Tony and I wanted to do a trip to someplace warmer. We had been looking at Lisbon, Portugal for a while, and after looking around on the web, we found an apartment that overlooked the main tram line, and we were convinced to go.
It was our first time trying out Luton. Eh. . . It's just a small budget airport for flights out of London. We have now tried all of the main airports here: Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, City, and Luton. City is a little more expensive, but it is an easy tube ride to get there. Gatwick is about 40 minutes train ride. Stansted is about 50 minutes (don't believe the advertising that it is only 30 minutes). Heathrow is a 50 minutes (unless you use the expensive tourist express train). and Luton is just a bit inconvenient. . .
We took the easy 2 hour flight to Lisbon, and then boarded the AeroBus to downtown. It is an easy connection from the airport to downtown Lisbon.
Upon our arrival in Lisbon, we were greeted with a massive pile of some of the most beautiful strawberries I've seen since we went to the Strawberry Festival back in California. We bought a big bag of them for only 2 Euros.
We were also greeted by the famous signature dessert of Portugal - the Custard Tart. I bought us 2 immediately, as it was lunchtime, and we were starving. We made a quick snack of these, as we walked to the apartment to meet the person who was going to let us in.
We always joke that some celebrity will be our official emmisary for our trip, and this time it was Helena Bonham Carter promoting her new film, Dark Shadows.
The apartment is located in an older building that was refinished on the inside in the 80's. It is located in an area called Chiado. We met the manager, and the apartment was exactly as promised - convenient and beautiful - if furnished by IKEA.
It seems all of the world these days is furnished by them. I guess it is part of the "gapification" of the world. Everything and everywhere is starting to look like one big identical stew.
After checking in, we were dying to walk around the area, and took off on a walk to find some lunch and do some exploring.
We walked the couple blocks down to the waterfront where the Lisbon port once stood. Rua Augusta Arch stands as the entrance to the city.
There is a statue of King Jose I in the center of the large Praco Do Commercio (Commerce Square), facing out into the sea standing sentinel to the city.
I particularly liked the sculpture of the elephant trampling the people. I'm assuming this is some sort of symbol of the kings powers striking down the people who oppose him and Portugal.
We walked back to Rua Augusta Arch, and had lunch at this classic Portuguese restaurant called "Martinho da Arcada". I had this delicious clam in broth dish, made with onions and peppers. It is cooked in the traditional Cataplana (copper looking pot)
After lunch, it was time for more tarts, so we stopped in at one of the many bakeries/snack bars and grabbed an assortment.
Amped up on sugar and custard, we walked through the main shopping district.
Lisbon has seen better days, and it looks as though its heyday was in the 1700s-1800s. There are many buildings in various states of disrepair that hold great promise to whomever has the money to take a beautiful historic building and resurrect it.
As the city is built on hills, unusual efforts have been made to make climbing these hills easier. Among them is a turn of the century elevator designed and built by a student of Gustav Eiffel. And it looks like a mini Eiffel Tower in the center to town.
It is still a fascinating picturesque city filled with interesting public art and and architecture.
Tony and I walked all the way up this beautiful tree-lined boulevard. It is lined with large movie palaces. My bet is that like most movie palaces, they have been cut up into multi-plexes. Hopefully, they have been preserved, and now serve dual purpose as performance venues.
I enjoyed the monuments to people and events of Portuguese history.
That evening, Tony and I went out for dinner at this place that I found on-line that was recommended for its rotisserie chicken. It was very good, and very inexpensive.
Lisbon is even more atmospheric at night. With St. George's Castle on the hill standing centinel, one can't help but feel safe. Aside from the people wanting to sell us hash and marijuana, we saw no evidence of crime or felt at all unsafe.
We came across a fun Lisbon tradition. As the sun sets, people head to these corner stores which sell a Sour Cherry liqueur called Ginja. They serve it in small cups, with the macerated cherries still in the liquid. It is semi sweet, and quite good.
The story goes that a friar from the local church had the idea of making a Cherry Brandy to help fund the church. The rest is as they say history.
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