Road Trip to Lisbon

Last weekend we took a road trip to the country's capital Lisbon.  It is only a 3 hour drive, so thought we could use a change of scenery and wanted to spend some time in the city.  We stayed at a marginal hotel, my bad, but it was in a great location that allowed us to walk everywhere.  I wanted us to stay in a central area and thought we should be "adventurous" in our hotel choices, but was not pleased with the bed comfort, or toilet seat cover that had rips all over it.  It was not dirty, just not very nice, or what the pictures made it out to be.  Our time in there was limited and we'll know better next time.

Saturday we explored downtown (Baixa) visiting Rossio Square, Praca do Comerico, Santa Justa Lift and seeing the numerous statues and monuments they have located throughout the city.  We had lunch at a little cafe in Rossio Sqaure Saturday afternoon, where we were continuously interrupted with beggars and men trying to sell us sunglasses.  No thank you, we have ours on.  After we ran around and let AB get some energy out, she crashed in the stroller so we sat outside and had a bottle of wine and a pastel de nata, a famous Portuguese egg tart pastry.  Our waiter interrupted us and told me I had to take my camera and phone off the table, as the crime is bad and people could come by and grab them and run. Pickpocketing and snatching personal items is a big thing in Lisbon, especially the areas we were at, so were warned to watch our belongings.  Check...

Saturday night we ventured to Bairro Alto, a neighborhood of TIGHT, narrow streets lined with restaurants and bars.  Of course we were hungry at 7:00, so were in the district much earlier than when things are happening.  After driving around for awhile looking for a place to park, we stumbled across a sushi restaurant where we dined on an all you can eat sushi buffet.  Not exactly what we were looking for, but with a 2 year old, our travel choices have to be conducive to her.  The fish was super fresh and there was a great variety to sample.  Fortunately next door was a burger joint, so we got AB some nugs and fries that we took into the restaurant with us.  Classy.  The people in there were so nice and one lady would come pick up Annabelle to show her all the fresh fruit and let her pick out which ones she wanted.  We were going to go across the street to an outdoor cafe that overlooked downtown for a nightcap, but it started raining as we were leaving, so figured we better head home.

Sunday we strolled down to Starbucks and enjoyed our morning people watching and sipping on my favorite...Vanilla Latte.  It tasted so good!!  We then drove down to Belem, walked around an outdoor market and visited Jeronimos Monastery, which was so picturesque and beautiful.  We did a drive by Torre de Belem, but could not figure out how to access the entrance via car, so said hell with it, and soaked it in through our drive-bys.    

Overall we had a wonderful time in Lisbon, but were excited to get back to Porto.

 The famous Mozart Living Statue.  This guy plays a living statue of Mozart...we had to get a pic with him.

 Pastel de nata and a bottle of vino to warm us up.

 So excited to be at Starbucks...we had to snap a picture.  And yes, I got two lattes...by accident.

Jermonimos Monastery.

So in the middle of the square this weird woman was standing in the middle of a flock of birds feeding them and kept putting bread on top of her head, so they would eat it off her head.  It was so odd and disturbing that I had to take some pics.  Reminded me of that scene in Home Alone, but don't see her coming to our rescue.

Picture of our hotel...looks cool right?  Errr...

The drive between Porto and Lisbon is filled with beautiful countryside views, so I tried to snap some photos along the way.  Portugal also put a ton of their money into their motorways, two highways between the cities, that are nice and wide, part of why the country is so poor, but made for a smooth ride.