The next day in Lisbon was Tuesday and we were going to be doing a bit more touring on the bus. In fact we were heading back to Belem as we hadn’t seen a lot of it after Mondays horse parading shenanigans.

As before, we left the hotel and headed for the bus stop, this time going in the opposite direction to normal. It was a pretty lovely day weather wise and we sat on the top of the bus again.

The plan for the tour was to take in the whole of the bus line that we didn’t get to do on Monday. However we were going to stay on the bus rather than get on and off. Literally a non-stop look around.

It was great to see a different side to what we had on Monday. There was a pretty huge queue outside the Pasteis de Belem. It was very tempting to get off and have another toastie sandwich but we had place to go, things to see.

Always a queue

Obviously there is not a lot I can talk about as we literally sat on a bus and listened to the commentary for the first part of the day! I can share a whole load of pictures though!

The Portuguese Christ the Redeemer

Voyage monument

A legacy – Portuguese tiles

Portuguese Tiles

The old Viaduct

Belem

Once we had finished the bus tour, we ended up back in the centre of the City. We were pretty hungry after all that hard work sitting down so we headed back to an Italian restaurant we had already tried lunch. We knew that there would be something for Boo and I could literally eat the whole menu with no worries.

On our first visit to La Vita è Bella I had ordered Focaccia with pesto dip which actually came out as a flat pesto covered pizza base with an additional dip. We didn’t question it, just assumed that Portugal had a different ‘opinion’ on what Focaccia was! Anyway it was so very good that we ordered two lots as Boo had also enjoyed it too.

Cheers!

We were pretty disappointed when two large lumps of actual Focaccia and a pesto dip came out!

I took a bite but it just didn’t hit the spot. Now as someone who hates making a fuss especially in a restaurant, I just had to ask the waitress about it. Explaining what we had the previous visit, she went on to tell us that on that day they didn’t have any Focaccia so gave us the pizza bread instead (see what I mean about no explanations in Lisbon)

I asked if it was possible to have that again and she was very gracious and took away what we had been given and five minutes later we had piping hot pesto pizza bread. Delish!

Oh yes!

For my main course I had gone for the supreme royalty of pasta dishes; Linguine prepared in the form of Grana Padano with cream, Porcini mushrooms, San Daniele ham and truffle oil.

Basically hot pasta put into a huge cheese wheel and mixed around getting all the flavours and melted cheese from the wheel. It looked amazing!

I watched as the waitress put a huge dollop of pasta into the innards of the wheel and start mixing around. The smells were heavenly and I was salivating.

The Beautiful Cheese!

When she served 3 beautiful mounds of cheese coated pasta, it was like all my birthdays and Christmas mornings had arrived at once. For those who know me, Cheese IS life!

OH MY GOD!

I am sad to say that the pasta didn’t last as long as I wanted it to. I literally inhaled it. If I didn’t have a tummy the size of a sparrow (an in-joke with friends and family) I could have ordered a second portion.

Yes, it was THAT good.

After finishing our food we headed back out to the old tram line again with the intention of heading up the hills and having a walk around and to pop into Lisbon Cathedral.

The ride up was fantastic again and we got off at the same stop as a previous visit. This meant we knew just how far it was to walk to the Cathedral and more importantly in which direction!

The Se

Now given that Portugal is a heavily Catholic region we expected the Cathedral to be highly decorated in a similar way to many other Catholic churches and Cathedrals we have visited in other Countries.

We were therefore quite surprised to see it was plainer than we were used to. The walls and ceiling were smooth stone without decoration.

That isn’t to say it wasn’t beautiful. It was perfect in its simplicity and of course there were parts which had stunning decor and accoutrements.

Finally we left the area and took the decision to walk down the hills rather than get transport back. Even with my dodgy knee I actually really enjoyed the stroll.

On the way down….

We actually needed to get back to the centre as we had an evening activity planned, Fado.

Fado is the historic music and singing style in Portugal. It is so revered that it has been given a protected status by UNESCO.

About to start

Fado usually consists of a classic guitar and a Portuguese guitar along with male and female singers. We went to a performance called Fado in Chiado which was set in a building in the centre of town. We were really lucky as we were treated to both a female and a male singer who did individual songs and a couple of duets.

To be honest I was just happy listening to live music. The Portuguese guitar was very unusual; It was shaped more like a lute with a rounded back, was much smaller almost like a mandolin and had twelve strings!

Fado explanation

The male singer was quite a handsome chap and sang of love and loss, memories and joy. The female singer was beautiful and had a haunting quality to her voice; almost like a French chanteuse.

Very entertaining

It was a fantastic experience and although it was not overly full in the auditorium, we made up for it with enthusiasm.

Stunning

After the show we headed back to the hotel to chill out and get ready for our last day. Opting to head to the restaurant for something to eat I finally got to try some of the Portuguese specialities; Pasteis de Bacalhau, Black pudding pastries with apple and cinnamon and samosas of salted cod with azeitão cheese.

To be honest I really like the salted cod and the pasteis but I was not a fan of the black pudding at all. However, the pastry was great so I scraped the pudding out and just ate that.

Lisbon specialities

Boo had the only vegetarian option available that evening which was deep fried vegetables with a garlic mayonnaise which actually was pretty good.

Crunchy!

We finished off and went to our room for our guilty pleasures…. Yep more Disney films!

Wednesday was the final day and we needed to pack our stuff and plan what we were going to do before resting our weary heads.

Till next time,

SPSG xxx