Arrived in Lisbon

11/12/2022

Saturday - November 12th - We slept in … after spending last night at the Vinho market. Somehow all the wine and having little sleep knocked us out. At 10:30 we went for breakfast at the hotel lobby. There was a great variety of foods on the buffet lines. There was a large crowd down there already. I wanted to eat more, but after having skipped breakfast at home...didn't want to upset my stomach. This breakfast should have been 15 E each, but the diamond membership allowed Carmen and I to eat free breakfast. The good thing about the setup is that it was buffet, set up until 11:30. So it was brunch for us! Soon after breakfast we took an uber to Fiera da Ladra, an antique outdoor market which is held every Saturday and Tuesday. After 30 minutes of the uber ride up and down the hills of Lisbon we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived to the market. Lots of small Knick knack dealers, book sellers, clothing, dishes and all sorts of collectibles. I did manage to find a few Germany 2006 mascots from the World Cup, which I paid 1 E for each. I bought the last 4 that he had. We walked the many streets, up and down as well as a few shops.

Then we went to the National Cemetery, where Eusebio, the great Portuguese footballer from the 60s and 70s is buried. I became a little emotional at the sight of the large gravesite with his picture. He was one of my heroes of my youth.
I wore my compression sleeve on my calf, but my knees did begin to wear out after 5 - 6 hours of walking. At about 2:30 we stopped for lunch at a small park. It was called the Banana Cafe inside the park with outside tables and chairs. We both had hamburgers, mine was with cheese and Carmen's was without.

Enjoying a Pastéis de Nata

The burger was cooked to perfection, like the one we had in Spain a couple of years ago. A little pink on the middle. After a while, we noticed there were several groups of people coming in to the park, some were carrying dishes.... with food for their picnics.
After resting for an hour we walked the city without a map and ended up in Barrio Alto with the rest of the tourists.
I bought my Portugal patch. Carmen bought a cheese wheel and grapes, which we ate later as our late snack after taking the Metro back to the hotel. I had gotten a can of what I thought was sardines, but it was tuna with olive oil. It was tasty, but not what i was hoping for.