We headed to Europe for an epic cruise vacation to six countries, five of which would be new to us. The trip began with an overnight flight from Toronto to Lisbon, with a bit of drama as our boarding passes initially read "Standby" because we paid for the flight but chose not to pay extra to pick our seats. We stood anxiously at the gate until someone finally appeared shortly before boarding, and thanks to his kindness we even managed to get seats together at the back of the plane in spite of a very full flight.
A pleasant seven hour flight and five time zones later, we were on the ground in Portugal, and into the longest customs line we have ever endured. We eventually hopped the Metro and took the Red line before transferring to the Blue line and our stop at Terreiro do Paco in the Alfama District. We met a nice woman from Belgium who was headed the same way, and she practiced her English while I practiced my French as we rode the subway.
After dropping our carry-on luggage at Varandas de Lisboa, too early to check in, we caffeinated and set off to explore. We had some lunch in the grand square Praca do Comercio, and then wandered the Baixa old town. Given that we only had one night here, we had arranged an evening tuk tuk tour of the more historic parts of the city (Baixa, Chiado, Bairro Alto and Alfama), in order to cover more ground in a short period of time in this steep and hilly place. We opted for the "Follow Tram 28" tour with Carlos, and between the scenery and the stories it was time and money well spent.....not to mention saving Jane's knees an awful lot of climbing!
We took some advice from Carlos, and had a great dinner at Solar dos Bicos, which unbeknownst to him happened to be right underneath our hotel! The next morning, we took another tip from Abdul at the hotel and found a "shortcut" up to the medieval castle atop Sao Jorge. Afterwards, we found a great quintessential hole-in-the-wall bar in Alfama (Amigo Antonio), where we enjoyed some food and drink as the locals do while talking to Antonio himself.
Our well-chosen hotel placed us a relatively short walk to the Santa Apolonia cruise terminal, where we boarded the Norwegian Star with surprising ease. Our time in Lisbon was far too short, but we knew we would be back - Saúde!
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