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Published: October 15th 2021
Wow, it has been a long time since I traveled for pleasure. After the amazing trip to Australia, I put travel on hold so I could search for a new job in a new city and new state. (yeah, I have wanderlust in my everyday life too.) 2019’s vacation was replaced with quick trips to interview, impress and finally land the job I wanted. Happily, I moved into my new city in the Seattle area. Sadly, it was the day that that first Covid death happened in the life care facility, and the Governor announced a health emergency. Do I really need to say more?? 2020 put a halt to all pleasure travel. 2021 did not seem to hold much more, yet towards the middle of the year, things were improving. Dave and Merry Jo
D MJ Binkley and I planned a trip to Bosnia and Croatia. We planned, researched, were excited; however, when it came time to book, none of us felt confident that we would be able to travel safely, or that the countries would be open to travel. Back to the drawing board we went. Canada? A trip through the Canadian Rockies? Sounded fun, but would we be given entrance?
Who knew? Alaska? Sure, that was a great idea, but Alaska has this thing called winter, so our trip would be during off season with limited travel choices. More research, more discussions, and finally we came to something we had discussed at the going away dinner before I moved. A river cruise on the Douro river in Portugal had been placed on the bucket list of places we would enjoy traveling together. Within a week, we had the trip planned, and soon after, it was booked. So, here I am, free range Brendan. Now that you have the long-winded explanation out of the way, it is time to have that glass of port and enjoy the real story.
A jetlagged, but excited Travel Brendan arrived in Lisbon early Tuesday morning. Dave and Merry Jo have been on the road for several weeks, so were at the hotel to meet me, and just like that, the band was back together. I used their room to shower, freshen up and leave my luggage while we plotted what to do with the day. Naturally our first stop was to include food, specifically, pastel de Belém at Casa Pastéis de Belém. Although this
is sold throughout the city, there is only 1 bakery where the original is sold, and has been since 1837. The recipe is a secret held by 3 people, and has never been replicated. We stood in a line enjoying an unseasonable sunny day, and my Starbucks coffee. Yup, after traveling over 5200 miles, it was the coffee company from home. Sometimes slipping into a new country gently is a good thing. The pastel de Belém was as good as I had hoped. Crispy crust, and I mean truly crispy, held a sweet custard. I can see why it has been a fan favorite for so many years. Later I heard that there is a yearly competition to see who can come the closest to the original, the winner being announced at a fish festival of all things. Sitting there with friends who are part of my family of choice, drinking coffee, eating special sweets in the sun, I had to give a huge sigh of relief. I was traveling again. My new passport, renewed during the pandemic, had its first stamp, and I was on the road in Lisbon.
Once we finished the meet and greet, it was
time to do some serious touring. I laugh as I write this, because jetlagged Brendan was far from serious. Churches and museums are never at the top of my travel list. I will see them, and can enjoy the beauty, but unless there is a zip line from the belfry, I am not that excited by them. The pastel de Belém was actually developed in a monastery located next door to the cafe. There is a lot more history there, but I am going to glaze over it for now. We stood in line to see the Monastery of Jeronimos. The church was beautiful inside with amazing stained glass. Next door was an exhibit on Egyptian artifacts, followed by ancient art. I was punchy, cranky, and in general just full of it. The architecture of the building was magnificent, as were the courtyards and grounds. Soon, we had seen what we wanted to, and it was time to move to the next part of the day.
Exhausted and church-ed out, just me, that is, we crossed over to see the large Monument to the Discoveries, honoring sailors and explorers. I had seen and photographed it from the air on
our descent, but up close it is much larger than I had anticipated. In case you are wondering, no, it is not Leonardo De Caprio on the front of it, and no, they do not allow tourists to strike a Titanic pose on it. I had a feeling that was the case, but was worth at least a thought. This monument was built in 1960 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the death of Prince Henry the Navigator. As I said, it is very large, and features different sailors and navigators on each side.Also, Lisbon has a bridge that was designed by the same company who did the Golden Gate Bridge, and this one is a spitting image as they say. The 25
th of April bridge has trains that run on a deck under the cars, and the approach to this bridge is much longer, but other than that they look to be twins. I will say that it was odd to see such a familiar landmark in an unfamiliar setting. There is also a much smaller Cristo de Redentor here above the bridge. Toss in an Eiffel Tower, and the gang would be all here. The promenade around the
monument to explorers had amazing views of the bridge and city. It was nice to take some time to soak it all in without having anywhere to go or anything specific to do. Dave and I stood in line to take the elevator to the top of the monument, but agreed that it was not worth the long wait. I had hit the wall, so it was time to take an Uber back to the hotel for a late lunch.
The hotel had a small courtyard with a two-story wall water feature and a restaurant where I had cod croquettes, French fries, and a well deserved beer. It was just what I needed to wind down a couple marathon days. Afterwards, I took a couple hour nap long enough to recharge my batteries, short enough that I would still fall asleep at bedtime.
Dave and Merry Jo had found a nice restaurant close to our hotel the night before, so we went to it for dinner. We had a nice bottle of wine while chatting with the waiter and deciding what to order. I had a very tasty mushroom, rocket toast, followed by a low temperature chicken breast.
As a chef, I really try to give a lot of leeway to restaurants, and not be critical: however, this chicken deserved all of the wrath of Brendan it was about to receive. Naked and afraid, that is all I can say for this poor chicken. It had no sauce, no salt, no moisture, no flavor. It was served on a pool of carrot puree with 2, count them, 2 rings of grilled leeks, exactly 3 zucchini sticks and 3 carrot sticks. Yes, it was artfully presented, but no, it was not good. Luckily, we had ordered another bottle of wine, so I was not only jet lagged, but tipsy. I let the dish pass without storming the kitchen. Crisis averted, we moved on to dessert. Chocolate went a long way to soothing the savage beast I had become. It was a lovely (my word of the trip) chocolate cake with salted caramel and, vanilla ice cream. On that note, we left the restaurant and went back to the hotel to call it a night. All in all, this was a great way to start the trip, and for that, I give the coveted A+ to the city.
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cabochick
Andrea
Bom Dia!
I just read the Binkleys posts in Spain and was thinking I wonder when BV Chef will post and viola there it is! You are probably a great person to travel with because you’ll critic and seek out all the great food. I’d be trapped eating the custard tarts in Porto. Have fun and continue on free-range Brendan!