Star-Spangled Fourth

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Geo: 38.7072, -9.13552

Our hotel suite comprised the corner of the top (6th) floor of the hotel, and had a wraparound balcony and least six windows. We shut the automatic rolldown shades on all the windows which, when coupled with the height, meant that there was nothing to wake us in the morning. We also had no clock in the room (in fact, not one of the hotels in which we stayed during this entire trip had a clock in the room -- Latin-time, I joked). Anyway, I woke up and checked my watch, thinking it was the middle of the night, especially since we'd traveled the day before. I was shocked to see that it was nearly 8:00am, and we were all still asleep. The room was pitch black and silent as could be. As we were to meet for breakfast at 8:30, I roused everyone by beginning to open the blinds, which brought in bright sunshine, waking everyone. We rushed around and managed to make it downstairs for breakfast in short order, but it taught me a lesson that I should at least leave the shades cracked a little.

This was our only full day to see Lisbon, so were going to use our tried-and-true tactic of taking a hop-on-/hop-off bus to get an overview, and then concentrate on a few key sights later in the day. K and I had already taken one of the two main routes the day before, and we'd saved the "most touristy" route for this day. The weather was great -- bright and sunny, with low humidity. In fact, we had only sun during the entire trip, in both Portugal and Spain. The Rieckhoffs -- who'd spent the previous day sightseeing -- joined us on the tour, as it would bring us pretty far down the shoreline, away from the old city area, which they visited the day prior. We walked down a couple blocks and grabbed the bus, without having to wait too long. We all got on the top level, which was open, but had to be very careful about sunburn, as the UV index was off the scale. As noted previously, the commentary on this hop-on/hop-off tour was weak at best, so we were relying on our tour book for more detail, but it did take us to parts of the city we would have otherwise missed.

After an hour or so, we got off at the Jeronimos Monastery, which was the first of umpteen UNESCO Heritage sites we visited on this trip. I have literally lost track of how many we saw. It is a huge church, monastery, and garden complex across from the shoreline in Lisbon, and included an interesting museum focused on Portugal maritime heritage. From here we walked to the next couple of sites, which included the Padrão dos Descobrimentos (a large sail/boat looking monument dedicated to Portuguese explorers) and the Belem Tower (a medieval fortress and part of Lisbon's original defenses). All of these were located along the waterfront, and it was very nice time of day to walk around.

We caught (read, RAN) to catch the hop-on/hop-off bus when it returned, and rode back into the heart of the old city. We wanted to see a few things, including the Castle of St. George, which the Rieckhoffs had visited the previous day. Though she had just been there, Charlotte elected to come with us, as we got off at Liberdade Square, where we rode one of the city's famous funicular trams; we took the Gloria tram. While the views were great from the top, we realized we were now several hills away from the Castle of St. George, so rather than ride the tram back down and then hoof it over to take a separate funicular to St. George, we just grabbed a cab. This was when we realized how reasonably priced they were. We lucked out with a driver who spoke passable English, who gave a little running commentary as he drove us over to the castle ramparts and entrance.

Anna and Charlotte were tired and hungry at this point, so they elected to stay at an outside café at the castle entrance, have lunch, "watch boys," and wait as K and I visited the castle. We never went inside the castle, as the real treats were in the views from the outer ramparts and upper walls, around which we walked.

We were all tired by the time we rejoined the girls. We started to walk in the direction we believed was correct, which really just meant downhill at this point, but there were so many turns, after a short while I was unsure which way we were even heading. Without being able to see the water, I didn't even know which way was north. I called "uncle" at this point and we flagged down a cab. I gave him our hotel name and sat back. He spoke little to no English. Nothing looked familiar as we drove, and then he pulled up alongside another taxi, rolled down my window (I was in the passenger seat), and yelled across. The only phrase I understood was "Olissippo Saldanha" -- the name of our hotel. The second taxi driver gestured back wildly and laughed, and off we went. It was now obvious our driver did not know where he was going. That said, within a couple of minutes, we were coming up on our hotel from the far side. I went to pay the driver the amount on the meter, but he handed back the money. I'm assuming to indicate that he had gone a long way and couldn't take all the fare. As the fare was still under 5 Euro, I just handed him the bill, smiled, and got out. It was just refreshing to not come across a driver trying to scam you.

We already had dinner reservations, at one of the places I had identified through TripAdvisor. Charlotte and Anna, who had just eaten near the castle, asked if they could skip dinner. As we were only going to be a few blocks away, we all agreed and it became an adults-only dinner. Given our experience, I believe the girls later regretted their decision.

The restaurant we visited -- Sessenta -- was very well reviewed, but it was tucked away at the end of residential street, away from any notable things of interest. In fact, it was little difficult to find, as we were sure we were heading the wrong way, as it was all so residential. That said, they were expecting us and we were led to a private table in the back of the very small dining room. Suffice it to say, the meal we had was certainly the best we had in Portugal, and a first or second for the entire trip. Every course was better than the previous, and the wine was perfectly matched. We all walked home a little giddy after the wonderful experience, and certainly more than satiated.

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