Lisbon airport was well organised and easy to navigate, with very few people waiting in the electronic passport queue at immigration. The only thing that took a while was waiting for the case to come through, and then we were in a Bolt heading for the city.
We checked in to our apartment (Dream Chiado, a collection of small apartments in a converted commercial/residential building) and went for a walk. Given we were in the heart of the city it didn’t take long to find the main square and waterfront. We wandered around a bit getting the lay of the land, and sat down for some tapas and a happy hour cocktail (port n tonic with octopus salad) and then experienced the ‘true’ Portugal experience with a (gf) cod potato cake and glass of port at Casa Portuguesa Pastel de Bacalhau. They even give you the port in a souvenir glass that you wander out into the street with!
The next day started with a galette for brekky at Chez Bea, a delicious French cafe with buckwheat galettes. We had decided to head to Belem to see the fort and monastery, so we jumped onto the waterfront tram to get there.
Neither the castle or the monastery were open, but we had a good look at the outsides, before wandering through a flea market with multi-storey bookshop/jazz vinyl shop/ poster shop and stopping at the traditional, ‘original’ pastel de nata place, Pasteis de Belem, who apparently got the recipe straight from the monks. R said that they were pretty good!
A little less jet lagged than the night before, we headed out for an evening of Fado music and local food, where we were introduced to the Portuguese guitar and soulful Fado songs. The food was plentiful and varied, and they even did the fried beans and fish in a gf batter for me, the standout was the very sweet rice pudding which was so good! I mentioned to the staff how great it was and she brought me an extra portion at the end. Luckily we had a good walk back to our accommodation afterwards.
The second full day was mostly taken up with a food walking tour, (with the fabulously named Oh My Cod tours) where we tried local ham, cheese, port, wine from a couple of different regions, some more African-influenced food, cod, octopus, sardines, flamed chorizo and finished off with a dessert of tomato jam and soft cheese. A delicious and informative walk!
As usual in a new city, we did our best to find a game shop, and took the metro out to Kult Games where we picked up a few more dice for our collections, and stopped into Rice Me, a fully GF bakery where I finally got to try the famous Portuguese custard tarts. They were worth the wait!
It had started to drizzle by then, so we headed back to the apartment via a few bookshops, including the oldest one in the world, apparently!
R was keen to try another regional delicacy, Francesinha, a sandwich smothered in a cheese, tomato and beer sauce, so he found a place about ten minutes walk from our apartment. It certainly looked impressive!
There are no direct trains between Lisbon and Spain, so to get to Seville, our next stop, we took a train south to Faro, and then a bus across to Seville. Our journey was complicated by a late train, a confused family taking up our seats, and then multiple bus ports in Faro, including the one we wanted across the street and only vaguely signposted, with the other bus info stations all showing signs saying ‘no Flixbus info’. Whose toes did Flixbus stand on, I wonder?
The brief stop in Faro did include gluten free McDonalds, though, so not all bad!
Two Weeks Away 