A day of walking

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After a long and productive day of walking, Matthew and I are sitting in front of the television watching Portuguese commercials that are still using Christmas music. Is Christmas not over yet? In my confused state I would believe just about anything - I have a hard time remembering what day it is due to the big time change. However, thanks to Matthew's extensive travels and opportunities to experiment with jet-lag, we've done fairly well getting into local time.

This morning we awoke and headed downstairs to breakfast. I love having a hotel that serves a continental breakfast! It makes walking for miles much easier. The Lido Hotel provided bread, meat, cheese, yogurt, juice, coffee, eggs, and several cereals - including something quite similar to Coco Puffs! Of course I had to have some because it's been years since I've had sugary breakfast cereals, and the experience was heavenly. We made sure to eat heartily and then set out on our first full day, ready to explore Lisbon.

The walk to the train station was pleasant, although we worried at first that it would be a bit cold. Did we, in our excitement to be vacationing in a warmer climate, not plan appropriately? Would we end up cold on this trip, just like all the others? (Our fears proved unfounded by the end of the day - there were even a few instances when we removed jackets and enjoyed pleasant temperatures that hovered close to 60 degrees.) On the walk we took a picture of Matthew in his jacket next to a palm tree as we passed through Estoril's park. The park is located in front of the casino and it was there that we discovered one important and glaring difference between casinos back home and Europe's largest casino here - the places back home never close. This casino, however, was completely quiet. By the time we returned, of course, it was open and hopping and it makes me wonder if it is quiet every morning or if today, as the morning after Christmas, was an exception. We'll find out tomorrow when we return to the train station!

Each time we take a trip, I find myself wondering if navigating the public transportation system would be any easier had we grown up using such a system at home. We do fine and figure things out on our own, but sometimes it takes a while. The train ticket machines are still a mystery, but we were able to buy longer term tickets at the ticket counter and these should last us through the end of our trip (at least with regards to the train). We made another determination today after walking for miles - we will probably buy a day-pass for the metro system so that we can see the outskirts of the town, but other than that day we'll probably just walk everywhere. While I do not have a pedometer with me (since mine finally truly bit the dust last week), based on our routes and speed and length of time walking I think that we walked somewhere between 13 and 15 miles today - not bad!

Lisbon is a pretty city that reminds me a bit of Prague with its colorful buildings and old churches and a bit of New Orleans (pre-Katrina) because there are beautiful, expensive buildings that jut against dilapidation and poverty. The palm trees and other tropical, blooming plants made it seem as if we were in spring or early fall, rather than December. It was such a nice day to walk! And the scenery was gorgeous. After walking and walking and walking on cobblestoned streets and walkways, we decided to get as close to the water as possible and take a break. There is a bridge that connects Lisbon with a city across the port (the other's claim to fame is the gigantic Jesus statue that looks like it should be in Brazil), and this bridge looks just like the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco, so we took a picture and joked about telling people we really just went to California for a few days.

We did not get to walk through the Alfama district today, which is the oldest - and poorest - district in Lisbon. After walking for hours and hours and seeing some interesting neighborhoods, I decided that walking through the Alfama near dark - or after dark, had we gone to listen to fado music - would probably not be the best idea. Guidebooks warned a bit about it, and some of the readings I've done made me think walking through close, dark streets with a gigantic glowing “tourist!” sign above my head wouldn't be wise. Instead, we found some lunch at the local mall and then headed back to the train station to make it to our hotel by dark. The restaurants at the mall were interesting - a collection of typical mall food (McDonald's, an ice cream place, some place that served a variety of soup) and a number of nicer restaurants, including one that specialized in Israeli food. That looked interesting, but we chose to have roast chicken with piri-piri (chili) sauce and fries. It was really good! Thankfully we learned from our guidebooks not to eat things (such as rolls & butter) set on your table before you order because restaurants charge for them. By sticking with just roast chicken and fries, the meal wasn't too expensive. We stopped by a market on the way back to Estoril and picked up food and wine (including wine in a juice box!) so that we can snack in our room and just worry about one meal out each day. I am looking forward to the possibility of Mexican food in Belem tomorrow. Will it be anything close to authentic? We'll find out!

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Photos

Wait, where are we?
The "25th of April" bridge in Lisbon looks just like the Golden Gate Bridge.

Cobblestones
The cobblestones are beautiful and had many different designs -- but they are a bit painful when one has been walking for miles.