The final leg of the trip overall is at Lisbon. Since we travelled there via train, the first day was dedicated to visiting the Alfama neighbourhood. We lived in a hotel in the Rossio neighbourhood very close to the Rossio train station and Alfama neighbourhood is actually just the next neighbourhood over so we caught a bus there. We didn’t do much except take a photo of the Arco de Rua Augusta (we tried to look for the Arco de Jesus but couldn’t find it, we just kept getting turned around following Google maps instructions so we gave up). For dinner, we ordered oysters, razor clams and octopus. I think it’s here that we finally caught on that the trick for consuming Spanish/Portugese oysters is to squirt heaps of lemon juice on it to neutralise that high sea content. Razor clams was the chef’s special that day and the octopus was the restaurant special. The octopus was cooked excellently, being soft in texture rather than hard and stringy. The razor clam was good too.
Day 2 was spent at the Belem neighbourhood. We gave the popular tourist tram a miss for fear of pickpockets and caught the bus instead to Jeronimos Monastery (since we bought Navegente cards on the first day and topped up 20 Euros each which ended up being too much due to us often taking taxis). We had lunch at Manteigaria –Fábrica de Pastéis, that very famous shop for pastel de nata (actually I think I already saw it multiple times in Porto but we had always given it a miss because with Mum and my small appetites, we don’t have much quotas for afternoon tea) because it was very close by. Except we had it at the wrong Manteigaria, the place that didn’t do table service with only limited sittings so we had to wait around a bit for two seats outside (the one that does do table service is further down the street but actually lucky that we went to the wrong one, we would have probably bypassed the table service one, that one has an insane queue outside). To be honest, we didn’t think it was special from the other pastel de natas- it just felt like a sweeter version of it.
After lunch, we tried to find the Church of Saint Mary of Bethlehem, and as a direction blind person what I often do on trips is to follow where the crowds go. In this case, it obviously didn’t take me to the Church like I thought but rather to the Coaches Museum. So we turned back and that’s when I found out that we had already done the Church- as far as we can see, the Jeronimos Monastery and the Church are the different ends of the same building. We didn’t bother going inside the Church even though I know it has free entry. There was a parade of cavalry on the square near the Monastery that day (not sure if it was a daily event) and we snapped a lot of photos with the cavalry like everyone else (we did that twice actually when we passed by). We tried to find Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Discovery monument) without success and almost got a taxi there except that the taxi driver pointed out that it was down the road. In the process we also went past the Praça do Império Garden and we rested for a bit there but didn’t find it of much interest. We shot some photos of the monument across the road but couldn’t get closer since it was across a whole railroad track. I had booked a place for goose barnacles and razor clams for dinner and we almost couldn’t find it- we had to ask for directions three times before finding the correct street that it was on. I almost ordered crab there but changed my mind after seeing the picture which tells me that it’s going to be boiled which essentially leaves seafood tasteless. So we ordered goose barnacles as I originally planned but switched out crab for razor clams. The barnacles were bigger at this place and overall, we had enjoyed the food.
