Today is the day we drive to Lisbon! We tried to get up at a reasonable hour this morning…  And we managed. We were on the road before 8:00 am.

Our first stop was Aveiro, known as the “Venice of Portugal” for the canal that runs down the center of town. It even has gondolas that go up and down the river. We found a cafe to have breakfast, where we had the first full breakfast with eggs and everything we’ve had since we’ve been here, and then we wandered around to the end of the river and back to our car. Town was cool, but it was really just another small European town. Cool enough, I guess…

We continued on south to Nazaré. Ahhhh. Town after my own heart. It was so nice to be in a beach town. We walked out to the infamous point where the giant waves come in during the winter and went all the way down to the beach. There were waves, and they weren’t small, but they weren’t the giants Nazaré is known for. We went into the little surfing museum, which was kinda interesting, and went to the roof where the good view was. It was cool to imagine what it would be like to see the gigantic waves that happen here sometimes…. 

We found lunch at a little place that sorta overlooked the water… Pretty, except for the shrimp we got that still had the heads on them. I’d forgotten that I can’t exactly deal with shrimp heads… Oops. 

We drove down the hill into town afterwards, where we found a little beach bar to have ourselves a drink. Finally, my feet in the sand. I found myself super looking forward to going down south to the Algarve and the beach…  Our time in the sand ended way too soon and we continued on our way to Lisbon. 

As has become our (obnoxious) habit, we arrived in Lisbon at rush hour. There was this roundabout that had an inside and an outside and a tunnel underneath… Thankfully we got the exit correct the first try, but then it took us a solid 15 minutes to go one block and make the right turn onto the street where our hostel was. Arg. Luckily, the hostel had a parking garage, so we parked the car after we checked in and decided not to touch it again until we leave Lisbon. 

We have some friends in Lisbon that we were fortunate enough to be able to get together with. At this point, we had just enough time to shower and get to their house. They had invited us to dinner, and it turned out that we were only like 11 minutes walk from them.  We had a lovely time hanging out over pizza and drinks. It was really nice to just go to someone’s house and not be at a restaurant after a couple weeks of eating out…  We managed to stay out late and didn’t make it back to the hostel until almost midnight, yikes! But it was a great night!

Today, we explore Lisbon! This morning, we got up and had breakfast, did our bathroom business, and headed out into the city. I’d made a Google map of a route that would take us to most of the highlights of the city. We got our bearings, and set off. 

We walked clear down to the river, down to Chiada where we saw the plaza and the riverfront.  We saw typical Lisbon scenes and too pictures of the trams. We saw Praça Dom Pedro IV, Rua Augusta, and Praça do Comércio. We found Pink Street, where they actually mop the street every night and has umbrellas hanging over it during the day. 

We found a random little restaurant for a snack, which turned into lunch – the empanadas were delicious!  After lunch, we found the Lift, and then randomly the train station where we came back from Sintra yesterday. Then we walked down the Avenida da Liberdade, which is this gorgeous boulevard with a beautiful garden and huge trres in the middle… 

We got back to the hostel with enough time to shower and head back out for drinks and dinner with some friends. We had a random overlook where we were meeting them and it was almost a half hour walk away…

The walk was something. SO many stairs. There was even an escalator up the steepest part! We always joke about how “this hill needs an escalator,” but this was for real!

The Mirador where we met them had a spectacular view! We had a bottle of vinho verde while watching an awesome sunset. Then we went to a Nepalese restaurant for dinner… YUM!

After dinner, we parted ways and we went back to the hostel and bed. 

We had decided to go to Belém today – we had thought about going tomorrow and stopping on our way to Casçais, but figured it would be better to split them up. In any case, we were having drinks with Doug tonight, so we didn’t have ALL day. 

We walked down to the Cais do Sodré station and hopped on a train. It’s kinda weird, here.  There are no announcements for stations, so you have to pay attention to where you’re going. No snoozing on these trains!

We got off at the correct station and started walking towards the Torre de Belém, this super cool tower you see in all the pictures. The walk was pleasant enough, but when we got there, the tower was covered in FUCKING SCAFFOLDING. REALLY?!?!?  I was so mad. Oh well. Not much I could do about it. 

We decided to go check out the Mosteiro dos Jerònimos, the monastery in town that was super cool. We ended up not going inside, as the line to buy tickets was ridiculously long, but taking pictures of the outside was plenty enough for us. 

We grabbed some lunch by the marina, where some sailboats were practicing for a regatta tomorrow, which was fun to watch. Then we walked back to the station and took the train back to Lisbon. 

On our way back to the hostel, we stopped by the oldest bookstore in the world (Guiness confirmed) – Liberia Bertrand – and then Napoleon, a wine shop Arielle had told us was worth visiting. We tasted some Port, bought a bottle, and headed back to our room. 

We showered, dressed, and headed out to meet another friend. He and his lady friend were staying at a nice hotel about a ten minute walk from ours. We met in the lobby, had a few drinks, and then went to dinner. We had a lovely evening with them, and then we headed back to our hostel for bed. 

Here’s the video: