Exploring Lisbon and Porto, Portugal

The days of air travel being a glamorous and special experience are long gone. This was all too evident for us on what would be a most inauspicious start of our latest journey. You see, after 30 long hours full of storms, delays, ground stops, transfers, missed connections, and rerouting through different cities, we had finally arrived in Lisbon, Portugal. Unfortunately, our luggage had its own entirely different kind of journey and did not arrive with us.

After enduring frustratingly long lines to fill out forms and tracking papers, we left the Lisbon airport and headed toward our apartment with only the clothes on our backs and a handful of essential toiletries and sleep wear in our day packs.

It would be several days before finally being reunited with our luggage. Things were getting kind of ripe. We had been wearing the same clothes for several days now and desperately needed to change into something fresh and clean. We were starting to see the locals and our fellow travelers and tourists keeping their distance from us and our odiferous presence.

We took all of this in stride (what other choice did we have?), did our best to minimize our imitation of Charlie Brown’s pal Pig Pen, and enjoyed the sights throughout Lisbon.

Lisbon

The area where Lisbon got its start is now called the Alfama neighborhood. It is from here that the city grew to its present-day size. Located atop one of the city’s seven hills, the neighborhood, the oldest in Lisbon, is centered around the Sao Jorge Castle adjoined by winding lanes, back alleys, hidden staircases, and old school architecture.

Our walking tour guide, Sarah, explains the background and history of the sites we visited. At least I think so, for there were times it was difficult to concentrate on what she was telling us. 

Many building facadea are adorned with beautiful tiles. 

But not too old mind you, for most of the city was destroyed by a 9.0 earthquake that leveled the city in 1755. Tens of thousands of people died in a matter of minutes. Thousands more -survivors who rushed down to the presumed safety of flats and quays down at the bay -  were swept away and drowned in the tsunami that soon followed.

While only a few buildings from before that disaster still stand (one wall of the castle, parts of the Cathedral, and maybe a home or two here and there), everything in Lisbon is no older than that which has been built since 1755.

Residents of this Alfama neighborhood, led by the “old ladies” whose pictures adorn various building facades, are fiercely protective of preserving their neighborhood from the effects of modernity. Other than a handful of shops here and there, the neighborhood is mostly residential and retains its centuries-old charm, interest, and atmosphere.

One of the neigborhood's "old ladies".

By mid-afternoon, we left this appealing neighborhood but not until I first tried some ginjinha (a liquor favored by the locals made from cherries fermented in brandy) that was sold by one of these “old ladies” from her front door step.

Dora sells us some ginjihna.

A toast!

We headed down to the Baixa-Chaido neighborhood and the main square at Praça do Comercio, the more modern and touristy area of Lisbon.

The square itself was impressive. The neighborhood? Well, it got a “meh” from us. It was largely similar to that which you would find in most touristic areas of major European cities. We were glad our apartment was up near the Alfama neighborhood for this area was noisy and busy with a relative lack of charm and interest.

I liked this Australian's t-shirt so much, he let me take his picture.

A short train ride delivered us to the Belem neighborhood the following day. It is from this neighborhood that most of Portugal’s famous 16th and 17th century explorers and new world discoverers embarked on their journeys.

Nearby was the fabulous Jeronimos Monastery. This place is a masterpiece of architecture largely unrivaled elsewhere in Europe. In the adjoining church, famous Portuguese explorers are interred, including ol’ Vasco de Gama himself.

Vasco da Gama.

Back in the day, the monastery’s monks derived a modest income by selling their foodstuffs and pastries to the local populace. Their specialty - Pasteis de Belem,  a buttery egg-based custard filled pastry - was a fan favorite.

Its recipe was a closely guarded secret until one day it was figured out by a townie. At first the monks were none too pleased by this sacrilegious threat to their livelihood.

But, after tasting what the townie made, they concluding that, yes indeed, the result matched what they themselves had always prepared. So in exchange for being let off the hook by the monks and not being cursed with eternal damnation, the townie had to agree to never divulge the recipe to anyone outside his family. He kept his word. To this day, the small cafe in this corner of the Belem neighborhood is the only place in the world where you can buy and eat this special oh-so-delicious treat of overwhelming goodness. There are knock-offs made here and there - the ubiquitous Pasteis de Nata being one of them - but nothing matches that which is made in this little corner of Belem.

Delicious pasteis de belem. 

We headed back to our apartment, and what do you know?!  There's a little stand selling tasty ginjihna. So, a nightcap or two of this tasty spirit just had to be squeezed into my early evening schedule!

Porto

There was a major mix up in getting off the train. It was difficult to hear the announcements of upcoming stops over the train’s intercom. And even if we could it would have been in Portuguese. So, we guessed the stops based on the time on our watches when we were scheduled to arrive at each individual station.

At the appointed time, we slowly rolled into a station and quickly exited without paying too much attention to our surroundings. A Costa Rican couple leaned out the door and asked us if this was the connecting station to Porto. We assured them that it was.

It was only moments later when we exited out onto the platform and the train started to pull away did we realize that we got off at the wrong stop. Unknown to us, the train had been behind schedule and still had a ways to go before reaching our intended station.

This so called station was nothing but a simple dry and dusty wooden platform shielded from the sun by a rusty and crumbling overhead shelter. Nearby, a man, the only other person around, was reclining up against an equally rusty chain link fence trying to snooze while shooing away a fly from around his face. Meanwhile, the mangy dog at his feet was licking himself in what appeared to be a very agreeable manner. 

Burdened with our backpacks and roller suitcases, we and the Costa Rican couple looked at each other with a “now what?” shrug of the shoulders. Fortunately, after only a few more moments of panic while considering our options, another train came through and rumbled to a stop. We clambered aboard despite not having tickets for this particular train and, to our relief, made our connection and into Porto without further incident.

Climbing the steep cobblestone lanes with backpacks and roller bags is no easy task. Our path from the station led us up to the Porto Se cathedral where we purchased our Camino credencials (a passport of sorts) for our upcoming pilgrimage trek later in the week

It was late afternoon by the time we got to our rental apartment. We had a quick dinner of leftover bread and pasta from one of our previous evenings back in Lisbon before heading to a show were locals played Portuguese and classical guitars while a lovely woman sang fado music. Fado is Portugal’s national folk music with origins from days past when wives would sing sorrowful songs as their men went to sea to fish. It is very moving and emotive music played and sung with professionalism by the trio we watched this evening.

The rest of our time in Porto was spent walking back lanes, discovering hidden neighborhoods, and absorbing the atmosphere and views unique to this city. 

Everyone raves about the Francesinhas sandwich. We just had to try one. Not too bad!

The murals and tile work inside the Sao Bento train station are impressive. 

We found it interesting, and telling for that matter, how those in the 60+ age cohort wander the streets with hard copies of maps used to find their way. They look confused, turning the map this way, that way, then upside down, all in a stubborn and old-school effort to navigate the twists and turns of these medieval-designed streets. The younger people, on the other hand, all have their phones in their hands happily and merrily making the way here and there using the gps systems and other technology they have become so accustomed to. We have been recent converts to this new way of doing things. It's just so much more simple! So, why not?

The following day, I used my phone's gps (see how hip I am?) to lead us to the Sao Francisco church and over the Ponte Luis bridge to the southern shore of the Douro River. We lunched on the steps in Jardim do Mouro park while enjoying the commanding view of all of Porto.

It was time to leave this impressive city and head north of town to the starting point of the Portuguese Camino. While we largely played the role of tourists over the past several days, we would now change into pilgrims and trekkers and soon begin our 200 mile walk to Santiago de Compostela and Finisterre, Spain. 

To read about our Camino trek, please click here.

If you would like to read more about our travels and adventures from around the world, please go to our blog's homepage by clicking here.