We had two full days in Lisbon. Well, more like a day and a half because we didn’t get out of the guesthouse until noon after our late night at the bullfights. You know your day is off to a late start when breakfast is a sandwich and a beer (Dave). I found a shot of espresso and a pastry. Both were procured from the kiosks in the praca (square) in front of the guesthouse.
From there we headed to Praca do Comercio walking along the riverfront promenade stopping frequently to enjoy the sights and sounds along the way.
Lisbon is a city built on hills, steep, high hills. We ultimately decided to make life easy on ourselves by using the hop-on, hop-off bus tour option. With Grayline Tours, we purchased a package that included two bus tours plus the river cruise. Our pass would be good for the duration of our stay (or 48 hours). We opted for the Belem tour (the red line) and the Old City or green line. Now we had a plan. We hopped on the red line bus for the Belem tour.
It’s amazing how much easier it is to get your bearings in a strange city when someone else is doing the driving. The first thing we learned on the red bus was that both the red and green lines stopped right by our guesthouse (we hopped on by Praca do Comercio about four blocks down from us). The second thing we learned is that right near that stop was an Irish pub. Dave was thrilled! We knew we would head there at some point. We stayed on our bus for the entire route electing not to hop off anywhere along the way. We were tired and the museums along this route didn’t really intrigue us much. We took a lot of photos and were content to relax and enjoy the sights and commentary for the nearly two hours it took to make the circuit.
We hopped off the bus at the stop near our guesthouse and made a beeline for Hennesy’s, the Irish pub, where they had our favorite Irish beer, Kilkenny. Learning that they would have a band later that night we made plans to return. After our by now regular siesta break and dinner on the Praca do Comercio, we did just that. What fun! Where else could you sing along to American tunes being performed by a band of four Portugese guys and watch dancers from the U.K. and locals in an Irish pub?
Since band did not start playing until 11:30 it was another late night In Lisbon. It could have been even later but, with a full day planned, we called it quits around 1:00 am.
Day two in Lisbon was also our last full day of the trip and we had much we wanted to accomplish. It was also the day before my birthday and, since we would be flying home on that day, this was going to be our day to celebrate. So, despite a late night, we were up and out of the guesthouse by 10:00. As an artist, one of the big things I wanted to do was create my own Azulejo tile. These tiles are everywhere in Lisbon and I had seen that it was possible on a travel show. The place to go was Loja dos Descobrimentos where they sell tiles and hold workshops. Lucky for me, the shop was only a ten minute walk from the guesthouse, just past the Praca do Comercio. We decided to go there and scout it out before getting on our green line bus tour. Good thing we did. Workshops are only available after 3:00 and run until the shop closes at 7:00. Thus, our plan for the day came together as follows:
- Hop on the green line bus by the Praca do Comercio.
- Hop off the bus at Sao Jorge Castle to see the castle and what were supposed to be breathtaking views of Lisbon.
- Hop back on the green line bus to finish the tour.
- Return to Loja dos Descobrimentos for my tile workshop between 3 and 4:00.
- Catch the last river cruise (part of our package) at 5:00.
- Relax at the guesthouse for an hour or so.
- Head out around 8:00 for dinner and fado music to celebrate my birthday.
Everything worked out perfectly! Sao Jorge Castle was really cool and the views were breathtaking. Bonus, we learned where to find fado music as the bus went right through the neighborhood known for it and it turned out to be up Rua du Alecrim which was only a block from the guesthouse.
The tile workshop was fun. The process was a little different than I expected and they limit newbies to two colors (blue and yellow). Since I hadn’t had time to create my own design, I used one of theirs. Given the process and color constraints, this was probably best. They will ship the tile to me after they fire it so I should get it in a week or so. The workshop was €15 and the shipping was less than €9.80.
We made our river cruise with time to spare. From a timing standpoint, we did really well. It had been cloudy all day but by 5:00, the sun was out so our cruise was very pleasant. We got a different perspective of Lisbon from the water and were able to get some better photos of some of the monuments we had seen on our red line bus tour the day before.
Finding fado required a long, uphill climb up Rua du Alecrim but it was worth it. We found a really neat place at the top of the hill. There were three fado singers who were fabulous. And, the food was amazing. We topped it off with orange pie which is not like pie at all. It’s an orange-flavored cake with a layer of chocolate ganache sitting in a bowl of almond soup. Phenomenal! The perfect end to both our stay in Lisbon and our trip to Portugal.
