Day 12 – Lisbon
We woke up early to pack our bags and get ready for the day. Check out is at 12:00pm (although they said they’d be flexible) and we wanted to take a walking tour of the Alfama neighborhood (offered by the hotel) from 10:00am to 12:00pm. We had time for breakfast and also laid out a change of clothes for when we got back from our tour, for an epic lunch we had planned at Belcanto.
Our tour was super interesting. The guide, Fred, is a local from the area and provided a great history of the city and the neighborhood. Overall, Lisbon has been shaped by three things that make it unique compared to other major European cities: (1) They are adjacent to North Africa, so there is much more Moorish/Arabic influence than in other parts of Europe (including the Portuguese language). (2) There was a major earthquake/tsunami/fire in 1755. Much of the city was destroyed and rebuilt fairly quickly and with basic architecture, so the look and feel of Lisbon is unique in it’s simplicity and style, for the most part. (3) They were under facist rule for much of the 20thcentury so they are definitely behind economically vs. the rest of “democratic” Europe. This is changing, now that they are a democracy and part of the European Union, but the change has been slow and the 2008-2011 recession hit them hard, especially young people (very high unemployment).
The Alfama neighborhood is one of the oldest in Lisbon because it is built on more stable rocks than the rest of the city, so it survived the 1755 earthquake better. Because of that, it has more variety of buildings and more of the iconic pastel-colored buildings and homes, many with intricate tile or gilding. You’ll see a pink house next to a light blue one, next to a green one. Really pretty! But the further you get out of the city center, the more it’s simple white stucco with a red tile roof. And even further out into the suburbs it’s large apartment complexes dominating the skyline. We’d definitely recommend staying in Alfama (and at the Memmo). Best location in the city!
After the tour, we headed back to the hotel for a quick change and headed to our one epic dining experience for this trip: lunch at the 2-star (Michelin), #42 (Top 50 Restaurant List) – Belcanto. Lunch was amazing, as one would expect. The price point was a little high for what you’d expect to pay in Portugal, but I suppose at that level of cuisine, you are competing with other top restaurants globally, not other local options. Definitely still worth a visit if you are in Lisbon. It’s the best of the best of Portuguese food! More to come on this in our Epic Meals section coming soon!
The end of lunch was also the end of our time in Lisbon. From the restaurant, we hopped in an Uber back the hotel, grabbed our bags and headed the Oriente train station for our train to the Algarve Coast. We had purchased our tickets back home (shipped UPS), but couldn’t select a specific train or seats until we were there, which was very annoying. Because of this, we couldn’t get on the train we wanted and had to wait 2 hours for the next one.
The train ride was uneventful. They had free (spotty) wifi which was nice. Our train and ticket were all the way to Faro (end of the line), but we ended up getting off two stops earlier, as the distance between that stop and our hotel in Vilamoura, was actually closer. 30 minutes in an Uber and we had arrived at the Tivoli Marina Vilamoura, our home for the next three nights. It was quite late when we got in, so we just had some room service and hit the sack. More to come tomorrow!