Lisbon

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Geo: 38.7072, -9.13552

Flew to Dublin on 17th, met my Mum for shopping in the afternoon and at 6pm we met my 2 bessie mates for girl dinner in Cedar Tree in Dublin, yum. Followed by a couple of beverages in O'Neill's and then me telling the taxi man the meter needs resetting as it 4.10eur as soon as we got in but no this is how much hailing a taxi in Dublin now costs. Bloody hell.

Anyway we left house 4.30am in Sunday to get 6.40am flight to Lisbon only there was ice on the plane & apparently the de-icing people don't work night shift so we had to sit on the plane for about an hour to wait for them to come. Aer Lingus auotmated check in & bag drop leaves ALOT to be desired - as in you get a boarding pass but no luggage tag so there's no dropping any luggage anywhere til you've got through the massive queue to get that tag which is the exact same difference as queuing for a boarding card the old fashioned way. I will give Aer Lingus this much they at least have a sandwich on board with no dead animal in it, which is more than I can say for SAS (more on their idiocy later). Any we had loads of time on our side so we were cool and arrived at hotel Solar de los Mouros at 11am (gorgeous little boutique hotel beside St Georges castle) and the taxi was under 7 euro!

So a bit too early to check in we headed for the other big must see by the hotel The Se Catherdral (catholic), very gothic and at first seems sparse but grows on you, with lovely little side chapels and an interesting cloisters that has an archeaological dig going on as the catherdral was built on top on a mosque (!). Of course we stayed for portugese mass and when the priest arrived out singing I knew it was gonna be along mass but the choir was very good and an hour passed quickly. Back up the cobble stoned hill to the hotel and our room, with great a view, is ready & we are given a decanter of port to get us in the mood. Very nice too.

Headed out for leisurely lunch at 'Resto' which has an open air bit and as the weather was very pleasant (about 17degrees) we sat out and we had a great view of the Tagus river so it was most satisfactory. After lunch we thought we'd better get local and have a siesta (plus we only had 4 hours sleep in Dublin).

That evening went on a massive walk for 1½ hours around old town 'Alfama' and got down the docks to Jardim de Tabocco to the recommended (by the lonely planet) fish restaurant (no point being vegetarian in this town), which was ok but as it turns out was probably the worst evening meal we had there.

Next morning after a big luxurious breakfast in our room - at no extra charge - we headed for town, walking down more cobbles to Figuerias Place which seems to be surrounded by shoe shops. Stopped of in specialist port shop Napoleao and purchased some vintage years that they are shipping to me. Then we had ice creams on Commercial Place and decided to get a tram tour which bizarrely did not happen so we headed off on an open top bus -yellow line- instead, tour takes 1hr 40mins and the usual thing ticket good for 24hrs and you can hop on and off for eur14 and it covers are wide area so we got see lots of "highlights", Casa bicos, 98 expo centre, Edward VII park, Gare l'Orient, would definately recommend. Then we went shopping again in the pedestrianised zone - of course we had to go to Zara where we mainly looked at baby things for my 3.5 day old nephew. Had a grand cup of coffee in an old man bar and then it started lashing rain so got a bit soaked on the walk back which merited more port and rest. It was the kind of rain that looked like "it was in for the night" but no unlike Irish rain it buggered off after a couple of hours. Dinner that night was at Clube de Fado, fado is a very portugese way of doing folky opera and very good it was too.

Last day we had to start by getting Tram 28 which a good way to travel and watch little street urchins dangeroursly hanging on the back. Then to 'Thieves Market' which frankly we should have missed but the walk through Alfama was nice in daylight. Then we followed the river on a long walk with first stop at the 'quirky' Water Museum where we were the only visitors but it was intertesting and then we went to the Tile Museum which was great (defo recommend), and has a nice cafe for lunch and a good display of tiles form all over the world down through the centuries and of course their own unique Portugese tiles which are different to Spanish ones and are works of art with complete scenes, people, animals painted on them. I know it sounds weird but it's a great museum. Then we taxied up to the St. Georges castle which has to be the number 1 thing to see in Lisbon, absolutely amazing structure now a ruin but a very well maintained one and you can go right up the top of the castle battlements for view of the whole city (this position must have made it very easy to defend.) The grounds are lovely to wander around too. Coffee up here is dearer than down town but still not as dear as Dub or Cph.

Then that evening we went back to the castle to the Casa de Leao restaurant (castle gates are closed so you just tell the security guy you are going to the restaurant). Absolutely gorgeous restaurant and not busy at all but I imagine in summer its reservations only as it has seating outside too with the amazing city view. So we saved the best til last there but again no vege stuff so I spent the 3 days eating their breaded cod speciality dish which is lovely and at least varies in each restaurant. Next day flight home was at 10am....

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