The last leg of our adventure has arrived. Our driver arrived a few minutes early, but we were ready and waiting. Off we went to Lisbon.

The drive took about forty-five minutes due to the traffic in the city. Lisbon has that big city look as you approach it. There are many taller apartment buildings, busier roads and more graffiti. We had to cross the city to get to the area we are staying in. We went from big wide avenues to smaller, narrow streets. From nicely paved roads to bumpy cobblestones streets. Quite different, indeed!

We are staying in the area of the city known as the Alfama. It is the oldest part of the city, having survived the devastating earthquake of 1755. The earthquake not only destroyed much of the original city, but the aftershocks and subsequent tsunami were felt as far away as Great Britain.

Our hotel is called the Memmo Alfama and is located in the historic center of the Alfama, near to the Lisbon Cathedral. We have a terrace room and although the room is not large, we have an outside sitting area that overlooks the terrace bar and has an awesome river view.

The hotel is quite nice and has such a relaxing vibe – especially the outside area.

Upon our arrival and after unpacking, we took advantage of the outdoor area. That was where we met our server and new friend, Monica. We had a bit of lunch and a bottle of wine while looking out over the river.

The ship that the folks we met in Sintra (Al and Terry) were taking was docked at the port. We were waiting to see them depart, but they didn’t leave until after we left the outdoor terrace.

We did get to see the Virgin Cruise ship ‘Resilient Lady’ arrive and ease into port. Fun to watch, since I have no plan to board a cruise ship anytime soon.

For our first evening, we went to Audrey’s Restaurant for dinner. It was a short uphill walk from our hotel, but the walk was well worth the reward.

When we arrived and were seated, there were live musicians performing and they were very good.

Our meals were once again delicious. You’re probably tired of hearing that phrase, but we really have not had a meal that was subpar anywhere so far.

As always, we ordered a bottle of wine. Sue had the grilled scallops and I had the grilled prawns with a mango sauce to start, then we both had the grilled cod for our main.

Having enjoyed our dinner, we walked back to the hotel. When we arrived, there was a bossa nova music performer on the terrace outside of our room. We stepped outside on our patio and enjoyed a second round of wonderful live music for the evening.

When he finished, we stepped inside and enjoyed a good night’s sleep.

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After preparing for the day, we went down and enjoyed a good breakfast. There were lots of choices available and additionally, they would prepare eggs, pancakes or crepes if you wished.

Now fueled for the day, we headed out to walk around.

Our area is hilly, so we started by heading down towards the cruise ships. Once we arrived on the lower level, it was relatively flat.

From closer up, the ships look even bigger. We walked around for a while and then started heading up. The one thing that we noticed was that many of the “souvenir” stores were all selling the same things and most of it was knock-offs made in China. There wasn’t much that you could say was made in Portugal.

However, we did notice individual upscale shops selling quality linens, towels and household tiles/fabrics that Portugal is world famous for.

We ended up near the cathedral and found a bench to do some people watching. We were sitting near where the tuk tuks park to pick up riders. We were talking to a really nice driver who had actually lived in Toronto for a couple years.

While sitting there, we were noticing the various people walking around. We laughingly called it “Foot Fetish Friday”. The vast majority of people were sensibly wearing sneakers or similar footwear. However, there were quite a few wearing flip flops, flat leather sandals, scuffs and even a couple pairs of heels – a podiatrist’s delight!

After sitting for a while, we continued our upward trek. There are two viewpoints or miradouros that we stopped at that give you a beautiful view of the surrounding area. The first was the Miradouro das Portas do Sol.

The second and most popular one – Miradouro de Santa Luzia -provided beautiful views all around and down to the river. The red tiled roofs were in stark contrast to the cloudy grey skies.

I guess the clouds thought enough people were out to be impacted by the slippery cobblestones, so it began to drizzle rain. We started to head back to the hotel and decided to just relax before dinner.

We were able to find a weather protected table on the terrace, so we enjoyed a little happy hour before getting ready to go to dinner.

Dinner was at a restaurant that was fairly close to the hotel. It was called Casa Tradição and we loved it.

We went with tasting menu and wine pairings and couldn’t have been happier. It was nine courses in total with six small pours of wine.

What an unexpected surprise dinner turned out to be! The wine pairings were all spot on too.

There was a quirky older couple from the UK seated next to us who we chatted a bit with. They were very nice and well traveled, with some travel adventures that they shared. Comparatively, I felt like our adventures were very mundane. I wanted to say that once, we were served warm rosé. 😉

It was just a short walk home and we just relaxed for a while before heading to dreamland. Tomorrow starts our last weekend in Portugal.