfast at Bread 4 You Lisbon - and a view of the baker at work was cool.
Peter in the Praca Do Commercio - one of the largest open plazas in all of Europe
The views across the Alfama district are amazing - and no shortage of high points!
Peter's close-up watercolor of the rooftop textures.
Tuesday we chose to visit Belem by tram as it was recommended both by Rick Steves and Trip Advisor. It is pretty overrun by tour groups but we timed it all pretty well:
A must-do is coffee and pastel de nata tarts at the legendary Casa Pasteis de Belem. Yum. First stop and most important!
Next was the Belem Tower - built in 1515 to protect Lisbon's harbor.
The tower had some wonderful views and architectural details.
We saw this wonderful piece of modern architecture from the Belem Tower and chose to hike over to see what it was - ends up it was a convention center, hospital and medical research clinic all in one complex. Stunning and bold design - we loved it.
Then to the Monastery of Jeronimos - the cloister is beautiful and the whole complex stretches 300 yards across the Lisbon waterfront.
We also popped into the National Coach Museum - this room was once a riding hall and I envy that!
Peter standing in front of an old fire brigade ladder cart - this special exhibit gave us a heightened appreciation of modern firefighting.
Today (Wednesday the 12th) we decided to take the Metro lines out to the Oceanarium, an artifact of Lisbon's Expo '98. Hard to describe what a fantastic building it is and how wonderful the exhibits are. I'm just going to put in a bunch of pictures and run with them...
The Oceanarium in the distance as we approach from the waterfront esplanade.
Cute penguins!
Sea Otters - timed it perfectly to witness their feeding. Spent over 45 minutes observing them and could barely tear ourselves away. Yes of course I got an otter t-shirt!
The weirdest of all is the ocean sunfish - as prehistoric and unusual a fish as you could ever imagine. Google them if you have time and interest.
I took a video of about 3 minutes of the otters being fed. You can see it at https://youtu.be/nmdIwb5Od-Q. I labeled it public so if the link doesn't work, search for "Otters at Oceanarium" and the upload date of 10/12/16.
Well I've about worn myself out (and likely you too) with this breathless report. Will report in again on Friday night, the eve of our departure to Elvas and the start of the bike tour!
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