Lisbon - 22 June 2023

We had reached our hotel the evening before and had met up with our friends Christine and Graham to go out for a meal in the evening. Graham had found a small restaurant just opposite the hotel so we went to try that out. A very pleasant evening.

Today we had a fairly busy day planned, to get around to see parts of Lisbon that we hadn't seen on a previous 'drop-in' from a cruise.

We started the tour with a visit to a World Heritage site, the Jeronimos Monastery. We were very lucky to be on a tour and we had an allocated slot for entry. There were huge queues outside waiting to go in but we were admitted from a side door. Interesting building and exquisite architecture. 

The Belem Tower, by the Tagus River was the next stop. It was originally designed as a fort to protect the city from anyone approaching from the riverside. It was a lovely hot day and the riverside had many tourists and market stalls, plus some beautiful oleander trees in full bloom. We walked along the riverfront in the fantastic weather and then we visited a church and a stunning viaduct before going back to the hotel to grab some lunch. 

As we were going on a foodie trip in the afternoon we decided to just have coffee and cake for 'lunch' from a little café just a short walk away from the hotel. Great display of Portuguese patisserie, couldn't make up our minds which to choose so chose two and shared. Then we decided to have another coffee..................oh, and another two cakes!

After lunch we were taken to a covered food market towards the centre of Lisbon, the Mercado de Campo de Ourique. There were many wonderful stalls with vast arrays of different produce on display. We saw condiments and preserves, cheese and fruit (enormous fruit!) and many other local foodstuffs from Portugal. We tried out some of the local port at a bar within the market, served with olives and cheese from Portugal.

We were then taken to a restaurant to sample more food from Portugal. We were served a large variety of different savoury foods to try before we walked on to a different restaurant to be served sweet foods from the area. 

By the time we arrived back to the hotel we had just a short time to get changed and meet up with Christine and Graham to find some dinner. You won't believe it after our afternoon but we really enjoyed the evening meal too.