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.