Travels with my Wife

Hanging Hams

This morning the weather does not look bright but I get down to Rossio which is adjacent to the hotel to find that the battery in my big camera is flat. I have time so return to the room and pick up my portable charger and start recharging it in my pocket. By the time I return to Jackie it is starting to spit and the rain then continues the rest of the time we are out of the hotel.

Our guide – of Chilean origin and a lawyer who decided to change his life post covid and has resettled in Lisbon – gives us a little history of Portugal and Lisbon before taking us around some local outlets to show us the food.

Up first is a pork sandwich and so far the rain is not too bad. Tasty pork – which has to be taken with the famous piri piri sauce – Jackie feels I am adding too much – but the drops are very small and only about half the recommended eight drops – so just enough for a taste rather than drowning the pork. The pork is accompanied by some white wine – so the morning is off to a good start, well it is five o’clock somewhere after all.

We keep passing the Bastardo fish restaurant – but it is not one we visit – I have to hope it has a different meaning in Portuguese. Our next stop is another glass of wine to accompany the cod fish balls which are cod and potato. The rain continues to fall.

Lisbon alcohol

A stop for some port is only to be expected in Portugal and whilst this is before lunch it proves acceptable – although we stand outside we are just about undercover – sadly the rain keeps on raining down.

Now time for something a little more substantial as we need to soak up some of the alcohol and therefore lunch.

Around the corner it is time for Ginjinha – which is not gin but is in fact a sweet cherry liqueur from a bar with that name which is just across the way from our hotel. A lot of people appear to stop off for a quick one on their way past. This time we shelter in the miniscule space in front of the bar – that rain is still falling.

We have one further stop – which is some distance away and requires the use of a lift. Without realising it the rain is worse and it is now penetrating my light jacket to the point that when I arrive at the final stop for cheese and meat boards I am completely soaked. I remove my coat and as we are there some time I have time to dry out a little. Until we return to the hotel and am soaked through again. That coat has lost all water-proofing and is little use in the rain in future.

I hang up my shirt to dry out as well.

Heathrow T5

This morning we head off to Heathrow and once again we are using the pod parking, for the first time in daylight and because it is pretty full this morning we park close to the B station. Car parked we trundle along the podway to Terminal 5, this is just such a simple way of accessing the airport. Bag drop is relatively quick but security less so. Then an interminable wait until we are told we are departing from B gates, so take the underground transit out to the B gates.

A nearly full flight but we load well and are ready to back off the stand seven minutes ahead of expected departure time, not that we do although we are soon away. A good flight down to Lisbon where we are terminated on a stand away from the main building so it is a bus into the terminal.

Bags collected we head outside to the metro terminus and descend to the departure platform of the metro which provides a good service into the City Centre. We travel to the end of the red line at Sao Sebastien and then change to the blue line for Restauradores. The lifts are a bit of a pain when we change (as we have cases) and it is worse at Restauradores – both the upward escalator and the lift are out of action. Even worse there are no lifts from the underground ticket hall to street level so we have to slowly ascend the stairs. It was obvious in Turin that at the main station (and there is a main station just around the corner which we shall use later in the week) that there were lifts from the metro to street level – their absence is surprising.

Bonjardim

Our hotel is immediately adjacent to the exit rom the station which is welcome and we are soon in an excellent room in the Avenida Palace Hotel. It is now late afternoon so some unpacking and then we have planned to go to a very local restaurant – Bonjardim – which has been serving spit roast chicken since the early fifties if I remember correctly. Potentially the original peri peri chicken came from here and they certainly provide a peri peri sauce to add to the chicken. We arrive and almost immediately a significant queue forms up behind us so very lucky timing. Many of the later arrivals are accommodated indoors whereas given the warmth we are able to sit outside and enjoy the entertainment provided by a dancer who appears and does a couple of dances and then goes round making a small collection to which we add funds.

An excellent meal and an interesting discussion with the tables either side – Americans who have moved to Portugal in one case and a Canadian on his travels around Europe.

Month: February 2025

Lisbon / Sintra 27.2.25

Lisbon / Sintra 26.2.25