Nothing better than a mother and daughter visit to Lisbon. How can I have never been to Lisbon at my ripe old age??? We decided on a last minute trip there as she had to take some time off before losing it and whilst it seemed initially like an unnecessary extravagance, one of my closest, oldest friends had just had the terrible news that her closest, oldest friend (aged 58) had been killed in a car crash in Kenya. It just makes you sit up and think. Or certainly, it made me sit up and think “f*ck the money, I’ll worry about that when I’m dead.” So I decided to spend the money on us having a good time. So what? You can (hopefully) replace the money somehow, you can’t replace the time spent making memories together. Time on the planet is far more precious than anything else and not only did we laugh for four days solid, we forgot about all our concerns back home and you can never put a price on that.
We had an AMAZING four days together. Such a cool city, such lovely people, such a lot to drink and eat. March is a good time for a city break – especially if you choose somewhere that can get too hot in the height of the summer to walk around. It was the perfect temperature for us to meander around. We were really lucky with the weather. One cloudy day and the rest was sunny! My daughter even burnt her shoulders a little. It’s a very easy city to navigate – lots of public transport – trams and Uber’s and taxis a plenty. We discovered the city mainly by walking around. I was basically ten paces behind her at all times because it’s got so many steep streets and I struggled to keep up! It’s no surprise it’s not a city full of bicycles like Amsterdam – not only is it full of hills, but it has tram tracks along many of the major roads. The plus side is that it has many splendid roof top views of the city – which I pretended to admire endlessly as I stopped to catch my breath!
We barely did anything cultural – a friend of mine pointed out that we could look at the museums online – you can’t do that with the food and drink – so it was a gastro-fest we went for and I’m still feeling full!
As per usual, I took a lot of photos, so here’s a breakdown of what we did day by day in the form of a photo diary:-
DAY ONE
After an incredibly early flight where I made my daughter get to the airport so early that departures in general hadn’t even opened when we got to the airport at 3.15am. The flight was 2 hours and 20 minutes and then it was a 20 minute taxi ride to our hotel and we still had the whole day ahead of us. We’d chosen the glorious Pestana Palace Hotel – a little bit out of the city centre which was peaceful and luxurious. I’d specifically chosen it because not only did they have a deal on, but they had an outdoor pool. Of course that was still closed for the winter as it turned out. But it also has an indoor pool we barely used, although it was lovely. The hotel is located in a restored 19th Century palace – a wonderful old national monument that has been spruced up and expanded by the Pestana group. The staff were all lovely and bent over backwards to help us. Our room was available but it had a king size bed. Not the answer for us. So they found us a twin room that we had to wait for so we immediately went off walking.
Our wonderful hotel:-
The hotel is located near the waterfront and not too far from the Belém Tower. First we found our way to the LX Factory – a very cool creative area full of independent shops and restaurants:-
From there we wandered down to the marina – plenty of empty restaurants given the weather. We found a small unassuming café for our first meal out and then headed back to the hotel (uphill, so rather slowly). After a much needed snooze, we sat on the glorious terrace, had an aperitif in the sunshine and took a very easy (five euro) Uber into town.
We went straight to the restaurant that had been on everyone’s “go to” list, the Taberna da rua das Flores and put our name on the waiting list. It was about an hour and a half’s waiting time, which was perfect as we headed up to the square to wander around and find some cash as it was a cash only restaurant. We found a lovely bar where we could watch the world go by. The restaurant only had 10 tiny tables and a relatively small list of 10 sharing plates. Unbelievably delicious though. Ceviche and octopus bao buns (I would never usually eat octopus as I have a massive thing about it but it was between that or veal or oysters! The food was delicious as was the wine and the staff were absolutely lovely.
