LIsbon - day 2

Ok, we have decided to do a walking tour with Chill - Out walking tours (free) which start at 10:00am. We stagger out of bed and head towards the square where it begins. As we arrive at the square, we notice a bakery, so we duck in and grab two coffees (espressos) and two egg/sausage sandwiches on croissants and one of the famous Lisbon custard tarts. Dang, that was tasty.

Ok, we join the Chill-Out folks and meet Nuno who is our tour guide. Awesome fellow - he precedes to take. Us on a 4 hour walking tour of all the old neighborhoods of Lisbon. Knows everything - his English is better than ours. First rate experience! Did you know that the earthquake that leveled Lisbon in 1755 was 8x greater than the one that hit Japan recently? Over 9 on the Richter scale. Many Lisboans fled to the large squares near the river, only to be drowned by a Tsunami. The largest earthquake to ever hit Europe.

After the tour, we wander down the hill and stop in a restaurant that is offering a lunchtime special. Ok, but not excited about it. Think we bought into the tourist trap scene. Heading further down the hill into Alfama, we decide to catch the 28 Tram which covers much of Lisbon. Just getting on is an adventure - every tourist wants to ride this - as well as some locals. So we had to wait till a 2nd and 3rd tram comes along before we can squeeze on. Now we careen off through the old boroughs of Lisbon on this herky jerky machine till we finally come close to a church where we get off and stop briefly in a market to grab some apples (major dehydration - 8o degrees out - too much wine, etc). After checking out the church, we look at Google Maps and notice a restaurant that we had saved back when we were in Winston - decided that we could walk there. So after a few more hills, we arrive at this little restaurant where they're grilling fish and steaks.. About the time we're entering, a Canadian couple is entering just ahead of us - they sit down and then see us and I guess they figured we looked friendly and the lady asked if they could sit with us. Of course we said yes1. Ordered up some more Green wine (young wine with bubbles) from the north of Portugal and ordered grilled Sea Bass and grilled Perch and had some bread,butter and olives. Delicious - had some sort of pudding for dessert - also very tasty. Our friends left to get some money for a tip (no credit cards here) but as we were leaving, they showed back up with a bottle of wine in hand and asked us to come join them down the block at their AirBnb. We cracked open a Bottle of Lisbon Red and hashed over politics and health care, then exchanged email addresses and Janet and I headed back through twisty streets with the help of Google maps on my phone to arrive back at the apt at 12:04 a.m. Finishing this at 12:24. Do you know how hard this is to do after two bottles of wine? Holy Mackerel ! (Hmmm - that might taste good grilled too!)Read more