I suppose I am too easy, but I have a habit of falling in love with each new city I visit. Lisbon is no exception, as I have fallen in love again. The weather is gorgeous, warm days and cool nights, with intensely blue skies. The colors are striking: so many buildings are painted in bright pastels. The city is hilly, which means there is a new vista around every corner.
Another nice thing about those miradouros, or scenic overlooks, is that there's usually a restaurant or kiosk where you can buy a beer or glass of wine to enjoy with the view.
We've walked from our neighborhood, Graça, down Rua de Sao Tome to Alfama, then on to Baixa, the commercial center. We walked to Rossio and up Avenida Liberdade, then to Socarro. We got on Tram #28 and rode it all the way from one endpoint, Martim Moniz, to the other, at Praça São João Bosco.
We took Tram #15 to Belém and went to the top of the Monument to the Discoveries. We walked to the Torre de Belém, through the park, along the waterfront, and back to the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, where we caught the tram to come back home.
One thing we've noticed is that so many people here speak English. We try our few phrases of Portuguese, but we're always able to switch to English. The only real difficulty, as usual, is translating menus; fish dishes often have no exact English equivalents.
Another thing we've noticed is that food is inexpensive here. Restaurant meals are half what they were in Belgium, where we visited in January, and grocery prices are ridiculously cheap.
And about those custards, I will save all that for another blog post.
If you're wondering what it all looks like, my Flickr photos are here.
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