Lisbon - day 1. Thursday exploring Bairro Alto, Baixa and Chiado Districts

[vampyresheep]

Lisbon travel blog, or the pre-Brexit holiday. Day 1

 

After the long summer, followed by 2 weeks in Mexico, I was spoiled by the sunshine and this winter hit me bad. Combined with bloody Brexit looming, I decided a winter break in the south of Europe was in order. Originally considering a return to Seville or maybe Granada, I saw photos of Lisbon which somehow made me think of Mexico City and a holiday was planned - spending three nights in Lisbon and two in nearby Sintra to see all the palaces. We traveled with hand luggage only and somehow manage to pack for 6 outfits, practical layers and an extra pair of nice shoes ( sneaked in at the last minute as I didn't want to spend 6 days in just walking boots and trainers.)

We arrived in Lisbon on Thursday morning and it was a pretty easy journey to our hotel in Bairro Alto, Anjo Azul - other than the steep climb to get there! I would pick a hotel at the summit of one of Lisbon's steep hills.;-) We were warmly greeted by the lovely guy at reception, and our room was ready for us early …. At the top of four flights of stairs, because I booked a room with a balcony. Worth it though as our lovely compact cosy room featured a cute little balcony in the roof eaves where I spent a fair bit of time during our stay!

 

After settling in, we went to explore, heading towards a tavern I'd had in mind for lunch which was situated in a former Moorish style palace. We reached the Carmo Convent and our first steep descent. Nearby was the famous and beautiful Santa Justa elevator which was a rather steep 5 euro to use. I'd been advised there was a free elevator just around the corner but it was out of service. Tired from our early start, we decided to do the tourist thing and take the elevator - which was actually rather cool. :-)

funicular at Sao Pedro de Alcantara

Miradouro (viewpoint) Sao Pedro de Alcantara

Carmo Convent

Santa Justa Elevator

Crossed Rossio square with it's lovely granite/limestone wavy tiled floor. On that note, the pavements! My word, so slippery and uneven, I was fully expecting a visit to a&e during our stay and it did take a day or so to get used to walking on them, thankful for no rain.







Beautiful tiled buildings everywhere

One  dilemma about how to do Lisbon is whether to explore everything or just chill with a drink at one of the many viewpoints, terraces and squares around the city. Either way felt you were missing out on the other. The weather was gorgeous, so I soon ended up carrying a bag of "just in case layers", which no longer wanted to be worn, and longing to just sit with a cold beer in the sun.

We soon found the palace for lunch, which was a stunning building, reminiscent of this we'd seen in Seville. However the taverna was not so charismatic. But it had an outside courtyard and was cheap, so I enjoyed a local specialty of bifana (pork marinated in garlic, grilled and served in rustic bread, yum!





(not where we took lunch, didn't even get a photo of the taverna courtyard!)

Around the corner was one of the world's smallest bars, A Ginjinha, which serves just the one beverage - Ginjinha or ginja - a sour cherry liqueur served with several sour cherries in the glass. I could get used to this!

Now we were in the downhill Baixa district, we headed towards the riverfront and the grand square, Praco do Comercio. Sat around for a short while, but didn't enjoy the atmosphere here as much as Bairro Alto and pastel de nata were calling!








Typically after seeing every other shop selling these gorgeous little custard tarts on arrival, now there were none in sight. Ended up at the Time Out Market at Cais de Sodre and got our first real Portuguese natas.

The market was very much hyped as the place to dine, a selection of the best restaurants and food producers across town. However we felt this busy food hall was too touristy and soulless for our taste, so we didn't go back there to dine at all.

We headed back up to Bairro Alto, taking the Bica funicular because we were too tired to tackle all the stairs. We decided to head back to hotel to freshen up for the evening, via the stunning baroque Sao Roque church and stopping for a drink at the kiosk outside.







inside Sao Roque

all the cherubs reminded us of the baroque churches we saw in Mexico - interesting that the style seems to have carried over from Portugal rather than Spain

Back at the hotel, we sat at the balcony for a little while then headed out to catch the sunset at the nearby viewpoint - Miradouro da Sao Pedro Alcantaro.






Just up the road was a bar I had flagged up to visit, Pavilhao Chines. A very odd place, quite formal looking but filled to the gills with collections of vintage clothes, uniforms, hats, model toy figures, paintings, all manner of ephemera neatly arranged. The menu was massive but all in Portuguese and staff not very helpful, so I took a guess and ordered a port flip for myself and some Kahlua, ice cream and cream concoction for Rob.

We didn't have plans for dinner that night as the medieval bar was further than it looked on the map, so we trusted the judgement of Google maps and picked a buffet restaurant located on the way back to our hotel. Restaurant Da Rosa was charming. An old 17th building, with a large buffet selection specialising in traditional Portuguese food using quality ingredients. No cheap filler buffet deal here, the staff were proud of their fare, giving each diner a quick tour of the dishes before letting us loose on the dishes. A fantastic introduction to Portuguese food! All very rich flavours, some admittedly a bit salty, but so delicious - bacalau (cod) in curry, “grandma's stew” of pork, chorizo and veg, spinach lasagne, rice with nuts in, salmon, sardines, salads, turkey/ham rolls in a rich sauce, Portuguese Ratatouille. Too much to try it all and we were so full after!

We took a brief stroll around Bairro Alto, back to the viewpoint to see it at night but we were too full to go for a drink, so we had an early night back at the hotel, sat out on the balcony for a while.

The full gallery of Day 1 photos is here