Thanks to a medical conference that Yelena, our daughter, attended in “Lisboa”, as the locals call it, and an invitation to join her, Stephan, and Odin, we spent 5 days in Lisbon seeing some sites and trying to orient ourselves🤔 . Our Airbnb apartment, situated in the Santa Cruz neighbourhood, just by the Anjos metro station, was almost perfect (more on that in a minute) and, contrary to my pretty decent ability to figure out direction wherever I am, we left Lisbon not fully understanding where we were as I don’t think we saw one street that ran straight for more than 250 metres. And by not straight, I mean streets that run at odd angles and turn back on themselves — charming but not conducive to familiarity. Plus, I didn’t have my usual google maps enabled to get my bearings and had to rely on landmarks, all of which looked so similar. And, why is that?

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After a devastating earthquake in 1755, that ravaged Lisbon and surrounding areas by fire and tsunami, the city was quickly rebuilt using military-style architecture which left the outside of buildings looking very much the same and very austere, despite the infamous tile work introduced by the Moors. The insides, however, were personalized and, over the years, modernized.

Our apartment was lovely with 2 bedrooms at one end and another (ours) at the other. We had all the amenities we needed and a fabulous outdoor, private patio area where we engaged in some storytelling, some music, some beverages, some chatting, and some relaxing. The only downside — and it was a big one — was the remodeling taking place directly over our heads every day and half a day on Saturday. And, as some of us didn’t always head out for a full day, that was disappointing. Otherwise, no complaints and we would recommend it.

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Overnight flights are tough so it basically took Steve and I the whole time in Lisbon to get over our jet lag. Might also have something to do with the colds that first Steve, then I, caught. Regardless, we soldiered on. The first day, while Yelena was at her conference, Steph took Odin to the zoo and Steve and I toured the Castelo de San Jorge, a national monument built by the Moors in the mid-11th century. The castle is structure only as the buildings have long since disappeared. Regardless, the ruins and grounds were impressive, as was the view as it is situated quite high up in the city, and the peahens/peacocks were a surprise.

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Speaking of high up, Lisbon is a city of 7 hills so everywhere you want to go is either uphill or downhill, and almost all the roads (except main thoroughfares) are made of cobblestones which makes walking an adventure. Sometimes, though, you turn a corner and are rewarded by enterprising musicians. Or, sometimes people try to sell you drugs if you’re out later in the evening (Yelena and Steph). And thank goodness for Uber, that’s all I will say, even though it was challenging for drivers to find us to take us home and we had to trudge downhill a little further a couple of times to be more accessible.

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There were several conveniences located within a 2-minute walk from our apartment — the local grocer and patisserie which provided for all our breakfasts, and a teeny, tiny family run restaurant, Casa do Miguel, (dad Miguel and daughter Elena in the front, and mom in the kitchen) where the food was excellent, even though the menu was in Portuguese and Elena’s English was very basic, but the service was charming and our dinners even better. That’s also where we had our first, but not last, taste of Vinho Verde, a local specialty.

A little further from home, and another Uber ride later to the Beer Museum in old town, we met up with Yelena’s colleague Heather, her sister Lauren, and their mom Bev, for dinner. We were definitely in tourist country but enjoyed lots of laughs with good company, good food, in a grand environment.

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There were a couple of days when Steve chose to stay back either because he was tired from his cold and/or couldn’t walk as far as the intent those days. One day, Steph and I took Odin to the Marionette Museum, but not before an unusual experience on public transportation. We walked, uphill of course, for about 10 minutes and caught the 706 bus which, within 20 minutes, would have taken us very close to our destination. Everything was going according to plan until we were all told to leave the bus a few stops later. Drivers changed and the bus went from the 706 to “Reservida”. WTF? We had to wait another 20 minutes for the next bus to come along so we could continue. Other passengers got on other buses, presumably because they knew where they were going; as we didn’t, we waited. Meanwhile, Yelena had some time off from the conference and was already there. We eventually found her relaxing with a coffee at a nearby cafe. I don’t think she was the least bit put out by the wait.

The Marionette Museum was fascinating, not to mention a little bit freaky. It was also quite dark inside so difficult to get good pictures with our without my flash. That sure is a lost art. I’ll let some of the puppets speak for themselves.

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Instead of taking our chances with the bus again, we walked a bit, found a park for Odin to run off some energy, found someplace to eat gelato, located the Time Out Market for potential future visits, and ended up at the metro. Not that many stops later, and we were home — about 2 blocks from home and a 3-minute walk. The metro rules!

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Another day, Yelena, Steph, Odin, and I took more public transportation — metro, train, bus — out to Belem to check out the cathedral, the monastery, and the castle. The cathedral was stunning.

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Taking Odin into consideration, we chose to skip the monastery in favour of a rest and ice cream,

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then walked FOREVER to the Belem castle, passing right by the infamous Pasteis de Belem where you can experience the best pasteis de nata ever (although we had already gorged on so many by then, and the lineup was ridiculous, we kept going, thankful that Odin can’t read yet).

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Thank goodness we got there too late to tour the inside because we were tired and still had to get back. But not before there was time for some water play. I was amazed at how far that little 3-year-old walked that day!

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On the day that Yelena, Steph, and Odin chose to go to Sintra, Steve and I stayed home and read, played music, and packed up in preparation for our departure the next day. For dinner, we Ubered out to the Time Out Market as it’s on the list of things to do in Lisbon. There are many food stalls to choose from and, frankly, I found it overwhelming, too crowded, and expensive. It took a little while to find a place to sit, and we had to eat separately so one of us could save our seats. We can now say we shared in the experience but we wouldn’t do it again.

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According to what we read and heard while in Lisbon, graffiti seems to be an important part of their culture. Here are a few examples of some of the works of art we saw while touring around.

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At the end of our 5 warm and sunny days (October 22 – 27), we returned to the Lisbon airport where each family picked up a rental car for the next leg of our holiday up north, near Porto. More to come…