Day 1 Lisbon

Well, we're here. We left Solomons yesterday and on the way to Newark Airport we stopped for lunch at Woody's Crab House in Northeast, MD. It's a fairly nice place to have lunch since it's only two miles off route 95 (exit 100) and it beats the normal quick stop places on 95. The flight from Newark to Lisbon was uneventful, but I can't say the same for the taxi ride from the airport to downtown Lisbon...they do make it exciting. We arrived in the morning and checked into the Residencial Florescente Hotel which is a rather inexpensive hotel in a great location. We're right in the thick of things yet off on a side street that allows no automobile traffic, only pedestrians.

We spent the afternoon walking the downtown and just getting oriented to the area. It's amazing how every city in Europe has it's own look and feel that's unique and completely different from any other European city. Downtown Lisbon's sidewalks are "all" small intricate patterned cobblestones (picture). A tremendous amount of work went into their streetscape (other picture). Another interesting thing is the wrought iron streetlights. Anyhow, we did manage to find a off-the-beaten-track local restaurant and had a typical Portuguese lunch at Baleal. Obviously, we started with a bottle of Vinho Verde, then had cheese, bread, and Presunto ham (Iberian). The main course was Bacalahau Cataplana which consisted of Salt Cod, tomatoes, peppers, onions, clams, and potatoes that had been half fried. Then, everything was stewed together in a Cataplana pan (look it up). It was all very good and most interesting. We spent the rest of the day and evening wandering around the Baixa and Bairro Alto neighborhoods stopping for a glass or two of wine at several outdoor cafes and taking in the sights. Most everybody dines and drinks outside with most restaurants totally empty inside. One thing we became aware of is that the Portugese have their big meal early in the day and eat lightly at night and this suited us perfectly. We ended the evening at another outdoor cafe with beer, wine, and a couple of pork sandwiches which fit us perfectly.