Portugal and Spain 2026: May 9

Another storm last night, lots of rain, thunder and lightning.... and more rain but by the time we awoke the storm had passed just leaving cloudy skies.

Had another amazing breakfast and special coffees.... and a late start to the day.

Off to Lisbon (Lisboa) today. The skies cleared and it was actually a way better day than anticipated. Took the scenic route in along the ocean, super windy, lots of surfers on the ocean. Pretty sure the water is still cold here.

First stop, just on the outskirts of the city, super busy at the Jeronimus Monastery. So many buildings are under restoration, covered over with construction netting. Large lineups to go in to view, not a priority for us so enjoyed the view and moved on.

A short walk over to the Padrao dos Descobrimenta.

Tower of Belem, might be one of the few not under restoration

Took me a bit to snap this one with nobody in front of it.

Random door knocker along the way. The doors into the homes are so close to the streets and the narrow sidewalks it just seems like you are intruding.

So, made it into the city. Parking is at a premium so found some outside the Bastilica du Estrele. Thought we did great, paid $4.90 euro, until a very nice young local let us know it was free today, ...as well as we were about a 30 minute walk into the main area....no problem, we are both walkers...except the walk was straight down then straight up....its a very hilly city. Not a single straight street, so many one way streets, its like the maze of a shattered window and add that to walking on the small cubes of sandstone and basalt.... you gotta watch your step!

Great thing about walking is you get to see, hear and small the city....

Finally made it to the only flat area alongside the water front

Noticed in Portugal lots of smokers and alcohol is served and enjoyed everywhere. Every little convenience store, Cafe, snack shop, you name it, you can find it.

And this is the biggest and busiest food court. Its called Time Out Market, 30 of the top rated restaurants and bars in the city. Not a seat or standing room available!

Paca do Comercio, a large public square before heading into the maze of city streets again.

We were trying to find a few of the landmarks to go see, easier said than done. Narrow, hilly, spider-web maze of alleys, in and out, up and down, we could see up high the place we wanted to get to, but could only get to it...totally by accident! We thought parts of Croatia had a maze of streets, Lisbon has Croatia beat on that one. They talk about gettig lost in the Alfama Alleys, the oldest area of Lisbon..... and its very easy to do!

We had read to take the busy #28 Streetcar to experience the crazy hilly streets.... no need to as we walked it all!

Lots of old remnants of the tiled buildings.

Lots of murals in the city

So at this point we decided we needed to figure out how to walk back to the car. By our calculation, about an hour, up, down, around and back in the maze....thinking best to take the Google Map "vehicle" version and not the "foot" one.... and then the skies opened up, it poured and blew and the beautiful streets of small blocks of limestone and basalt....slippery as all heck!

We realized we were so far from ever making it back....quickly downloaded the Bolt App and Yuri to the rescue. Yuri was very informative, learned lots about the city and the affordability of living here.

Turns out it took 16 minutes by Bolt, $6.78 euro and a $5 tip...worth every cent... we made it back to our car...we would never have made it on foot...not happily or not dry!!!

The short storm passed so made a few stops on the way towards home.... we had other things on our list to see... not so important after all..

MAAT, museum of Art, Architecture and Technology

So the tiny hand laid blocks on the sidewalks, large market areas and even some streets in Lisbon and many cities in Portugal are made of hand laid tiles of white limestone and black basalt.... seeing a piece of it being laid really put it into perspective!

The enormity of what we had been seeing....wow. They estimate 5 to 6 million square meters in Lisbon alone! Apparently, if you laid these stones in a single line, they would wrap around the Earth roughly 3 times.

As much as Lisbon was interesting, we came and saw some, but not all of "must see places" .... the quiet of Cascais and Estoril is where we both find we will soak in the vibe of Portugal.

So back to Cascais for dinner. There are many many food places even in this small area. We are avoiding the places where they "herd you in with a large menu"...madame, sir....have a seat...enjoy a drink....yada yada....i spied a narrow little alleyway the other day that intrigued me.... and so glad we were able to find it again.

The service was great, the food was amazing and the atmosphere was comforting...some of the best tacos we have had...