Unfortunately, I never finished the blog about our trip. For some reason, Paige and I stopped writing with just a handful of cities left. So, a full two years later, we’re sharing what we remember from our ten days in Lisboa.
Lisboa is hilly. Whether walking or running, you notice the hills. Our Airbnb was at the top of a hill, right in the heart of the tourist centre. The Santa Justa Lift was a mere 200m from our front door. The weather was pristine during our stay, and we spent as much time as possible outside. Each night after a day of sightseeing, we’d return to the accommodation with stronger (yet sorer) legs.
Paigey and I were still on our running kick and pushed ourselves to a couple of 10km runs. I specifically enjoyed the waterfront route that led to the Tower of Belém. I’d try to be out the door before 7am and had to be careful to avoid the drunkards and fisticuffs when the discos emptied (they really did party until morning at the waterfront discos). Paigey would then take her turn and run the route. While one parent was out, the other did schooling with the kids (Izzy was crushing her animal kingdom assignments while Julie was tackling map-making).
Outside of running, we continued to play tourist with my brother’s family: riding tram cars, visiting nearby castles and recreating the entire Feed Phil Lisboa episode. The city was buzzing as the local football club won the championship the day we arrived. The day we left was the Festas de Lisboa, a festival honouring the city’s patron Santo Antonio (or so said our tour guide). It felt like there was a party every day in the city while we were there.
I won’t say we were completing a tourist checklist with my brother’s family, but we pushed hard to “do it all”. Chocolates, sardines, gelato, street snacks and custard tarts were sampled from competing establishments. We would stop for any musician in a square and play in any playground we came across (like Spain, there were many). We rode the train out to Sintra, where the children let us skip the lengthy queue. Don’t give us too much grief; the kids lasted less than 30 minutes at the famous castle (the line was much longer than that). We all bought matching yellow streetcar shirts and shook our heads at the lineup to ride the actual streetcar. We visited our tenth aquarium of the trip with our children. Izzy and Julie were “aquarium guides” for their cousin, pointing out the different types of triggerfish and finding the hidden shrimps. We had a blast with their family and were sad when they departed for Canada.
Our experience with the famous custard tarts at Pasteis de Belem is a key memory of the trip. We arrived there early to avoid the lines (as you can probably tell, queues were becoming more frequent in Europe). We ate inside the ginormous “restaurant” and without thinking, ordered 6 tarts for the 2 of us (our kids were not fans). Upon reflection, it is obvious the numbers just don’t add up. That is way too many tarts per person. As we struggled through our second tarts, we realized we had erred. But in a moment of weakness, we each ate the third and suffered for it the rest of the day.
Up Next we are off to the Algarve.
Where we stayed:
- Airbnb: Steep staircase, loud, but fun
By the numbers:
- Custard Tarts consumed: 10 – got ourselves sick early during our stay otherwise this number would have been higher
- Shots of liquor: 0 – we kept saying we’d get Ginjinha next time….but never did
- Number of people on the tram we rode: 12 (everyone got a seat)
- Position Porto FC finished in the league championship: 1
- McDonald’s visits: 7 – ice cream and cheeseburgers
- Calories in 3 Pasteis de Nata: 750 (approx) – that’s just too many in an hour
Ciao for now
Mike
Family Travel Countdown 