Blogs from Lisboa, Portugal, Europe

This morning we set out uphill again – on foot again! – to visit the Castelo de São Jorge. It was still fairly early so it wasn’t too hot slogging up the hill. Mind you we arrived at the castle and there were yellow buses dropping people right at the gate! Why do I keep letting myself be talked into walking everywhere??? Ah well, I guess I need to exercise (a lot!) to make up for the amount of gelato I am eating, to say nothing of the Portuguese tarts. We’ve eaten three tarts per day, for three days in a row. And it’s not like we are deciding between ice-cream and tarts, we have been having ice-creams AND tarts daily. Talk about a sugar overdose! Bernie purchased our tickets online last night so we entered ... read more

Now I am prepared to admit that I have no sense of direction and my ability to navigate anywhere – home or away – is seriously impaired, so I have always relied on Bernie to find our way around. And Bernie’s navigational ability has served us well in the past. However, at some point in time Bernie stopped trusting his own ability to read a map and navigate and put all of his trust in Google Maps. Now that is all well and good, provided Google Maps is playing nicely. This morning Bernie asked for directions to Praça da Figueira which is a four minute walk from our apartment so pretty much out our door, turn left, turn left again at the second street and walk straight along that street until you get there. Ahem, Bernie ... read more

Today it was Belém, Take II. Having missed things on our Belém list yesterday we resolved to rise earlier today to be near the head of the queue for the monastery this morning. We repeated our rail journeys of yesterday and, once again, the train didn’t stop at Belém this morning. Hmmn, obviously you need to have access to a full timetable to know what stations the train is (and isn’t!) going to stop at. The information board at the station only gave the destination and time of departure for the train. Soooooo, we alighted at the same stop as yesterday morning which wasn’t so bad for going to the Torre de Belém but was not so great for the monastery. We were looking at a 30-minute walk back to the monastery until we realised that ... read more

I woke up once in the middle of the night, which is pretty usual for me, and then slept through until 5.00am which wasn’t too bad. I tried to doze off again thinking just one more hour of sleep would be good. However, when it ticked over to six o’clock, I gave up and decided I might as well be writing the blog for yesterday and posting it. After breakfast it was time to head out to see some of Lisbon’s many attractions. We walked back out into Praça (square) Dom Pedro IV which is only a couple of minutes from our apartment. We are very well located with the square, dubbed The Rossio by Lisboans, considered to be the heart of Lisbon. After taking photos of the fountains and the monument to Dom Pedro it ... read more

Arriving in Lisbon, the cicadas are singling merrily indicating it’s getting hotter! and we are looking forward to a dip in the beautiful campsite pool. However, relaxing at the campsite was a challenge, there are hoards of children, primary school aged, seemingly in summer schools, identified by different coloured hats. They are everywhere, including over 100 in our campsite pool! Tram 28 featured highly in the guidebook and social media as the ‘best way to experience Lisbon’. We arrived via bus from our campsite, duly bought our public transport tickets and headed to the recommended start of the tram route, only to find over 100 people queuing! The trams are delightful vintage stock, but they only take around 20-30 people at a time and run every 15-20 mins. Plan B -walk the tram route, its only ... read more