Lisbon Day 2

April 6, 2024

More exploration on foot and research into pasteis de nata

Not a bad sleep for night 1 - I think all that walking yesterday helped. I woke up at 7:30, just in time for our planned 8 am gathering. It was grey and cooler today, but still very pleasant. No sign of the torrential rains they’ve had here over the past few weeks.

We walked down towards and along the water, stopping en route for coffee and tarts. There are lots of tourists here. We met people from my home town of Revelstoke at coffee shop - they were in Portugal to do a Camino walk. I don’t know them, though I’m sure we share lots of interests.

Then we headed for the large and renovated covered Timeout Market where we admired the fish, fruit, and veg, and then each ate what we wanted from the various kiosks of prepared foods. We had fun watching bachelor and bachelorette parties starting their days of fun.

It was a grey morning, but fine for walking. We headed for the waterfront and the huge Praça do Comércio, or Commerce Square.

Commerce Square, with a statue of King Jose I and the Rua Augusta Arch, built to commemorate the city’s reconstruction after the 1755 earthquake.

An iconic Lisbon streetcar. We were out early, ahead of the crowds. Later in the day, there was a very long line to ride these.

It was a bit early in the day to eat salt cod.

We arrived at the market shortly after it opened for the day.

Robyn discovered that she’s been locked out of her main credit card. Argh. Why do the banks say you don’t have to notify them of travel if they immediately lock you out?

We enjoyed perhaps the best yet pasteis de natas on Rua Augusta, a pedestrian shopping district. Holy cow. So. Good. We stopped at a place that sells nothing but custard tarts, and the bakers are on full display. There is no sitting, just a stand up bar.

We walked back up to hotel to meet Leslie, who arrived pretty much on time in the early afternoon.

We spent the afternoon doing more walking, eventually covering over 20 km for the day.

We walked up to the castle San Jorge - it was a very interesting walk and castle, with great views.

We took advantage of this outdoor escalator to help us get up to the castle.

Maintaining the tiled sidewalks is a huge amount of work.

We made sure to recreate some of our food tour items for Leslie. Here’s the whole gang having a shot of ginjinha - Wendy, Anne, me, Betty, Leslie, Robyn, and Tricia.

The peacocks at the castle put on a show for us.

We had tiny beer and cod fritters afterwards on the street, then made sure Leslie also got a fabulous pastel de nata on the tourist street. Yum again.

We had quick self-serve drinks on the rooftop terrace of our hotel before going out for a seafood dinner at a highly recommended seafood place down the street called Ramiro. We were joined by two of Robyn’s friends, Claire and Janet, who just happened to be here at the tail end of a vacation. They head back to Canada tomorrow. The dinner was quite an experience - the restaurant had every sort of live shellfish imaginable, but no fish. There were options to buy ham plates and cheese plates, but the menu had zero vegetables or salads. The only veg was parsley in the garlic butter! We ate shrimp, clams, and a giant spider crab which we got to examine alive before it went into the pot. It required use of a plastic hammer to crack open the legs.

There was delicious bread to sop up the shellfish juices. Our server was great. The place was packed and noisy, and it was quite fun seeing what everyone was eating. The bill came to $23 euros each, including wine. Super cheap. I don’t want to go vegetable-free often. But on this occasion it was fun.

Our dinner involved use of hammers. Here’s Wendy on the attack.

Betty cut her finger on a sharp but of crab shell and our very nice waiter applied a bandaid for her. He was a bandaid pro. This was not the first shellfish cut at this restaurant, we think.

It was early to bed, since we’re off to Marrakech in the morning.

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	6
Comment on this entry	Comment	0