Saturday, 13 October 2007
Our last travel day, which found us slowly wending our way through the Alentejo from Terena to Lisboa. It was a lovely drive, starting with café e queijada in Alandroal, lunch along the road and a mid-afternoon café in Barrosinha. We arrived in Lisboa shortly after 4pm, got the apartment sorted out and did a little basic shopping (mainly for breakfast tomorrow).
Lunch: We had a picnic at a lovely little spot not too far from Torrão.
Dinner: Frango assado at O Lavrador, which is only 50 metres from our apartment door. A simple, but tasty, meal.
Weather: Because there were a couple of clouds late in the day, we will only give today a 3.0- rating.
Sunday, 14 October 2007
We were not overly ambitious on our first full day in Lisboa. But, we usually aren’t! Our main task was to return the rental car, after which we took the Metro down to Chiado, looking for some electronic bit that we wanted at fnac (we love fnac!).
The nice mercado in Campo de Ourique was closed (Sunday), so we did a little shopping at Pingo Doce.
Lunch: A very nice simple lunch at o meu café in Campo de Ourique. Steve had filetes com arroz e salada and Susan had bife atum. We will probably come back here at some point.
Dinner: So-so cabrito assado at Nova Aurora (also in Campo de Ourique). The food service here was pretty fast considering it’s not a fast food joint!
Weather: Another lovely day, but only 2.5 because of a few clouds.
Monday, 15 October 2007
Lunch: We set off to an area of Lisboa that we haven’t seen before – Campo Pequeno – to visit a language school that we are thinking of using on our next trip. The lunch that we ate on our way there was probably the worst we’ve ever had in Portugal. We left much of it uneaten and found a café very shortly after that where we shared a savoury pastry with queijo e fiambre (which was very good) with some good café.
Dinner: We were fortunate to spend this evening with our friend Helena and her husband João, who we met for the first time. After sampling an off-dry porto branco with some presunto at the Instituto do Vinho do Porto, we were treated to a wonderful meal at Espaço Lisboa. This restaurant is in a very impressive old building and has quite an atmosphere; also, excellent service. All four of us had the same thing – salada a queijo de cabra to start (amazing – Susan has written down the ingredients in the hope of recreating it at some point!) and very tasty cabrito to follow. We don’t usually have sobremesa, but decided to share the pudim arroz which was excellent. Our hosts had encarchada. Afterwards, João kindly took us on a night time tour of Belém which we enjoyed very much.
Weather: Only a very nice 2.5, due to some cloud cover off and on today.
Tuesday, 16 October 2007
We managed to get some laundry done (there is a machine in our apartment – after washing it becomes part of the Lisboan scenery, hanging from our balcony) before going out about 11am for our regular café e pastel. Recently, we have been going to the Beira Tejo in Campo de Ourique. Then, down to the mercado for some essentials for lunch.
After lunch, we hopped on the E28 (electrico) – which stops in front of our door – and rode it all the way to Graça. We had some photographs (prints) that we had taken at O Jaime in April at one of their regular fado nights. Laura (Jaime’s wife) was there, along with one of the fado singers who was performing the night we took the photographs. Luckily, one of the photos was of her! Both of them liked the photographs very much (Jaime was not there).
Lunch: We packed a lunch and walked 200 metres to the beautiful Jardim da Estrela, found a nice secluded, sun-dappled table and enjoyed the early afternoon.
Dinner: Tonight, we discovered a new restaurant right across the street from the Mercado de Campo Ourique. It is called Verde Gaio and appears to be extremely popular with local residents. The atmosphere was great, the service was very pleasant and the food was good enough to go back for. Steve had peixe espada grelhado and Susan had carapaus de escabeche com batatas cozidas. Add some pretty decent vinho tinto de casa and we were happy.
Weather: A perfect 3.0 today – just lovely.
Wednesday, 17 October 2007
Today we took the train to Cascais; a one-way ticket is €1,60 … not bad for a 30 minute trip! The route is along the water much of the way and we caught glimpses of some lovely little beaches along the way. Cascais was an interesting spot to visit – there are many lovely buildings and the bay and beaches are very nice.
Lunch: At the Coffee&Pot in Cascais. The bread, wine and salad were ok, but we’ve had better omeletas. However, we weren’t expecting much, either!
Dinner: Back to Verde Gaio tonight where we had another good meal. Good enough to make reservations for tomorrow night (our last in Portugal this trip).
Weather: Another gorgeous day – another 3.0.
Thursday, 18 October 2007
Our last full day in Lisboa and Portugal (we leave at midday on Friday). Our main task was to go to fnac and try to buy a copy of Guia Tascas de Portugal. Unfortunately, they were currently out of stock. However, since we were out, we went to our favourite garrafeira and bought a little port wine for the trip home.
Lunch: Another nice picnic in the Jardim da Estrela.
Dinner: Three nights in a row at Verde Gaio.
Weather: It was fitting that our last full day in Portugal rated a perfect 3.0 – we have had excellent weather for the last nearly three weeks.
Friday, 19 October 2007
Today is our last day in Lisboa (and, Portugal), as we have a mid-day flight back to Toronto.
Weather: We are getting used to this superb weather – another 3.0 to see us away.
