Lisbon - March 1, 2026

 On our first full day, we set off to explore the Baixa neighbourhood of Lisbon. We hoped to get to the vegan food festival that we had stumbled across on Instagram, and we had booked a Fado concert to wrap up the day.

After a relaxed breakfast, we wandered down to the ferry dock.  After taking the boat across the Tagus, we wandered east along the river to the Praça do Comercio - a large cobbled plaza surrounded by striking, palatial buildings. My husband revelled in the warm temperatures, having escaped the ongoing Canadian winter to meet me here.


We remembered that we hadn't sent a photo of our reunion to send to family back home, so took a quick selfie and then wandered the plaza to take in the architecture.

W


Crossing through the archway, we entered the busy urban heart of Lisbon and my husband patiently stopped every time something caught my eye and I pulled out my camera.







It was still rather early to indulge in alcohol, but we decided that the rules don't apply on vacation when we came across a little ginja bar!


By now we were ready for lunch, so we made use of Lisbon's excellent transit system to head into the east end of the city, past the port. As we walked up the street toward the venue, we spotted people carrying boxes and bags of their haul and hoped that there would still be plenty left for us. We needn't have worried. I had found my people - and there were endless choices!


We wandered past the stalls to make our choices, then we started piling plates with plant-based perfection!




Pleasantly stuffed, we travelled back to Baixa and continued our exploration. There was something beautiful or interesting around every corner.





After hours of walking, we chose a park with a beautiful view into Alfama to rest for a while.



Still stuffed from lunch, we grabbed a couple quick smoothies before heading to the concert. Sipping a glass of red Portuguese wine, we enjoyed several vocal and instrumental pieces that showcased the unique guitar stylings and mournful tones of this UNESCO-recognized musical tradition.




We strolled back through the darkened Baixa and took the ferry back to Alfama for a late dinner and a chat about our next day's adventures.



























Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cabo Verde: Hiking the Calabaceira

Image
 Our time in Cabo Verde was drawing to a close, and we had one more adventure to complete. Bu Country Tours had engaged a driver and a local guide to take us on a trek down the Calabaceira valley to Cidade Velha - the original Portuguese settlement on the island. Leaving the city, we drove to a small cliff-top settlement overlooking a lush, green valley and clambered down a rocky trail to some small farms at the trailhead. We passed abandoned buildings from the earliest settlement and active farms where valley residents grew bananas, mangos and other fruit and raised livestock.  Tramping along on the dusty stone, we enjoyed views of beautiful trees and deep blue sky, and spotted a brave Grey Headed Kingfisher who obligingly posed for my camera. Halfway along our trek we came to an enormous baobab tree, its trunks woven together to create a cave-like space large enough to fit all of us. I had read that Charles Darwin visited this very tree on his travels to Cabo Verde in 1832, ...
Read more

First impressions

Image
 Dakar is a city of stark contrasts.  It is the dusty season, so the air is gritty and redolent with exhaust from passing cars. Yet walking by the busy port you get a fresh breeze.  The sky is blue over the city. Birds sing cheerfully while stray dogs and cats roam and look for food or affection. Crumbling buildings and vacant lots are intermingled with more well-kept structures. The Presidential Palace glistens a luxurious white at the end of the street, while down the block in the other direction street-side vendors sell their wares out of ramshackle sheds built from corrugated metal.   The roads are pocked with holes and there are few sidewalks, yet when you leave the street to enter a cafe or shop they appear newly renovated. In one case, the shelves one one side of the epicerie were literally receiving a coat of varnish as we browsed produce across the floor.  The ocean is a deep blue and where there are trees they are lush. Flowers pour over walls that nee...
Read more

Travels with "Senegal Expeditions" - Part Three

Image
 Another early breakfast at 7 a.m., bags packed, so we could hit the road early. It's game day, and no one in this car wants to miss the match, especially our Senegalese guide and chauffeur! But the sunrise had gilded Saint Louis in gorgeous light that we just had to capture with our cameras. A short distance from Saint Louis, our driver stopped again so that we could admire a group of golden monkeys gathered outside a community building. Some of them approached the car cautiously as they sometimes receive treats from passing vehicles. I didn't have anything appropriate for them to eat, but enjoyed snapping some photos. (Only my phone was handy, so they aren't as sharp as I'd like. In the second photo you can just see the arms of a baby held agains its mama's chest, holding tight. We took a different route to head back to Dakar so that we could stop at Lac Rose (the Pink Lake), with the benefit of enjoying different landscapes. This area is the "garden of Seneg...
Read more