I know this photo looks a little insensitive with the open ambulance in the background, but that was actually where the fire engines and ambulances were based, so they thankfully weren’t busy at the time:-
Yuk, that poor little octopus tentacle trying to escape:-
One thing I’ve realised in my old age is that when I’m on holiday I don’t like taking control of the itinerary and directions. She’s pretty good at that and of course with all the Instagram reels and friends she has that have lived and worked in Lisbon it was very easy to just defer to her and go with the flow. I was very happy to not have to be in charge and just followed in her wake.
DAY TWO
We got a lift into town via the free hotel transport and then walked downhill to the central area. She’d booked us in for lunch at the Taberna Sal Grosso – a restaurant my son had recommended. That 2pm booking structured our day and the weather wasn’t great that day either so we shopped (at Zara) in the morning and walked to the restaurant from there.
In the evening we went to the LX Factory area for supper via a really fun little impromptu gig in one of the pretty gardens along the way. Very family orientated and lively.
DAY THREE
After another delicious breakfast we walked to the Belém Tower which took about 40 minutes from the hotel but it’s along a very pretty promenade by the river (I would have said it was the sea, but apparently it’s not). It’s a fascinating 16th Century fortification – of course we didn’t go in because that would have involved tickets and queuing, but it was worth the walk just to see it from the outside.
We then went off to find the café that serves the original Pastel de natas – established in 1837 Pasties de Belem where they have cleverly set up a take-away option where you can savour their secret recipe of warm, delicious Portuguese essentials. A massive favourite of my daughter’s – she was in heaven.
We visited the Time Out Market where we had some croquettes and Pink Street right next door later in the day:-
Another recommendation for supper that we booked early so that we could find a bar to watch the final 6 Nations rugby match between England and France was Rosetta’s. A small plates restaurant run by a Frenchman. Excellent food. There I am waving at the window:-
We then went to a sports bar and watched the very exciting game surrounded by young French men and loads of Irish men – who had been watching the game before. All a little traumatic as both of them were desperate for England to lose. “Putant les Rosbifs” one of them said in all of the excitement behind me so I told him I could understand what they were saying and it wasn’t very nice! After that we all made friends and had a really wonderful time telling them how sad we were because of Brexit.
We had a drink in Pink Street – busy and lively. We’d tried a few roof top bars as that’s a great way to watch the sun go down but they were all busy.
DAY FOUR
We had a late flight in the evening so managed to squeeze another full day out of our trip. We got up early and had our last excellent breakfast.
The weather was glorious. We got a taxi to The Elevador de Santa Justa – one of the city’s most famous sights where my daughter had heard about a hack to get up to the viewing platform without having to queue. We were to take a lift in a nearby shop – as it happens that lift was blocked (clearly owing to too many people knowing about it), but instead we walked up behind the tower, around the corner and back down to the back of it where you could walk up some steps and wander around at the top. It meant we didn’t get to go in the lift, but that was OK – the views of the city from the platform were fabulous. We had a drink in the square at the top instead and basked in the warm sunshine drinking shandy’s (or panaché as they call them there apparently, even though that’s the French version too).
We then wandered about, back down to the waterfront where there are lots of bars and sights to see and got a taxi to another recommended restaurant called Faz Frio – again, a small space with small plates, but some of the best food we had and a really friendly interesting manager (from Bristol). We had the most delicious chocolate mousse (I know, it doesn’t look great, but trust me, it was divine). And the icing on the cake? As we walked back in to pay after having our final drink outside “Pata Pata” our family song started playing and it made us feel like my parents (her grandparents) were sending us a message of joy and happiness:-
We headed back to the hotel just in time to pack (the hotel very kindly gave us a late checkout) and headed to the airport – tired and full, but very happy. The flight was excellent and for some bizarre reason we got upgraded – so it was an excellent flight back.
Things we didn’t do:-
Ride the No. 28 tram
Go to Meson Adaluz for the paella
Go the the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian
Go to the monastary
Go to the castle
Eat sardines
Watch the sunset
Head down the coast
BUT OH WELL – you can’t do everything. It just means we will have to go back!
