Trip Review: Sweltering Saturday in Lisbon
For our first day in Lisbon, we wanted to explore the unique neighborhoods and learn about their special culture. Plus, we wanted to get our vitamin D and soak in as much sunshine as possible!
Sandeman's Free Walking Tour
To begin our day, we went on a great walking tour by Sandeman. Not only did we visit the famous viewpoint, we learned a lot about Portugal's ancient and modern history! They have free walking tours every few hours - but I recommend the 10am tour to beat the heat! Read about it here!
Travel Mishap (number 1)
For as much as we travel, it is a miracle that we do not have more travel mishaps! However, this Lisbon trip, we would not be that fortunate... Read about it on our Logistics post! It meant I had to go to the Airport (which had lovely AC!) instead of wander through Lisbon... Meanwhile, we had a snazzy awesome new car!
Lounging on the City Steps
As we are classy Europeans, we found a very trendy tapas restaurant called Meson Andaluz where we could sit on the steps. While the idea was very chic and cool at first, the thin cushion could not prevent the uncomfortableness. Thus, we distracted ourselves with yummy food and wine!
Since Portugal is very big on tapas, we ordered a mix of food. In total, we ordered seared tuna, fried goat cheese and onion, zucchini and pork, patron peppers, and other things! To help cool us off, we had a lovely rose wine. Thank goodness we were hiding from the heat!
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Meat and cheeses! -
Yummy! -
Seared Tuna
Exploring Alfama
As we learned in our walking tour, Alfama is the oldest neighborhood as it survived the infamous 1755 earthquake. As we didn’t have any set plans for the afternoon or evening, we decided to go visit the charming neighborhood. However, from our location in Barrio Alto, it meant either a long hike or a crammed tram! We opted to work off our meal and walk!
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It's the Climb -
More hills -
Famous Lisbon Tram
While I do enjoy a good walk, this one was particularly terrible - we had to go up and down loads of hills! Hills are great when you are viewing from a distance or perhaps on a nice summer day. This was a hot summer day!
Throughout the walk, we kept reminding ourselves we were burning off our meal and enjoyed the beautiful views along the way!
Community Feel
Within these old Lisbon streets, it felt like we finally got rid of the big city and stepped back in time. The old ladies were selling their local cherry flavored distilled liquor while the neighbors stood outside chatting. It was quite amusing!
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Viewpoint -
Pretty decor -
Viewpoint -
Walking the streets
Each street or alley brought more adventures - although much more communal and tiny! We stumbled upon beautiful tiled houses and the next street would be a quaint little restaurant. It was great!
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Tiled Houses -
Tiled houses -
Lookin good! -
Free music and views!
For all our efforts, I decided to reward myself with a tasty ice cream! For some reason, I have become addicted to a mixed strawberry and chocolate flavor. Call it strange, but I enjoy it!
Porto Wine Bar
On our wander back from Alfama, we quite literally stumbled into a highly rated wine bar, Porto Wine Bar. The decor is extremely cool with old bottles lining the ceiling and giant wine barrels for tables. Wrapped around the exterior, the bar had every wine from Portugal! We acted like kids in a candy store - partly because we could eat and rest at the same time!
For our appetizer, we ordered a giant cheese board. It had soft and hard sheep cheese, smoked cow cheese, and some goat cheese. I honestly lost track of what cheeses were what and enjoyed most of them! Because we were in Portugal, we ordered a lovely red wine from the Duoro Valley! We toasted to our first (and last) Saturday in Portugal! In the back of our minds, we knew that we had to walk back up many hills so we also prepared for that one!
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Because cheese isn't enough -
Because cheese isn't enough -
Because cheese isn't enough -
Because cheese isn't enough
Thankfully, as we walked back, the magnificent sunset occurred and the sky filled with beautiful orange and blue colors!
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Hot Selfie -
Sunset -
Sunset -
Sunset -
Sunset
The UnChartered Summary
- Both Meson Andaluz and Porto Wine Bar are really fun and have plenty of tasty treats! While the steps of Meson eventually hurt my butt and back, it makes for a perfect break to beat the heat!
- Alfama is worth a full or even half day exploring the many narrow streets and alleys. If you’re walking from the Lisbon neighborhoods, there is a chance you might walk into it and not even realize it!
- In hindsight, I wish we booked a restuanrat in Alfama. It would have been entirely worth it!