May 2018 - Lisbon For 91 Days

Adeus, Lisboa!

Another 91 days has come to an end. Another chapter in our lives, another city explored, documented, and lived in. In many ways, Lisbon was exactly what we thought it would be. In other ways, it took us totally off guard. For all its beauty, this is a city which was surprisingly hard to warm up to. And yet, it was just as hard to resist. We were leaving with both joy and melancholy in our hearts. And this felt appropriate for Lisbon: a city which frustrates and fascinates in equal measure.

Our Favorite Lisbon Viewpoints

I don't know if we've ever visited a city with as many incredible viewpoints as Lisbon. Regardless of where you are in the city, the nearest scenic overlook is almost certainly nearby... and just as certainly worth the effort of checking out. We've already written about many miradouros in other articles, but thought we'd sum up the spots we visited, whenever we needed to be reminded of Lisbon's beauty.

The Beaches of Trafaria

We had been to MegaJesus and walked through the town of Cacilhas, but otherwise hadn't explored the area across the Tagus from Lisbon. So on one of our final days in Portugal, we took the ferry from Belém to Trafaria, to check out the town and its Atlantic-facing beaches.

The National Palace of Queluz

After having spent five days in Sintra, Jürgen and I had easily reached our palace quotient for the year... and it was still early January. But we couldn't possibly leave Lisbon without visiting the Palácio Nacional de Queluz, just fifteen kilometers outside the city.

Our Favorite Meals in Lisbon

Over the course of our 91 days in Lisbon, we ate out a lot. Probably way too much, if our pudgy post-Lisbon profiles were anything to judge by. But when the restaurants are this cheap, the food this good, and the supermarkets this crappy (ahem, Pingo Doce), what are we supposed to do? Cook carrots at home? Or go to our favorite tasca and order the full-size portion of beef, and a soup, and ... I know we shouldn't, but that dessert looks too delicious to pass up.