ALFAMA DAY 2


Advertisement
Portugal's flag
Europe » Portugal » Lisboa
May 11th 2016
Published: May 12th 2016
Edit Blog Post

As I write this entry we are on the train to southern Portugal to check out the Algarve (potential retirement location) but more about that later.

Museo Nacional de Azuleno

For our last day of part one of our visit to Lisbon we spent most of the day in the Alfama area again. It was pouring when we left the hotel room and were drenched by the time we got to the metro station. The first stop for the stay was the Museo Nacional de Azuleno. The museum showcases the tiles and tile making of Portugal. It is located in what was a convent and we had to take a metro and bus to get there. The tiles were very detailed and actually an art form all their own. Many of the houses and buildings in Lisbon have tiles on the outside as can be seen from pictures I have posted in previous blog entries.

We spent a good 2 hours here. Since it was formerly a covenant there was also a pretty ornate chapel. I will let the pictures speak for the rest of our visit at this museum. It had stopped raining by the time we completed our visit of the museum. The sun even decided to make an appearance for the rest of the day. We took the bus back to the metro stop then, the walk began.

Panteao

Next stop was the Panteao de Santa Engracia, a church that took 285 years to build and now contains the remains of several Portuguese presidents and a famous Fado singer (there will be more on Fado in part two of Lisbon).

To get to the Panteao, we had to walk up the hills of Alfama, it was a leisurely stroll as the hills were steep. There was a young girl of about 10 skipping up the freaking hill, meanwhile I was sweating my ass off as we ascended to the Panteao. As all hard walks are, it was well worth it. The building is very breathtaking, but our walk was not yet over. The next phase was to climb to the top of the dome. Fortunately, there were two intermediate levels to stop and look at various exhibits. The exhibit of most interest was the section explaining and pointing out all of the various architecturally elements of the building. The climb was also made easier by very low and wide steps.

Upon reaching the top, we could view the Panteao from the dome balcony, a bit high for me and I stayed back against the wall. Since the weather was cooperating we also were able to go on the outside terrace. The sun against the white of the terrace was pretty blinding. The views of course were worth the climb, as they always are.

Walking the Hills and Streets to a well-deserved snack

From the Panteao we headed back up the hill to the Monastery of St. Vincent, which we had seen yesterday. We then continued back down the hill taking various winding streets our destination the Museu-Escola de Artes Decorativas. Out walk led us back to the Miradouro Santa Luzia were we began yesterday. We had lunch at a little side walk café which I don’t recall the name, as they did not get to keep the receipt, but it was at the other end of the plaza from the Museum of Decorative Arts. I do recall what we ate. We did several small plates, shrimp in a garlic lemon sauce, codfish cakes with a Portuguese rice, and a very traditional dish of jamon, eggs and rice. It was all very good, but the prawns were outstanding and very messy. These were not nicely deveined and peeled prawns; these came with head an all still in tack. We had to cut the heads off, peel and devein the body, but oh were they so so good and the garlic lemon sauce was so good I used the bread to make sure I got as much as I could.

By the time we were done with lunch it was 4:30, as I said the museum was just across the plaza and we had 30 minutes to tour it before it closed. This was actually the perfect amount of time as it was a small museum. The museum was a mansion converted to museum and each room displayed various furniture and other decorative pieces from various periods in Portuguese history. This is the stuff Jerry lives for and I am sure he could have spent more than 30 minutes, but that is all the time we had.

That pretty much ended the sightseeing portion of the day. We took Tram 12 the rest of the way down the hill as it was time to pick up our laundry then head to the room to change for dinner.

From the Ridiculous to the Sublime

Given our not so wonderful dinner experience from the night before, we had the forethought to do some research last night and find a place for dinner this evening. We relied on Fodor’s descriptions and recommendations for a place to eat. Once we found a place we liked I was able to make a reservation on The Fork. So, we thought we were set, but we were wrong. The map in Fodor’s showed the location of Tagide just off the metro stop restauradores, they could not have been more wrong. We gave ourselves plenty of time to get there and find the restaurant, well given the very bad directions in the book, we would have looked for ever and not found this place. We spent 30 minutes search the streets where we believed it should be, even stopping several times to ask directions, which was futile because the street was lined with restaurants all with their hawkers so they of course were not going to tell you where it was, or flat out lie, by saying they had never heard of it. You ask me how I knew they were lying, very simple, anyone who starts a sentence with “I am going to be honest with you” is more likely than not lying. By starting a sentence with “to be honest” or “honestly” or any variation generally indicates 1 of two things, your lying now or everything you said to me before was a lie.

After 30 minutes we basically gave up and were going to eat at one of the places on the street we were at, but they just didn’t appeal and again tourist tourist tourist. Finally, we broke down and hopped in a cab, gave him the address and off we went to our original destination of Tagide. As we traveled towards our destination, we both thought he was going in the wrong direction, since he seemed to be going back to our hotel. Turns out the restaurant was in fact on the hill directly behind our hotel, we could have walked there, albeit up a steep hill. When we finally arrived, we rang the bell, as the restaurant is upstairs, and we were let in. We apologized for being late and explained that the Fodor’s book had them located in a very different section of the city. All was fine in the end, and we had a great meal with a spectacular view and it was all right behind our hotel in the first place.

Fodor’s

Generally, we have found Fodor’s to be a good and reliable source of information on our travels, but in this incident and a few others over the years, they were really off base and it is clear that someone did not do their research or a good job of checking the location when the placed it on the map. Their error caused us a great deal of stress and to be late for an establishment, that if it has been high season, we would have likely lost our reservation. They were also wrong about the price range. They just did a poor job.

Dinner

The meal was great and as usual, like a walk up a steep hill, the difficulty was rewarded with a wonderful meal.

The menu was simple with updated versions of classic Portuguese dishes. We went with the chef’s menu and wine pairing. They even changed one of the dishes to prepare it without clams. When we sat down we were immediately served a glass of champagne, a nice little extra.

The menu was as follows:

Selecao de paes, azeite extra virgem e azeitonas marinades
(Assortment of bread, olives & extra virgin olive oil)

Bisque de Lavagante con Camarao Crocante
(Lobster bisque with crispy shrimp)

Perdiz em escabeche, crème gueimado de presanto
(Marinated partridge, prosciutto, crème Brule)

Pargo e migas Sadas
(Snapper with bread stuffing) this was to be with clams, but left off for us.

Leitao crocanted, crème de batata e pure de laranja
(Crispy piglet, creamed potatoes, orange puree)

Espuma de maca com chololate
(Apple foam with chocolate)

Toucinho do ceu com sorvete de sabugueiro e medronho
(Almond cake with elderberry and arbutus ice cream)

I must point out a few highlights of this meal. 1) The Lobster bisque was excellent, not comparable to any we have ever had and very dissimilar to what I make. The intensity of the fish stock really made it a very different bisque, however it was not a true bisque as there was no rice. The crispy shrimp was in fact a tempura shrimp and the tempura was one of the best I have had. 2) The crispy piglet and the potatoes were wonderful. Jerry wanted much more of the potatoes, the were so creamy and full of flavor.

In addition to the meal we had 4 different wines to go with the various courses, ending with a port with dessert. There was one slight mishap and that was they forgot the cheese plate at the end, but we weren’t charged for it so all was good.

After a bad start to dinner, it ended on a high note with the best meal in Lisbon so far. After dinner we strolled down the hill to our hotel. When we got back to the room he had a bit of wine while we backed for our side trip to the Algarve.


Additional photos below
Photos: 17, Displayed: 17


Advertisement



Tot: 0.576s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 10; qc: 60; dbt: 0.1414s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb