Lisbon: The Second Time Around

We had unfinished business with Lisbon. Too many items left on the to-do list. Largely involving enjoying al fresco drinks and rooftop cocktails, dancing around palace grounds like a fairytale princess, and sunset strolls along the riverfront. All things that are not as fun to do in torrential rain. So we took the unusual step of coming back from our washed-out Lisbon trip in March and immediately booking a return trip just 6 months later. Keeping our fingers crossed for sunshine, we headed back to Lisbon for the second time – our September sequel.

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Where we stayed in Lisbon

After staying in Baixa last time, this time we chose to stay at Zuzabed B&B on Calçada do Duque, a long stairway that connects Bairro Alto and Rossio. I had in fact, booked a hotel through Booking.com but wasn’t 100% satisfied with the location. And when checking out Google maps I spotted a B&B close to one of the bars we’d drank at during our first trip. Out of interest, I clicked to see excellent Google reviews, and TripAdvisor reviews were glowing too. When I clicked on their website, there was availability on the dates we had planned – AND it was significantly cheaper. AND it included breakfast. I make the booking direct and cancelled my fully refundable prior booking.

The hotel was €112 per night; we stayed in the Vintage Room with castle views. What the accommodation lacked in facilities and maintenance – the door knob came off in my hand and the banister was attached to the wall by a single screw – it more than made up for in warmth and hospitality. Luis treats every guest like a personal friend, and is eager to get to know everyone over the communal breakfast table.

Our 2 day Lisbon Itinerary – second time around

Despite the bad weather, we did manage to tick off some of Lisbon’s highlights on our first trip. We’d taken a free walking tour, watched a fado show, weaved our way through Alfama and took a ride on the iconic vintage trams. So this time, our 2-and-a-half day itinerary looked like this:

• Day 1: Sintra, rooftop cocktails, birthday meal in Alfama
• Day 2: Belem, LX Factory, drinks and dinner in Bairro Alto
• Departure Day (late afternoon flight): Museu Nacional de Azulejo, Rua Augusta Arch.

Right, let’s get the elephant in the room out the way. Did we get to Sintra? No.

I’d put months of research into the best times to visit, best order to visit the palaces, best ways to get around the area. And then the national park and all its monuments were closed due to risk of forest fires spreading in the north of the country. The park was due to reopen – and did in fact – the day after, on our second day in Lisbon. But rather than re-booking, we decided to go with our Plan B, a day trip to Cascais instead. Seaside instead of Sintra; lighthouses instead of palaces.

Arrival Day

Not only did our flight from Stansted arrive on time, we were through passport control in super speedy time. So speedy in fact that our taxi transfer wasn’t expecting us so soon, and had double booked himself with a customer arriving on a delayed flight. Thankfully he was able to arrange an alternative driver for us within 10 minutes.

After the Bari debacle we prefer to know that we have our journey from the airport arranged if we’re on an evening flight!

As recommended in the myriad of information supplied by Luis, our driver dropped us off at the end of Rua do Duque. This meant we only had to tackle a few steps going downhill to our accommodation, rather than the uphill slog from Rossio. Travelling so light was a godsend though, and we impressed our taxi driver and Luis with our minimal approach to packing. We were also glad when we realised the B&B was up three narrow flights of stairs – with the aforementioned rickety banister. Many of our fellow guests were Americans, travelling with huge suitcases for a much longer trip.

Time for dinner

We unpack, ooh and aah over the views over Alfama from our room and head out for a drink. The beauty of making a return visit is that everything seemed familiar, and it was easy to navigate our way around the city. Wanting food, but nothing too heavy, we head to Taberna at Bairro do Avillez. Seated outside on the terrace, Mr Fletche and I share bread, olives and a meat platter, along with a gloriously green frothy cocktail for me.

Post dinner, we’re not quite ready to head to bed just yet, despite it being a long travel day. We head up to Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara to take in the night-time views before finding familiarity at Duque Brewpub – one of the places we had sheltered from the rain in March. This time, we get to sit outside and watch the world go by.

Day 1 in Lisbon: The Second Time Around

We stock up from the breakfast buffet, with granola and fruit and cheeses and meats. Mr Fletche takes advantage of the eggs offering, whilst I am presented with a plate of bacon. Luis is on hand to check in with us and our fellow guests. We’re still to pay the balance of our booking by cash, but Luis waves us away telling us not to worry until the end of our stay. Meanwhile, I’m trying to sort out my Tallinn hotel booking, who are threatening to cancel because there’s an issue with the payment their end. Two very different customer service experiences.

We wave goodbye to Luis and head down through Baixa, past the Santa Justa Lift and the hotel from our March stay. It makes a change to walk down Rua Augusta without puddles lapping around our ankles. Whether its the weather or the time of year, we can already see the number of tourists have swelled; indeed there are two cruise ships in port. I almost miss the drizzly but deserted streets.

Our first stop is the tourist office on Praça do Comércio to purchase our 48-hour Lisboa Cards. I’ve written a separate post about the Lisboa Card, and whether we got our money’s worth but it’s handy for the convenience of having your public transport and admission tickets on one card in your pocket.

You can pre-purchase your Lisboa Card here and exchange your email voucher for a physical card at one of the collection points. Your card becomes active on its first use so you can pick it up ahead of time

It’s a ten minute stroll along the waterfront to Cais do Sodre train station. We’ve decided not to activate our Lisboa cards until our return journey, meaning the metro journey to the airport will be included. So we join the queues at the ticket machine to purchase our single tickets to Cascais. Frustratingly, we have to do these one at a time. Our tickets are loaded onto a brand new reloadable Navegante Card – the cards from the March visit didn’t withstand the drenching and turned to mush. We’re sorted for tickets in time for the 11am train.

A day trip to Cascais

I’ll pop together a full blog post about our day trip to Cascais, along with all the tips and suggestions I gathered since we made this our Plan B. But our day in Cascais looked like this:

• Beco da Praia da Rainha
• Beer o’clock in a little cafe 🍺
• Mirador Casa de Santa Maria for lighthouse views
• Boca do Inferno
• Parque Marachel Carmona – free public toilets here!
• Cantina Clandestina for lunch
• Stroll around the old town
• Santini’s for gelato and Bijou for local pastries 🍦
• Return train at 4pm

Birthday celebrations

From Cais do Sodre we switch to the metro to Baixa-Chiado. The escalators are perfect for taking the strain of travelling up to the higher levels of Chiado and Bairro Alto. We’ve activated our Lisboa Cards so we’re keen to jump on any public transport possible.

We have a brief window of relaxation time – including feasting on some of those Bijou pastries – before we’re ready to paint the town red. I’ve booked a table at Farol de Santa Luzia in Alfama at 20:30, so we have plenty of time for a pre-dinner cocktail. We head for Carmo Rooftop Bar, nestled behind the walls of the Carmo Convent with great views of the Santa Justa Elevator. My Long Island Iced Tea is pleasingly strong but the barman can’t make Mr Fletche an Old Fashioned because he “doesn’t know the ingredients”. Not a great look for a cocktail bar.

Cocktails downed, we take the steps down from the bar and head towards Baixa, where we know we can pick up a No 28 or No 12 vintage tram to Alfama. And we wait. And we wait. The traffic seems to be gridlocked, and there are no trams in sight. We set ourselves a deadline and when there’s still no sign of a tram we start the walk to Alfama. Which of course, is uphill.

It’s surprisingly not as bad as I thought. And it probably took us less time than the tram would have. Naturally, as we reached Miradouro do Santa Luzia a tram came trundling up behind us. I like to think we took the healthier option, and worked off that pasteis de nata from earlier.

Despite the uphill trek we’re early for our reservation but we’re soon seated, with a bottle of wine on the way. I’d had my eye on the “stew for two” and luckily talked Mr Fletche into sharing with me. There’s a fish stew, and a pork stew – which turned out to be the same as the fish stew, but with added pork and chorizo. And every dish is made infinitely better by the addition of chorizo.

Full of stew and wine, we decide to continue walking. Upwards. Eventually I recognise where we are; Miradouro Graca, which was the starting point for our soggy second day in Lisbon last time. We’ve climbed to the top, and we’re looking over at the rooftop bar where we started the evening.

What goes up must come down. I’d pinned a craft beer bar on my handy food and drink Google map but closing time was looming. We upped the pace and found Outro Lado just before its scheduled closing time – only to find them serving customers for at least another fifteen minutes later.

It’s been an excellent way to turn 47. My phone app congratulates me for doing 26,500 steps and walking 11 miles. Surely Day 2 will be less exhausting?

Day 2 in Lisbon: The Second Time Around

This morning’s breakfast time sees me imparting all my well-researched advice on Sintra to a couple from Minnesota. They have done literally no research, they just liked the look of the palace when they spotted it on their phone. I almost have a panic attack when I hear they haven’t booked any tickets, don’t know which train to get, haven’t made an hour-by-hour itinerary of which palaces to visit… Mr Fletche gently reminds me that not everyone plans as obsessively as I do.

Speaking of which – today’s plan is to head to Belem. Again, I’ll publish a separate blog on our daytrip to Belem, including why I don’t always take my own advice. Our trip starts with the 15E tram from Praca do Comercio, retracing a journey that we started back in March and abandoned at the LX Factory:

• Jeronimos Monastery
• Pasteis de Belem
• Belem Tower
• Wine With A View 🍷
• Monument to the Discoveries
• Street Truck fries and mayo 🍟
• Riverside walk to Alcantara/25 de Abril Bridge

We meander away from the river once we reach the bridge, and head towards the LX Factory. We had no real need to revisit, nothing new to discover, but I wanted to sit in Beer once more and compare our March and September weather.

Our tram back from LX Factory is hot, crowded and extremely unpleasant. I’m still muttering at the man who barged past me to get on, almost leaving me on the wrong side of the closing doors. Caroline of Pack The Suitcases blog had mentioned the Santos/Madragoa neighbourhoods in her three day Lisbon itinerary so we decided to get off a couple of stops early and take a wander through. These neighbourhoods seemed a bit more authentic and less touristy than other areas although the photogenic Green Street with its lush plants and colourful garlands is surely a draw for the Instagram crowd.

We continue our walk back towards central Lisbon. It’s all starting to get a bit tiring. We find ourselves at the foot of the Bica elevator. We walked up this street on our March trip, and I was in no mood to tackle the hill again. There’s a reason why there’s a funicular here. As we get to the front of the queue, the driver decides he’s off to take a 15 minute break. We patiently wait. After all, I want to take this photo, and I don’t want to walk any more to get it.

From the top of Bica, we wind our way back towards our hotel. Day 2 has been as exhausting as Day 1. And we’re not done yet. After a quick change of clothes, we’re heading back up Calçada do Duque to Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara for a sunset drink. There’s not much of a sunset to be honest but we’re mildly entertained by a street performer who’s not afraid to break out the huge heart-tugging ballads. Although he probably shouldn’t.

We’re hungry. Despite all my research and own best advice, we eat at a random restaurant on Calçada do Duque, near our hotel. And it’s pretty average, with customer service that leaves a lot to be desired. The food has given us that little bit of energy we needed though as we climb up to Bairro Alto for a drink.

We avoid all the shot-promising, house music, neon light venues – I’m looking for two bars that are on my list. The first, Paginas Tantas, is in complete darkness and looks like it had closed down. We have better luck with the second, just a few steps away. The Old Pharmacy wine bar is just what the doctor ordered. They specialise in Portuguese wines and port, and the staff are happily on hand to make recommendations. They also have a tasty looking tapas menu. I wish I’d listened to Mr Fletche when he suggested heading up into Bairro Alto for food instead of our mediocre meal.

As we pass Duque Brewpub on the way back to our B&B it would be rude not to pop in and finish the night off with a beer. After all, they’re practically our neighbours.

Departure Day: The Second Time Around

It’s our final morning in Lisbon. We linger once more over breakfast, sharing Lisbon tips with a couple from California that had arrived the day previously. I consider charging for my Sintra advice. Luis finally takes our money from us, and offers us a key to the front door so that we can store our bags until we depart. He reminds us that we are “roomless, but never homeless”.

Our flight is late afternoon which gives us plenty of time to tick another must-do off the itinerary. Remember last time, when we “almost” made it the National Tile Museum before realising it would probably be closed by the time we got there? This time our plans are solid. We catch bus 759 from Rossio Square, which drops up right outside Museu Nacional do Azulejo.

General admission is €8.00, or free with the Lisboa Card. You can also skip-the-line with the Lisboa Card, scanning your card to enter. When we arrived at 10:30 there was no queue, but it had built up when we left an hour later.

Housed in a magnificent 16th century convent, the National Tile Museum delves into the rich legacy of the azulejo tiles, found all over Portugal. Every inch of the museum is ornately decorated. It’s piece de resistance is a 75ft long panel, made of more than 1300 tiles depicting Lisbon as it existed before the 1755 earthquake. In contrast, opposite is a more modern piece, showing Lisbon as it is today.

There’s a small cloister, and a stunning church where blue azulejo sits alongside ornate gilded features. One of my favourite panels was “The Chicken’s Wedding” which I sadly failed to get a photo of. The museum also has one of the cutest cafes, with a gorgeous jungle courtyard to enjoy your cuppa once you’re all tiled out. It’s easy to overlook this museum because of its slightly out of town location but I definitely think its one to add to your Lisbon itinerary.

On our bus journey back we try and assist the couple next to us – another American couple! – who are trying to find the quickest way to climb up to Castelo de São Jorge. We hope we helped! Naturally we miss the stop we intend to get off at and find ourselves at the end of the line at Praça dos Restauradores. We take the opportunity to stroll around the area for the first time, turning down all the restaurant hawkers that are trying to entice us in for lunch. We do however stop for a quick shot of ginjinha at Ginjinha Sem Rival and stroll through the craft market on Praça da Figueira. With no room for souvenirs in our luggage I pick up a bracelet with an azulejo charm. Wearable souvenirs are the secret to getting round tight luggage restrictions 😉

Our final stop before we depart is Arco da Rua Augusta – free with the Lisboa Card or €4,50 without. The towering arch marks the end of Rua Augusta and is the gateway to Praça do Comércio. An elevator whisks us partway to the viewpoint, there are winding stairs the rest of the way. There is a one-way traffic light system in place (although the couple in front of us ignored this completely). The views from the top are wonderful, and you can see how the riverfront connects with the city. You can pre-book your Rua Augusta Arch admission ticket here.

Reflecting on Lisbon: The Second Time Around

We make a hot and sweaty walk back up to the B&B to pick up our luggage before returning to Rossio, this time to get the metro all the way to the airport.

Looking for somewhere to stay in Lisbon?

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This was the Lisbon we wanted to see. It’s much easier to move around when you’re not encumbered with raincoats and umbrellas. We looked at this as Days 3 and 4 of our original trip, with the only repeat activity being the visit to LX Factory. And putting it all together, we had a pretty perfect 4 day Lisbon itinerary.

So, is there enough left to do for a Lisbon Part 3 – the threquel if you will? Well, there’s still Sintra to finally tick off the list. We’d like to explore the Santos neighbourhood some more. There are multiple rooftop bars still on my list. And I still haven’t ridden the Santa Justa elevator. I think a third trip is definitely not out of the question 😉