Day 20 Lisbon

It’s the last day in Portugal so it’s no holds barred…or something like that. Two weeks ago we were in Belem and it was crowed with tourists so we didn’t get to the famous Casa Pasteis de Belem the birthplace of a delicious custard tart called the pastel de nata. We left early and took a tram over to Belem and since all the museums were closed we had no trouble getting in the Pasteis de Belem…the pastel’s were worth the effort, unbelievably light, crusty, creamy, and wonderful. If you ever get a chance to go, do it. We also revisited the pastry shop that we went to previously and re-tasted a donut that we really liked, and compared to the pastel de nata it was dull. Sufficiently fattened up, we took the tram back to Lisbon and checked out the market. Most of the stalls were closed on Monday so instead we took the ferry over to Cacilhas and spent an hour or so walking the streets. There wasn’t very much going on and unless you want a boat ride I wouldn’t bother. By the time the ferry got us back to Lisbon it was almost lunch time (by now I’m getting tired of eating). We found a nice place for lunch. Sylvia was smart and had a tuna salad. I wasn’t and had cod fish with spinach and mashed sweet potatoes and of course the mandatory bottle of wine…all very good. After walking some ounces off we started back towards the hotel and on the way we decided it wouldn’t be right to have visited Portugal and not have had any Mateus. A wine store solved that problem and we took a bottle back to the hotel. Opening the Mateus brought back some kind of flashback because I immediately had that awful feeling of forty years ago. I think that’s the last Mateus I’ll ever have, it really is bad stuff.

Rather than eating again we took an evening stroll up Av. da Liberdade. It was only eight o’clock so there was a lot of activity as we wandered by all the exclusive shops . We talked for awhile with a crazy bartender at the Hard Rock Cafe. By ten o’clock we had a pork sandwich at an outdoor café, and then finished the evening with a ginjinha. We wanted to leave the hotel by seven the next morning, so we called it an day. The last night in town was relaxing, but it took me three weeks to get to that point. With any luck, tomorrow night we’ll sleep in our own beds.