There's no place like home (Part I)

(written by Kizzy)

I can't really start telling you about Portugal, without illustrating the descent of chaos at Frankfurt airport! 

Have you ever been to Frankfurt airport? It's massive. We traveled from Zurich to Lisbon via Frankfurt. I believe we landed in terminal B, our flight departing from terminal A. We had some time to kill, and we headed to Terminal C to access one of the airport lounges we had access to - it took us more than 30 minutes to get there. We then agreed that we would allow 30 minutes slot to return to terminal A. I had a disagreement about these time allowances but in the end we acted within the agreed slot. So far so good. 

As luck would have it on the way back to terminal A we got completely lost - we were running in circles having made full use of the 30 minutes and more.


Col was cursing and loosing his cool. Have you ever seen Col loose his cool? Don't push for it. 

We found a fellow traveller that was in the same situation, it was quite funny really. We had to go through security checks again - massive queue, and at this point Col was convinced that we had lost the flight, and kept going on and on about how he knew this would happen - he can see the future. We ran all the way to terminal A and when we finally got there we realised the flight was late and hadn't event started boarding. Relief. 


Thank God for TAP (Portuguese airlines) and it's 'flexible schedule' - some would argue to be an acronym for Take Another Plane - we welcome your views. 

PORTUGAL

Lisbon

We arrived to Lisbon late at night on 15th April and took a taxi home to my parents flat in Pontinha. We did not have a plan on how to approach this part of the trip. We knew that we were tired and  wanted a few days of rest. Week 1 was about doing nothing just resting, visiting friends and family in Lisbon.

Around day 3 we rented a car from Europcar. We had a minor accident shortly after picking up the car - overlooking his right hand side Col had never driven outside of the UK before and accidentally clipped  the right wing mirror on a parked car.   We were forced to return and exchange the car on the same day - we also realised that Tom Tom's (the GPS) maps were not up-to-date and that stressed things a bit more.  The whole episode left us a bit shaken so we were really tense when we started driving in Portugal. Changing cars was actually a good thing because Col felt more comfortable with the second car a- Renault Megane.

Belem 

I love Belem, embraced by the river Tagus it offers majestic views with a selection of nice restaurants overlooking the river! We visited a few 'must see places' and we were very lucky in that there was a bank holiday and the visiting was free until 1400 - with all free things there are some perils and we did suffer a bit:-

We visited Mosteiro dos Jeronimos, one of the most prominent monuments in Lisbon, and Museu da Marinha in Belem

Took a few photos by 'Padrao dos Descobrimentos' - a monument that celebrates the Portuguese who took part in the Age of Discovery, or the Age of Exploration, of the 15th and 16th centuries. We did not go in because we were running out of time and we really wanted to go to 'Torre de Belem'

Torre de Belem was a bit of a nightmare, small place and because it was free entry there were massive queues to go from A to B, we wanted to reach the 4th floor of the tower but after queuing for 1 hour just to move from ground floor to second floor we gave up and settled with what we'd seen

Queue to reach the first floor

Queue to reach the second floor

One of the many views from the tower

And of course we had to try the famous Pasteis de Belem.(custard tarts)

I know you were expecting an image of the cake...

I have good memories of school field trips to these venues!

Alfama

We also caught up with Nuno again, who was back from Berlin and made some time to show us to Alfama, where he lives. We did not pick the best day, it was raining heavily. Nevertheless, we made our way clumsily through narrow cobbled streets to a few magical places:-  

an unassuming african restaurant with authentic african cuisine at really affordable prices and a genuine welcoming atmosphere - I need to ask Nuno the name and address of the restaurant

a few drinks at Resto Chapito - School of clowns in hilly Alfama overlooking Lisbon - the school also runs a restaurant, bar and stage area. They were promoting a theatre play they put together called 'Cemiterio' so the theme of the night was that the  clowns were supposed to be dead and they didn't try to make you laugh  - male clown was unhappy and the female one flirtatious...  It really was hilarious. Anyone going to Lisbon should check out this bar..

a few more drinks in student and arty bar Bacalhoeiro in a run-down building full of surprises inside. Nuno also showed us some great places to take iconic photos

This means - "It's so  hard to look after a river when it runs inside us...."

The night was still young and Nuno suggested we went for a few more drinks but Col and I have long retired our party shoes and felt satisfied with our night and welcomed the comfort of our beds.

Great night - thanks Nuno!

Later in the week  Nuno announced that he was renting his flat and heading back to Berlin for a bit longer and before he left he invited us for dinner at his place. A really nice flat he got in Alfama overlooking the red tiles of Lisbon and the Tagus river. It was such a great evening!

The view from Nuno's flat

Nuno cooking dinner

We played with this papermache mask he did

Col and Nuno had a dab at playing music together

and the night went on. Nuno invited us for a bit more of Alfama action but after downing two bottles of wine we were quite looking forward to going home. Also we had set the plan in motion to visit Portugal in 10 days - the adventure began. Look out for part II