Lisbon: day 2

October 31, 2024

Such a stress-free way to start a cycling trip. We set an alarm, but only so we wouldn’t miss the hotel breakfast. The latter was very good, except maybe for the coffee. I’m not sure what kind of milk the machine used but it tasted funny, powdered or maybe UHT, to both of us.

We brought our bike cases up to our room, one at a time, vertically, in the small elevator. It was a bit cramped in our room for bike assembly, but we managed and everything went together smoothly. Then it was time for a walk—we are still in the stay active to stay awake phase.

The paving in Praça Rossio, aka Praça Don Pedro IV, looks like ripples.

Our first destination was Biclas bike shop, only a 10 minute walk from our hotel and fairly close to the riverfront. Al wanted to get some CO2 cartridges. He only got two this time instead of his usual four. We’ve never needed to use them on any of our trips so this is a more reasonable number to me. I hope I haven’t jinxed us by saying that!

We found a mediocre lunch near the bike shop and then walked east along the river where we’d walked westward last night.

Tourist-tour vehicles lined up near Praça do Comércio. We’d heard about the tuk-tuks but not the vintage-car style vehicles. All of the latter and most of the former are electric and the tuk-tuks that aren’t electric are much quieter than the ones I heard in India in the mid-1980s.

The guy on the horse is surrounded by horses and angels.

Image not found :( — There is even a lemon tree

And, leading off one of the surrounding arcades, there’s this. We didn’t pay to find out what it was about.

We continues eastward and then turned up into the Alfama district.

In the Alfama district. The woman is selling shots of ginjinha, a local drink we have yet to try (and didn’t today)

We are just above the cruise ship terminal.

São Vicente welcomed us to Portas do Sol

Then the traffic craziness of Rua São Tomé entertained us for a few minutes. R. São Tomé continues to the left of the fork and it’s two-way—and right turns from Tv. São Tomé, where the trolley is going, seem to be permitted, if tricky to execute.

Looking back along Rua São Tomé, we can see the Portas do Sol viewpoint is a popular stop for the tuk-tuk tours.

We entered familiar streets as we neared the castle (Castelo de São Jorge) so took a different route, though we still ended up at the top of the Funicular Graça, which I now know is the Miradouro da Graça. Lisbon has so many miradouros I can’t keep them straight!

The Funicular Graça was operating this afternoon, ferrying people up to the miradoura to watch the sunset.

Instead of hanging about with the crowd to watch the sun set over the city, we sat in the park for a bit and then made our way back to our room. I had an hour-long nap—no idea whether Al slept, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

Later, we explored the pedestrian streets near Plaça Rossio, loaded with restaurants and waiters hoping to lure in our business, until settling in for very good pizzas.

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