Day two of our trip was Sunday and we had a full day planned. Bus tours, trams, sights to see and maybe even a boat trip.
Waiting for a bus
Boo had planned for us to get tickets on the hop on – hop off bus and see some of the sights of Lisbon. There was a stop about a 5 minute walk from our hotel so we walked there mid morning ready to get on the bus. It was due to arrive every 20 minutes and we were the only people waiting.
Twenty minutes passed. Then thirty. More people had arrived but no bus had at all. There were now seven of us waiting so surely we couldn’t all be wrong about it being the right place. We didn’t want to leave the bus stop as surely that would be when the bus would arrive.
After 45 minutes there was still no sign. There were now 15 of us waiting at the bus stop with most of them being Brazilian. Boo had decided to go onto the bus website to see if there was any information as to what was going on.
View from the bus stop!
This is when we found out just how laidback and uninformative the Portuguese are!
There was a live chat facility and Boo decided to make use of it. The lady was very point of fact when she told us that the bus stop was out of use for the day! When Boo questioned why, we were told ‘it’s the Lisbon Marathon today. You should have known this!’
Well, none of the 15 people at the stop knew this and there was absolutely no information anywhere in Lisbon, on the tourist information site or the bus site!
We were told we needed to walk down to Marques de Pombol and we should be able to get a bus from there. Boo did an amazing job of trying to communicate this to the others waiting at the stop. It obviously worked as all 15 set off on foot towards Marques de Pombol!
Eventually we got there and asked a bus representative (from another company) if they could help. He told us that a lot of the bus stops were closed due to the Marathon and to head down to the Praca do Comercio as there was a yellow bus office there. He helpfully told us what public transport to get and so we set off.
Sadly the bus we got on terminated before the Praca….. because of the Marathon! Walking a bit more we hit the Praca and the bus office. Sadly the guy there didn’t really care and told us to email the head office.
At this point we decided to get a drink and sit down for a little while and then look at our options. There were many cafes to choose from so we sat, cheered on the runners and had a cold drink. One of the options was to carry on as we were or cancel the tickets and go with another company.
White Sangria
The yellow bus had the best routes and extras so eventually we calmed down and decided to stick with what we had. We had got a bit peckish so found an Italian restaurant to have some food. I went with a stunning carbonara and Boo had pizza.
Pesto Bread
There was a bus due soon that would take us on the orange route which was the longest and furthest out towards the modern part of Lisbon with the aquarium and harbour.
Modern Lisbon
We sat looking at all the sights but decided not to get off as there wasn’t much there that we wanted to see. Eventually we made it back to the centre of town and had a bit of a mooch about.
We planned to get on one of the old wooden trams that went up some of the hills of Lisbon to get some views and see the castle and cathedral whilst up there.
Tram Ride
The cost of the trams were included in our bus ticket so we hopped on and plugged our earphones in to hear the commentary. Half way up a huge hill the tram ground to a stop. And stayed there.
Stuck.
Looking back down the hill we could see more cars and tram all stuck on a steep incline. Horns were beeping and no-one was going anywhere.
After around 10 minutes we slowly started to move. Basically a car had stopped at the side of the street to pop into a shop and had blocked the tram tracks and that was why no-one could move. We came to realise this was a common occurrence in Lisbon!
Decorations
Getting up to the top of the hill was fantastic. The views were lovely but as there would be a massive wait for another tram down, we chose not to get off and decided we would go back up there on another of the days.
We had popped into Sephora and bought some face and feet products so made our way home for a pamper whilst watching Disney films.
Sephora does it again
Do we know how to live, or what?
Living Life
More installments to come soon
Till then,
SPSG xxx