June 15, 2015 - Lisbon Day Two

Roger and I went out this morning so he could get a cup of coffee and we shared a breakfast sandwich before heading out to find where we would catch the train to Sintra.  First we went to the Rossio Metro Station, because I had read from Rick Steves guide book that you could get a train that was direct to Sintra from the Rossio station.  While looking on the rail map we could not see a train leaving from this station but we saw the Rossio Restauradores station was probably the place we wanted to go, so we walked over to that station which is really just across the square and where we had been the night before at Starbucks.  The metro station is down below and the train station is two floors up.  There are two ways to get up to the train station one is to go up the escalators right by Starbucks or you can go down to the metro station and veer to the left of the Metro gates and down the hall then up the escalators (this is the one we found first).  So we walked back to the apartment to get Elaine and Fred to head out for the day.

We  got off the bus at the Jerónimos_Monastery stop and walked around admiring the beautiful exterior of the monastery but could not go in since they were not open on Monday's.  

The real reason we got off the bus was because yesterday the audio guide talked about the wonderful Portuguese pastry that you could get at Pasteis de Belem and as we went by there there had been a long line in front of the shop so of course we had to go back and try them.  Fred and I left it up to Roger and Elaine to make the purchases.

You can sit inside and eat but we decided to go across the street and eat them in the beautiful park.

I loved this Asian inspired gazebo and the beautiful Jacaranda trees.

The park also had wonderful views of the monastery and a fountain that would erupt with water.

I don't know if you have noticed all of the intricately done cobblestone walk ways but they are everywhere.  This one really messed with your senses because you felt like the ground was not going to be level under your feet.

For fans of the Amazing Race, which we are.  This is the map that the teams had to perform a road block on.

It is in front of, or behind, or next to, depends on how you want to look at it, the Padrao do Descabrimentos.

Don't think you will not have to climb stairs just because you take the elevator up.

The views from the top were great.

The 25th of April bridge is often compared to the Golden Gate Bridge.

We jumped back on the bus and had to go back around to get to the Parque Eduardo VII.  We had noticed all kinds of booths there yesterday & today so we thought we would check it out.  The event was over and they were taking the booths down but turns out we didn't miss much because it was a huge book fair that had started in March.  I can not tell you how many booths were there but there were a lot.  They were putting all the books on pallets and packaging them up.

After taking pictures at the top of the park we walked down through the park.

At the bottom of the park is the start of the Av. Liberdade which was designed to be like the Champs Elysees.

The stone walkway is truly a work of art.

Then we rode the Elevador da Gloria up to the Baixa Chiado area.

We sat where the conductor runs the funicular on the the way down.

Once at the top there was a little park that had some good views of the city below.

You can kind of get an idea that Lisbon is not flat.  Usually you are either walking up hill or down hill with a little bit of flat in between.

 Also the sidewalks are very narrow and you really don't want to step into the street in fear of being hit by a car you didn't see coming.

We could not walk by a church and not go in.  Sao Roque was very gold.  It had a beautiful painted ceiling.  The ornateness is sometimes a little over the top.  It is a beautiful place but I did not like all the heads that were in the shrines.  I am sure it had to do with all the people killed in the 1755 earthquake.

The mission was to find some gelato.

As you can see the mission was successful.  I would have loved to post the video of the making of Elaine's cone but it won't allow me to so I posted it on Facebook.

Elaine and friend found that you are never too far away from home.

Fred and Elaine watched Andrew Zimmern while he was in Lisbon and he recommended Mercado da Ribeira as a great place to eat.  So Elaine looked it up online and I plugged the info into google maps which said to take bus 714.  So we go down to the square and find the bus stop no problem.  The bus pulls up but of course it is time for him to take his break.  Then another bus comes he drops the people off from his bus and then gets out and gets into the other bus and pulls up to the bus stop and even though we were waiting there when no one else was really around the bus fills up and we can't even get on.  So we make sure that we are going to catch the next bus, once the driver finishes with his break, by taking up the area that the last bus stopped.  Yes, we made it on the next bus.  Then we went for a Harry Potter like ride on the bus.   Meaning that the buildings went wizzing by at speeds that made them just a blur.  You would think he was driving in the Indy 500.  We count the bus stops so that we make sure we get off at the stop we are suposed to do.  So once off the jet bus.  We head off in the direction that looks like the path of least steps, which was in the right direction.  We ask a local if she know where this place is and she looks at us a little strange, which should have given us a clue that we were in for an adventure. But she did tell us to go straight down the road and make a right and it would be on the left.  So we did what we thought she said and found a building with, what I thought was the address we were looking for, 24 de Julho.  So I walk down and I see a closed, for good, restaurant.  Then I notice that all the buildings have the same 24 de Julho address on them, why? because that is the street name...UGH.  So now the search is on.  We asked almost everyone that we came across and would get different information about which building it was.  At one point we almost gave up when we had walked almost a mile and a half and saw a McDonalds.  But Elaine walked ahead and then thinking she probably shouldn't be walking by herself I went after her.  She asked someone else for directions and he told her it was about 80 meters further so she flagged for everyone to follow.  Then I went ahead and looked into a building that looked like a market but it looked like most of the things were closed.  I did see some lights in the back but didn't really think it was it.  There were some men unloading some produce so Elaine asked them where the place was  and jackpot it was the building.  They directed us to the door on the side.  Then we entered the Hitchcock bad zone.  There were so many choices which means we had to walk all the way around the building to all of the different food vendors.  Some we didn't spend much time looking because we could not read what they were serving other than if it was fish or beef.  We finally decided what we wanted an found a place on the communal tables and ate like a local.  

I needed some Sangria after all of that.  After dinner it was time to figure out where to catch the bus.  We actually found the bus stop pretty easily but when we tried to read the times we thought that we had just missed the last bus of the night.  So we started walking.  Luckily for us, we saw a woman waiting at another bus stop not to far away and Elaine asked her how to get back to the area we needed to be.  She said get on the same bus as she was getting on and get off on the next stop.  Well the bus was there just as she finished giving us the directions so we jumped on and the next stop dropped us off within easy walking distance to the apartment.  Actually if we would have walked from our apartment to the restaurant it would have probably been just as quick but then we might not have had a story to tell.  

Had a quick call from Amanda as she had just finished with a job interview at a school she is really hoping to get to work for and then I crashed.