Day 10 – Ibiza to Lisbon
Our flight out of Ibiza isn’t terribly early, so we managed to get a decent amount of sleep, pack, and get to the airport in time to drop off the rental. One lesson is to add 20% more time to any estimate on Apple or Google Maps. There is weird traffic jams all over Ibiza that don’t really get accounted for.
Our flight from Ibiza to Madrid is uneventful, but the connection in Madrid is tight and we had to change terminals, so we barely made our next flight to Lisbon. Fortunately, we did make the flight and our bags did too! Once we were in Lisbon, we were able to get an Uber to the Alfama neighborhood. The pick-up place for Ubers at the airport is not well marked, but a friendly policeman showed us the way and the driver spoke great English, which was a pleasant surpise. Ubers are very cheap in Lisbon. Our airport ride was less than $15 and other rides were as low as $1-2. Taxis are much more expensive, but still won’t break the bank. Portugal is on the euro and part of the European Union, but it got hit hard by the recession from 10 years ago and still hasn’t made a full recovery. Good for tourism though!
Our hotel is one recommended by one of Dave’s friends and colleagues from back in the day, Olga, who lives in London and is a frequent traveler around Europe. The hotel is the Memmo Alfama and is relatively new. One unique feature is that it’s the only hotel in the historic district that is allowed to have a rooftop/patio. This was a negotiation with the city, as the ancient wall that is adjacent to the hotel was in need of major repair, so the hotel paid for that renovation in exchange for being able to build their deck. The views are beautiful, as you can see from the photo on our home page.
We got to the hotel in the early afternoon and since the room wasn’t’ ready, we grabbed a bite and walked around the area, taking in some of the top sites that had been recommended to us. This included a quick visit to the Lisbon Cathedral (the oldest church in the city), a trip to the Time Out Market (huge retail and food stall market near the river) and the central square (Praça do Comérico).
After our extended walk, we came back to the hotel, checked in, showered, changed and headed to the patio for a cocktail. Dinner tonight is at a place called Sacramento, which was recommended by our friend, who is from Portugal. It did not disappoint, with several local favorite dishes like Bachalau (cod fish with potatoes). After dinner, it was back to the hotel and get some sleep before we do our day trip to Sintra!