Day 3 was the day trip to Sintra. We have two big destinations for that day: the Monserrate Palace and the Penal Palace. Since I booked the afternoon slot for the Penal Palace, we went to the Monserrate Palace in the morning. The first glitch of the day: the 435 bus took forever to arrive compared to the 434 (it was supposed to be a 435 bus every 20 minutes or something but reality is that there will be 3 or 4 434 bus all lined up for you to get on whereas you have to stand at the 435 bus stop for at least 40 minutes to see one appearing. And yes, there is a separate bus stop for the 434 versus the 435 bus which is by means clear). But we did get onto a 435 and made our way to the Monserrate Palace without problem. Overall, the Monserrate Palace is nice if you like nature and a place without a cluttered crowd but it is mostly walking (we bypassed the garden because it was the path going down but heard that it’s actually nice, especially the lotuses) and the signs are often wrong: especially when it tells you to turn right, you are actually supposed to walk straight. We grabbed a quick bite for lunch at the Palace cafe with a very short menu and when we tried to catch the 435 bus back, well, we basically gave up when someone came along asking whether anyone needs a ride back to Sintra for 10 Euro per person so we jumped up for that. To be honest, I got a bit iffy when I got on (thinking it might be a black cab) but actually it was a local who I think is a taxi driver of some sort (although he doesn’t drive an actual taxi and well, the Monserrate Palace does ban taxis from parking in the vicinity) since he has a sticker at the back of his seat that has a number to call for complaints. But anyway, it wasn’t a black cab and we got back to Sintra train station safe and sound to get on to the 434 bus to the Penal Palace. I had originally wanted to only get the garden tickets because we are not interested in history but when I booked the tickets, the official website told me the gardens were closed for renovation so I ended up buying the combo gardens+palace tickets instead. This turned out to be lucky because apparently the gardens are mostly trees as far as we can see and are on this steep path up/downhill depending on whether you visit before or after the actual Penal Palace. I wasn’t much enthused with the Penal Palace exhibitions (in fact, some rooms are so boring to me that I focused most of my photographic attention on the rooftops which are actually different in every single room). The courtyard is definitely much more photographic in comparison but of course, you most likely have to deal with snapping a photo of the crowd if you want to insert a person or persons into it (this is one top frustration with taking photos on overseas trips in Europe but can’t get around it). I could have avoided this if I booked a morning spot for the Penal Palace but I read online that Sintra most likely has a gray morning so I booked the 2pm slot for the palace visit- we got to the entrance around 1pm or a little after (and the courtyard etc can be accessed early, the slot booked was just for seeing the inside the palace). After the Palace, we tried to include the Sintra Villa as an extra stop but we basically just had ice-cream and then lost our way so after finding the bus stop, we just hopped on the bus back to the train station and called it a day. For dinner, we just walked to the closest street that had lots of restaurants and randomly chose the one that we saw had lots of seafood. We ordered oysters and razor clams and short of anything else to order, the truffle oil & mushroom pasta. The seafood was okay (the razor clams the biggest we’ve had but it’s a bit pebbly, not sure if it’s due to the size or the cleaning wasn’t thorough enough), the pasta so-so.
Day 4 was mostly Chiado plus Baixa. We didn’t spend much time at the Chiado neighbourhood but basically just visited the Pink Street (R. Nova do Carvalho). It wasn’t much to look at, to be honest, just a bunch of colourful umbrellas above a street where the ground was coloured pink (but it’s really more black now due to the number of feet that have trod on it). I originally planned to try out the Bifana for lunch on this day but then I forgot about it and we had seafood pizza instead and it wasn’t a very good pizza at all. In the afternoon, we asked our way back to the Commercial Square where we shot more of the Arco da Rua Augusta since the first time we only had a joint photo there. Then we went on back to cover the areas near our hotel. We mainly did Praça Dom Pedro IV and Rossio train station and then called it a day. Dinner was again by random cruising of nearby restaurants. We ended up having dinner at a place that is just right next to where we had dinner the previous night. We ordered clams as well as an octopus mixture with clams, mussels and prawns. The clams were tiny and the mussels and prawns didn’t taste fresh at all. The only okay thing was the octopus but just okay. This was basically the most horrible dinner we had across the entire trip.
Day 5 was really the flight back to Melbourne and originally I told Mum we will leave the exploration of the Rossio neighbourhood to this day but Mum just wanted to get the sightseeing done and leave the day free for the trip to the airport (the flight is at 2pm but we are getting picked up in the morning, we asked our hotel to book a taxi for us which was very easy because the taxi driver just came in and the hotel staff introduced us to him and we already paid for the taxi fare at the hotel).
And that concludes our Spanish and Portuguese trip. Overall, we had a great time and in particular, we were pretty satisfied with the food here.
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