Lisbon April 14 – 18, 2024

A historic land of hills, fado*, beautiful vistas and architecture, previously unsampled but delicious wine and food and an ever increasing focus on tourism. We lucked out on the weather front – temperatures in the 70’s. Thanks to our traveling companion Chris (traveling with her daughter, Jamie), who arranged a private guide for the day, we also had a great trip to Sintra – about which we knew next to nothing.

Lisbon is more hilly than San Francisco – and the flatlanders from Fairfield and Sonoma got a workout. We started paying attention to the elevation gain when we researched a place to eat or visit. Ron said pretty recently that his calves had finally stopped hurting.

*fado – mournful songs

Hotel in Lisbon – yes – there was an elevator!

Our hotel was quite close to the sea and to one of the biggest plazas in Europe.

Looking back through the arch towards the plaza – a typical street:

On the edge of the plaza, we visited a tourist oriented “discovery center” (though there were a lot of school groups there as well) that had a multimedia walk-through show which, among other events, simulated the horrific earthquake of 1755. The article in Wikipedia covers it in detail – another event about which I knew nothing. You would think, being a Californian, I might have learned about it sometime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1755_Lisbon_earthquake

The earthquake lasted 3 1/2 to 6 minutes.
Many people who weren’t crushed (in various churches, among other places, since it was All Saints day) fled to the coast where they were then washed away with the tsunami.
Many who survived that were burned to death because of all the candles, lit for the holiday, that caught the city on fire.
Estimated deaths may have been as high as 40,000.
The king and prime minister were determined to rebuild and they did. That effort, in and of itself was remarkable. The layout of today’s city is because of their efforts.
It became a pivot point in the study and science of seismology – and, as you can imagine, prompted all sorts of views on why it happened, in a strong Roman Catholic society. The philosophers of the time had a field day.

In lighter news, as we explored a bit on our first walkabout in the late afternoon, we encountered the work of a beach sand sculpture artist.

And, who wouldn’t love a restaurant called Honest Greens? We continue to use an international app called happycow to find restaurants that serve healthy food.

As with any large city, museums abound. I’ve always been intrigued with Rene Lalique jewelry, and got to see some amazing pieces at a Gulbenkian museum exhibition. Bugs (and other creatures) – were made even more beautiful than they already are.

Gulbenkian was one of the richest men in the world – got into the oil business in a very, very big way in the late 1800’s. He was a major art collector – name an artist and they’re probably represented, and the museum in Lisbon was built to house it all.

We visited Sintra – another hilly area just outside of Lisbon that is simply gorgeous. People have lived there since the Paleolithic era – I won’t even attempt its chronology. Suffice it to say that it attracts current day VIPS (both Madonna and Elon Musk have pursued buying homes there). Chris had hired a local guide, Miguel, for us for the day (she uses a company called Tours By Locals – I’ve not used them before but definitely will in the future). Miguel was enthusiastic, knowledgable and charming. He was raised in Sintra and until he started traveling, assumed that every town had castles and palaces and perfect weather.

Our first stop was to the Pena Palace – a UNESCO site. It was originally a monastery that King Ferdinand, shall we say, “remodeled” to be a summer residence for the Portuguese royal family. Imagine a palace designed by Disney – turrets, castle walls, tons of tile, and primary colors. It’s insane and spectacular all at the same time. As with all such buildings, a lot of history. The surrounding gardens are home to some 2500 species of plants – including California sequoias.

This particular ceiling is trompe l’oeil. Most were carved wood.

This alcove was decorated entirely with shells.

We visited our second site for the day, the Moorish Castle. Most of what remains are the walls, which have been reinforced. Spectacular views and a bit scary – it was pretty windy and we agreed that we didn’t need to go all the way to the top. There were enough young tourists who weren’t concerned about how fast they were passing us to let discretion be the better part of valor. We took a few pictures and headed down to the cafe. In the below picture, the Pena Palace is to the left and the Moorish Castle is to the right.

Our last site was Quinta da Regaleira, another UNESCO site. The fellow who made the most significant change to the property was Carvalho Montiero, who purchased it in 1892. According to Wikipedia, “Monteiro was eager to build a bewildering place where he could collect symbols that reflected his interests and ideologies.” Imagine a place with symbology built into every nook and cranny – “…alchemy, Masonry, the Knights of Templar and the Rosicrucians.” With all due respect, our guide was a bit superstitious so we learned a lot – early conspiracy theories abound to this day. Probably the most interesting was the giant well, otherwise known as an Initiation Well, which descended 27 meters using 9 flights of stairs. My background immediately flashed on the 9 levels of Dante’s hell. Apparently, it could also have reminded you of the 9 founders of the Knights Templar. The lower we walked, the darker it got, and the walls started dripping so the stairs got slippery. At the bottom, after ducking through carved stone passageways (only recently provided with lighting), we were told that, were we to have walked though with a candle, the carvings were formed to resemble monsters. We ended up behind a waterfall, which we had viewed before we began the trek down.

The horse stables

Lunch found us at one of Miguel’s favorite restaurants, where, of course, he knew the owner and, as far as we could tell, all the employees. It was clear that this was an area gem and reminded all of us of the Depot Restaurant in Sonoma in its heyday.

One of our most significant meals in Lisbon was a 7 course, wine matched, plant based lunch at a restaurant called Arkhe (we were on the waitlist for dinner). If you want a really special occasion meal in Napa, go to French Laundry; if you’re in Healdsburg, go to Single Thread; but, if you’re in Lisbon, go to Arkhe (and spend half as much). Anytime we’re invited by the sommelier (French-Austrian) to let the chef (from Brazil) create a discovery menu, we’re in. Add to that a Portuguese pastry chef and we were very happy.

But, of course, who can resist eating at a vegan friendly place called Kong?

Onto the Canary Islands!