Happy Halloween! It’s been a busy time since we arrived in the wee hours of Oct. 28th. We seem to be fairly well caught up on sleep and in the correct time zone now.
Yesterday the hotel arranged for us to go on a TukTuk tour of the city with, Pedro, the driver/guide. We left the hotel at 9 am on a bright sunny day and had a blast roaring around the city in the back seat of Pedro’s TukTuk. He pointed out a number of interesting sites and had all kinds of history and trivia to share. It was very clear that Pedro loves his city and enjoys sharing it with others.
After returning to the hotel, we decided to do a little exploring on our own so we grabbed a ride from ’Bolt’ (similar to Uber) and headed to one of the main squares here in Lisbon, the Praco do Comercio (forgive my lack of proper accents – I haven’t yet figured out to do that on my keyboard!) We walked around a while and headed up one of the main streets which was quite busy. I can only imagine how crowded it would be in the summer!! We ended up at the Rossio train station.
From there we decided to head to the Mercado da Ribeira which wasn’t too far away based upon the recommendation of my friend, Jay. (Thanks, Jay). It is a huge building that houses a food hall with many, many different types of food. We made one lap and then settled in on a place to grab some lunch. I had a pork dish and Barb had a beef sandwich. On the way out we grabbed a couple of eclairs from one of the shops and they were delicious – and rich, rich, rich!!
We grabbed another ride over to the LX Factory which is an area which has a lot of artists, craftsman, shops and restaurants. It was an interesting place to walk around and I did find a couple of treasures to take home.
It had been a long day of walking and both of our knees were telling us that it was time for a rest so we grabbed a cab and headed back to the hotel. Our guide the first day highly recommended staying away from cabs and using Uber or Bolt instead as the cabs have a reputation of sometimes ripping off foreigners. We used cabs a couple of times and didn’t have an problems but Uber and Bolt are a bit cheaper.
Transportation here is quite inexpensive but sometimes, even using Bolt and Uber, getting to your destination can be a bit challenging. The streets are so winding and narrow that finding your way around without GPS would be close to impossible. And even with GPS, our drivers ran into some challenges. All part of the adventure.
Today we will be leaving Lisbon and picking up our rental car to head north – first of Obidos and then on to Porto. I’m sure driving here will present its own set of challenges but if I can successful navigate the roads (on the ’wrong’ side) down in New Zealand for a month, I figure I’m game for this! The area around Obidos and Caldas da Rainha is an area that we have targeted as a possible place to live so we are looking forward to exploring the area.
I do have to give a shout out to our hotel here in Lisbon. It is called the Casa dell’Arte Club House and is more like a B&B than a hotel. The place is beautiful and the staff is outstanding. It is a little off the beaten track, which suits us just fine but when we return to Lisbon, we will stay here again.
Stay tuned for more adventures as we begin piloting our own car and head up the coast.