As many of you know the bestie Boo and I go away on city breaks frequently through the year. We have so far concentrated on Eastern Europe (Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic) where mostly we have had Wintry weather.
This time we decided to have a bit of a difference and booked a break in the beautiful City of Lisbon. Boo booked us a fantastic hotel for 4 nights and we set off from Heathrow early on a Saturday morning.
Sadly I had been manically busy at work the whole week previous to the trip and packed my case in the early hours of Friday morning. I was going to be staying at Boo’s house on Friday night as we needed to head to the airport at 4am!
This was where I had a brain fritz moment. Being so used to travelling to wintery climes, I packed accordingly. Thermal leggings, thick socks, gloves, scarf and such like. I wore a thick dress, long boots and I had cleverly put thermal insoles in them for added warmth.
On the Flight
We arrived in Portugal mid-morning. It was already 17 degrees outside and I immediately started to swelter. I really hadn’t put thought into this one at all!
Almost there….
Anyway, we arrived at the Real Palacio Hotel around lunchtime and our rooms weren’t ready. The hotel took our bags and we thought we might have a bit of a walk around and find somewhere to eat.
Asking the concierge if this was possible, he told us to take a right out of the hotel and walk down until we hit a main road. At the first roundabout go left and keep going and we would hit the waterside.
Well that sounded ok and off we set.
What he failed to mention was just how far away the sea was!
After walking for around 20 minutes we had only just hit the roundabout. We continued on and on….
Stunning Architecture
Eventually we gave up after a 45 minute walk and as soon as we found a cafe, we sat down for some lunch and a drink. I also managed to take out the thermal insoles from my boots as I was now a sweaty hot mess. Having a long cold beer with my lunch was perfect given the weather and the long walk.
Well Earned!
Finishing off lunch we walked a little further through the City. Finding one of Pastelerias we popped in to see what goodies they had, including the Pastel de Nata for which it is famous for. Boo was keen to give the small custard tarts a go, but I gravitated towards something that looked like a large millefeuille.
Christmas Stalls
We decided to take our goodies back to the hotel for later and as it was such a trek back we got an Uber right to the front door. Our room was now ready so we headed up to the 6th floor, unpacked and then chilled out for a little while.
Lovely room!
Eventually it was time to have another venture out and we wanted to head over to the sea front. Deciding this time to take the Metro, we worked out really quickly that the Metro was both simple, cheap and easy to navigate. We hopped on the train for half a dozen stops and walked out directly onto the Waterfront.
Twinkling Tree
This waterfront is actually the River Tagus but it is so wide it could almost be the sea. When we arrived it was dark and we had actually arrived at the Praca do Comercio, one of the main squares which was pretty busy and had a huge electrical Christmas tree in the middle.
Praca do Comercio
We wandered down the river looking at sand sculptures, listening to buskers and taking in the atmosphere.
Colour Changing Lights
There was a whole avenue lit up with colour changing lights. It was really pretty and very effective too.
The River Tagus
Eventually we headed back to the hotel as we didn’t want to wear ourselves out on the first day (and my knee was suffering quite badly). We headed into the wine bar and ordered a couple of drinks to finish the evening off and it was thoroughly enjoyable.
Cool Table
We ended up having an early night as there was a lot planned for the next day and we wanted to make sure we were at our best…
Till the next time,
SPSG xxx