Portugal

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October 4, 2025

This is our first trip to Portugal. We had heard it is lovely and it turns out what we heard was true. We are syncing with our friends Leesa and Mark to do northern Spain. We never like short trips; we want to amortize the air travel so decided to take on Portugal before Spain (and visit boat friends in Lisbon) and then stop off in France to visit more boat friends before heading to the Netherlands to do some boat shopping. 5 weeks is about rights.

Lisbon

Dinner with Friends

We started with a nice dinner in Lisbon with our friends Patrizia and Giuseppe whom we met in the Cayman Islands.

Our first night restaurant was so full of texture. These are all old covers from local magazines from 1900’s and on.

This gave them an opportunity to give us the tourists scoop on Portugal and to, of course, talk boats. Next day, we met up at the Presidential Palace which is only open a few days a year. We managed to meet and get a pic with the … President… of Portugal He is a very personable guy who has the nickname, “the selfie President” as many folks think that is all he does. Probably the only President I’ll ever have my photo with.

Jim and I with Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. He has a hand full of children’s books he bought at the book fair. Not much visible security around him.

We also had the opportunity to meet Patrizia and Giuseppe’s daughter who lives in Rome. Giuseppe and Patrizia are from Italy via Aruba and now Lisbon. Emily went to US universities in Europe, worked in New York and had recently moved to Rome. Very worldly this family. Such a nice day enjoying their company.

Us on Patrizia and Giuseppe’s boat in the Cayman Islands
And in Portugal. One can make quick friends on a boat.

A Funicular

A couple weeks before our visit to Portugal there had been a horrible funicular failure where multiple people died. We did not realize it was just down the hill from our hotel. We were walking to another area in town on the route the hotel recommended “where the funicular used to run”. As we reached the bottom, we saw the remains of all the flowers from the accident.

The hill the funicular ran down. A fairly short, but steep hill.

Apparently this car will no longer run although the tracks are still there are the cables overhead. Lisbon is quite hilly and funiculars and elevators are quite common to navigate the steep hills.

Fado

Fado is a traditional Portuguese singing style, meant to celebrate and lament the sailors gone to sea. It is quite popular (perhaps more so now with tourists?) but still a big draw and a proud point for the locals. The shows always come with a dinner before. We found one as we walked along a stree with many fado clubs? The dinner was tasty local cuisine (I had the sardines). Then everyone much be totally quite (they really mean it), the lights go down and the singers sing. There are two who have beautiful voices, sing a few songs each and then set one is over.

The male singer in the 2nd set. He was so good! (this may just show as a link. having trouble getting is to show the image. It is safe to click and worth watching)
The musicians at São Miguel d’Alfama doing some music?

Most of the patrons at our event were from a tour and they all left leaving about 10 customers. We though it was time to pay and leave. Our waiter suggested we stay for the 2nd set. Of course! The doors and windows are closed (during the 1st set people on the streets were watching and listening). The owner takes the table front and center to the stage, those a bit farther away move closer and the 2nd set of much more soulful music is played and sun. Wow. A much different experience and likely much more like the tradition.

And the Rest of Lisbon

We only had 3 days in Lisbon. It is quite an eclectic town with lots of varied things. We did a lot of walking the streets just taking it in. We happened upon the completion of the Portugal leg (leg 4) of the World Rally Raid Championship (which includes Dakar in the series) which ended on the waterfront on Lisbon. There were all sorts of buggies and trucks and motorcycles (which we did not see) as well. Very fun to happen upon seeing the vehicles come in and awards being made.

These were pretty special buggies. I’m not sure if this was the actual finish line, but this was were awards were presented.
Very likely as close as we’ll be do a race like this. Fun to have a taste of the experience.

We also visited the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) in an old power station. The art was mostly rather difficult, dealing with violence against women or in some cases interesting works with obscure MFA statements describing them. The old power stations is still intact with lots of cool old machinery to see.

A very tall building with lots of big piping. I doubt is it was so colorful when in production, but very aesthetic now!
MAAT also had lots of exhibits on energy. See how hot we are?

We also visited a very nice exhibit on the history of sardines in Portugal, telling the soul of the sardine to this country to this day.

I particularity liked this video of each years examples of the sardine designs (like cows, horses, etc we see around towns in the US). These were from 2018.

The last big attraction for us in Lisbon was the Castelo de São Jorge, a castle and fortress that dates from the time of the Moors in Lisbon around 8 – 2 BC. As with so many only structures it was repurposed by each generation but manages to have lots of remaining history of the early times. We had an audio guide that provide perhaps the most vivid and accurate description of the horrors and bloodshed of the siege on a castle. Not all “swashbuckly” and heroic as in the movies. Bloody smelly and gruesome. But, I’m sure more accurate.

One of the entrances to the castle. Outside in the mote there would have been sewage, not a pretty water mote. This would deter many from wanting to cross that way. Then interior halls to narrow for them to easily get their ram-rods around the corners, and hidden turns where those invading would be slaughtered, thus making it very uninviting for the next tranche of invaders coming around the corner.

I’m going to stop now and post just Lisbon as I seem to be short of time. So much going on to get posts done in a timely fashion. So, I’ll do Portugal in smaller chunks to hopefully get caught up. There was so much more interesting in Lisbon, but not for now!

I loved this sardine can lid. Old and new are very creative.