Day 30: Evora to Lisbon

Time to move on again! We weren't due to arrive at our Airbnb in Lisbon until 2pm or so, and it wasn't a long drive away, so we decided to spend a bit more time wandering around Evora after some pastries for breakfast. We had a good wander, took some more photos and did some more filming, then headed back to the car just after midday.

Lisbon was about 150km away, so about 1 1/2 hours drive on the freeway, though it had an unexpectedly high toll - 9 euros! Lucky we could pay with card, as I didn't have any cash on me. Crossed into the city from the south via an enormous bridge, identical in appearance to the Golden Gate, and found our way to our Airbnb. It's a nice little apartment with a big backyard - a nice change from having to get dressed properly to take Schnitzel outside! Bedroom a little on the small side but the living area is really nice.

Had a late lunch of soup and a savoury pastry in a coffee shop adjacent, then set out for a wander! We headed down to the waterfront and walked west, checking out the sites. First stop was of course the UNESCO-listed Monastery of the Heironymites, one of the few buildings in this area to survive the gigantic earthquake of 1755. It's also where Portuguese egg tarts were invented!

We took turns looking at the interior, though we couldn't go right into the cloister as it was ticketed and late in the day for a proper look around. Stopped at an outdoor bar for a drink, then walked further west to the Tower of Belem, which again is a rare pre-1755 building. It was a guard tower set up at the entrance to the harbour, intended to shore up the defence of the city, though the first time it was used in anger it surrendered within a couple of hours! Very picturesque though, and lovely late afternoon sun.

Schnitzel was getting near constant attention in a way that he hadn't in Spain - I guess dogs or at least dachshunds are less common here? At one point a crowd of 7-8 people were huddled around him, patting and cooing. He just takes it all in stride, though I'm not sure how interested he is in everything.

Given that it'd been a long afternoon of walking to reach this point (probably 3km away from our apartment), we ended up getting a taxi back for the princely sum of 4 euros. Relaxed in the apartment for a bit before heading to a local restaurant we'd seen earlier in the day. Had a great meal of nachos and roast pork with couscous and a couple of wines. Also had a good chat with the owner who spoke excellent English and had been to Sydney a couple of times!

I've noticed as well that English seems more widely spoken here than in Spain - I guess there's a lot of places in the world where Spanish is very useful, but outside of here and Brazil the same isn't true of Portuguese! So maybe they put more effort into learning some English. I haven't made headway into learning any Portuguese, it's similar enough to Spanish to confuse me, but with some very different sounds included too which I just can't imitate.Read more