May 25 –Lisbon, Portugal

random cool building

Lisbon flag

Weather – 31º

Steps – 13,809

Humidity – 37%, I’d guess higher, based on my personal observations, but…science

We may be delusional, but our hope is that our jet lag is over and we’re on a European sleep schedule. Maybe not quite (it’s only been a day, but other than a few winks on the plane, we stayed awake until last night at regular bedtime and were up today at regular time. I expected to be up at 3 or 4 in the morning ready to go, but nope…8AM I was up. Time will tell, if I’m right. I was pretty sleepy all day despite having a good amount of sleep last night, so maybe my body it’s ready for Europe time.

One of the hotel’s sustainability efforts (which makes total sense) is that their included breakfast is al a carte rather than buffet. Al a carte   is much nicer. Grazing has it’s charm also, but sitting at a

Chris buying the ginja

table with fresh fruit, bread, meat, cheese, and pastries waiting for you to sit while the juices cart
wheels over (we both had passion fruit and mango) before your order is taken is significantly more civilized as compared to the usual buffet situation of elbowing and jostling. In addition to what was waiting for us on the table as we sat down, I ordered yogurt with fruit, nuts and chia; Chris had a couple of eggs – both meals were of a very reasonable size. Little went to waste.

salt cod shop

cool square with even cooler tilework

After breakfast we joined the hotel’s free walking tour. We started the tour in the basement of the hotel. The hotel opened in 2017 - during construction, they unearthed 14^th century walls within these walls were also artifacts. Ana, our tour guide talked about the walls, the artifacts and the massive earthquake and following tsunami of 1755.

The theme of today’s tour was the "Shops of Lisbon". This wouldn’t be out first choice of tour, but it was really a general tour of a few areas near our hotel with shops pointed out along the way.

These shops were quaint and charming in old historical buildings. We saw
linens, stationery, food, salt cod, jewelry, booze pastry, shoes, gloves etc.

Along the way we stopped at the ginja

St Domingos (I think)

castle in the distance

seller – the same one we stopped at a last year on our walking tour. Ginja is a Portuguese liqueur made by soaking ginja berries (sour cherries) in alcohol and adding sugar together with other ingredients with cloves and cinnamon sticks being the most common. Ginja is served in the form of a shot with a couple of cherries at the bottom of the cup – €3.20. We saw other shops selling it for €1 – I was fine with 3.20 for the historical charm of this tiny place.

post tour refreshment

Other than the ginja and a chocolate covered lemon gelato on a stick, we bought nothing. On the way back we saw another kiosk in a square near our hotel similar to last night’s kiosk that seemed like a good spot to whet our whistles…Chris had a beer; I had a sparkling wine.

Although it was ‘lunch time’ we weren’t remotely hungry, so headed back to the hotel for naptown. The room wasn’t yet done, so I ended up blogging while we waited.

I never know how to deal with the whole room cleaning situation. I dread coming back to the room mid afternoon and the room isn’t done. Not the end of the world, some rooms have to be cleaned later in the day, but I want that not to be mine. I’ve been known to call housekeeping to ask that it be done as soon as we are leaving, but I didn’t this time.

ham tasting

The blogging time is down time too…the room is cool and quiet.

One of the hotel’s free activities is ham tasting. This was our late afternoon activity. It turned out to be a private

sign should have said pizza and wine

tasting just for us! Miguel, one of the restaurant waiters explained to us about ham that comes from Portuguese black pigs. We tasted this and Parma ham from Italy and discussed the differences. This is much more like Iberico ham from Spain than the Parma ham. It was dryer and less salty than the Parma ham. This all came with a glass of wine, some bread, and grapes. After about 20 minutes Miguel left us to our snack and wine. It was lovely.

outside hotel

Another one of the hotel’s free activities is a gin tasting which followed the ham tasting. This time there were 6 of us. We learned some basic facts about gin,

the ship's already here

tasted 3 Tanqueray gins, learned how to make a cocktail, learned about tonic waters and garnish, and then one person from each couple made a cocktail behind the bar – that was fun. I made my cocktail with Tanqueray 10 and cucumber tonic. I didn’t realize that only one from each couple would make a cocktail or I wouldn’t have used cucumber!

After all of our lessons, we visited the hotel’s lobby for cocktail hour. Tonight’s cocktail was red sangria – very delish. We drank these along with a couple of small cod fritters at a small table on the hotel’s outdoor seating area. This area is basically a handful of tables outside the
hotel. There’s no grand entrance to this hotel as it is in the historical area of

chuch by dark

Lisbon. We sit and watch skateboarders across the small square along with the comings and goings of hotel guests.

sangria please

Our hotel is close-ish to the cruise port terminal. Not as close as the 5-minute hop from the hotel we stayed at in Southampton, but close – about 20 minutes. We could very easily take an Uber, but we will likely walk. Tonight we checked out the walk without suitcases – it’s doable.  

Then we wandered up into the Al Fama area – very hilly with bars and restaurants. We found a place with outdoor space for our first European pizza. It
was good, which pleasantly surprised me when I saw it come on a paper pizza plate. All of this was washed down with a Portuguese rosé.

Portugal's ready for World Cup!

After dinner we decided to go back to last night’s kiosk for one last white sangria. This kiosk serves drinks in reuseable plastic cups that you return for the deposit
you paid when you bought the drink. We weren’t charged last night, but tonight we were…a simple process.

cocktail lesson

We made it back to the hotel in time for their mid-night snack time – small sandwiches, cheese, cakes, fritters etc. It hit the spot!

cool place to work out