Spain and Portugal Day 11 - Lisbon

Our last day in Portugal finally arrived, and we kicked it off with an awesome walking tour led by Beatriz. She gave us some really cool insights into the history, culture, and lifestyle of the Portuguese people. We started our tour in the Chiado neighborhood of Lisbon, but since it's such a hilly city, we hopped on one of those iconic yellow funicular railway cars to get to our next destination. Gotta love avoiding that steep uphill climb, am I right?

There was Portuguese stone all over Lisbon

Our next stop was the Alfama neighborhood, where we started at the Portas do Sol viewpoint. This place was basically one huge balcony above the ancient Alfama neighborhood, and the view was breathtaking. After taking in the stunning vista, we strolled through Alfama and learned all about its fascinating history, the significance of Fado music, and the reason why a rooster is the mascot of Lisbon. It was all really interesting stuff!

From there, we made our way to the Santa Maria Maior, which had a bustling downtown vibe with lots of fancy stores and restaurants. We stopped at one shop in particular to grab some Pastel de Nata (Custard Tarts), and it was so yummy. It was Beatriz's favorite place to get them, but to be honest, I thought the ones in Belem were even better. Who cares though, both are delicious!

We also visited the Santa Justa lift, which is a famous elevator in Lisbon. Unfortunately, the line was way too long for us to take it, so we walked up some nearby stairs instead to get an incredible view of Lisbon from the platform. Our tour with Beatriz ended nearby at the Largo do Carmo plaza, where we bid her farewell. She was such an excellent guide and made our trip so much more memorable!

Afterward, Alison and I wandered back toward the Alfama neighborhood and stumbled upon this amazing pizza place for a light lunch. It was unlike any pizza I'd ever had before, but it was absolutely delicious. Our destination was the Lisbon Cathedral, but finding the entrance was surprisingly difficult. Once we did, though, it was a really nice cathedral. The outside walls are protected by thick walls framed by two bell towers, which give it an appearance more typical of a medieval fortress than of a church. The treasury is located in the upper part of the Lisbon Cathedral and is filled with an obscene amount of gold and jewels. The age of discovery was definitely good for the Catholics in Portugal!

We then hiked up to Saint George's Castle, which is a must-see site in Lisbon, but if I'm being honest, it was a little overrated. It was one of the most expensive attractions at 15 Euros each, but it was only an okay castle. It was quite large, but it wasn't as cool as the Moorish castle or Pena Palace. We still spent a good amount of time exploring and enjoying the nice views of Lisbon, though. My favorite part was watching the peacocks that lived at the castle. We also found our daily dose of gelato here, which was a perfect way to cool down on such a hot day.

We had one last stop on our itinerary - the National Pantheon. On our way, we stopped by a giant flea market that Beatriz had mentioned to us earlier. It was quite impressive, and we even bought a small model of the Lisbon funicular railway cars. The National Pantheon contains the tombs of several Portuguese presidents, writer Almeida Garrett, and the most famous Fado diva, Amalia Rodrigues. We climbed up to the dome and enjoyed the views, even though it made us feel a little uneasy because it was really high and there wasn't much of a guardrail. We were surprised to learn that the building was completed in 1966, even though it felt older. 

We also visited the Livraria Bertrand, the oldest continuously running bookstore in the world, which opened in 1732. We bought a book for ourselves and a couple of books for our nieces, and they stamped the inside of the book certifying they were purchased at the oldest bookstore in the world.

Lastly, we bought some Pastel de Natas to take home and found a delicious tapas restaurant for our last meal in Portugal. We had a really early flight the next morning and scheduled a wake-up call with the hotel because we were nervous about daylight saving time. We knew our flight would be a little iffy because we only had a one-hour layover in Paris. The Charles de Gaulle airport is a disaster and we thought it could cause some issues. It was a lot closer than we would have liked. We landed just a little late and we ran into problems ad immigration. The French as not really good at immigration and it took forever. We got through right around when our flight was supposed to be taking off. Fortunately, several other passengers also had issues getting through immigration so they held the plane and we made it on. So we made it home on Sunday, but boy was it close. And our bags didn't make it. They actually ended up in LA for a couple of days, but eventually, we were reunited with them. We were less happy to leave the sunny Iberian peninsula and return to the eternal winter of Salt Lake City, but despite the snow, we were happy we made it back home safe and sound, feeling grateful for the amazing trip we had in Spain and Portugal.