It was a hike there and back and over to the Yellow Tour Bus where we took the purple route. Mmm, not really my cup of tea or for that matter, my glass of wine, though by the end I was ready for one. The route takes you to the modern end of town and to where they built a bit for either a world exposition or Olympics, can’t remember. Some of the new architecture was quite amazing but I am more interested in the old.
After our return to the starting point, I wanted to stop at the Fado Wine place again and this time try the €20 bottle of wine. Jim said only if he had a hand grenade. 😀 So back we tramped to the #28 Tram to go back to our Alfama neighborhood, deciding we would have a glass of wine and a tapa at our Loucos de Lisboa restaurant. We got on the tram without a problem and began moving up the hill. Almost to our street, the tram stopped to let other vehicles pass. Then moving on up the hill, I noticed two gas pumps. Hey we’ve never passed those before! Guys! We’ve missed our stop. Off the tram we go, across the street to wait to catch a tram back to our Rua Escolas Gerais which we cannot pronounce but which I now have a photo of on my phone. Leaving the tram and into our new favorite restaurant Loucos de Lisboa, we go. Pleasant way to end the night.
New day, new adventures beginning with a stop at a gift shop that carries only designs by Portuguese artists. Jim and I will show you what we bought in another blog (something to look forward too?). Then down the hill again to get a tuck-tuck to take us a couple of stops we haven’t seen. Today is more drizzly and a bit cooler. On the way down we pass a wine & Ginja shop which we mark for a return stop. The tuck-tuck takes us up to an amazing view of Lisbon which was absolutely the best part of the tuck-tuck tour.
That, and he delivered us back to the wine and Gingja shop.
Alfama Gourmet is a little shop owned and run by Nuno who entertained us with tales of his life—working in France coming back to Portugal, etc. A delightful afternoon stop with a very charming man. Then naps all around!
Rain, rain go away, come again when we can’t stay. Out come the umbrellas for the taxi ride to the meeting point of the Fado and Dinner Tour.
The Gospel According to Dennis:
I’ll try to keep it brief. Tonight was a walking tour of our neighborhood followed by dinner, drinks and a Fado show. What’s Fado? It’s traditional Portuguese music that is mournful with a singer accompanied by a Spanish guitar for bass and a Portuguese guitar for melody. Since its sung in Portuguese, I can only guess that it’s mournful from the tone and gestures of the singer. She looked mournful and unhappy. I knew she was unhappy because someone at our table (not one of us, honest) was talking while she was singing. She stopped and pretty much said in English that “she’d slap the shit out of the talker” if she didn’t stop talking (add mean to mournful). I think its kinda like our country western music without the trucks, trains, gettin’ drunk, going to prison, and mama. But that’s my opinion. I could be wrong. The food and wine was good and everyone but the singer had a good time.
It was raining at the beginning of the evening, during the show and at the end. So the walking part of the tour was a cancelled and when it was time to leave we were told there are few taxis in this area and that we were a six minute walk from home, so we might as well walk. Our guide put the directions on Pat’s cellphone and we took off in the rain with our umbrellas. Within 100 yards, yep—we were lost at 11 PM in Lisbon. Thank God we had cellphones which old people are hard pressed to use just to make a call but we followed the directions to get even more lost. We spotted a guy in a doorway having a smoke and asked him if he knew where the #28 tram ran. We live by the #28 tracks. He gave us good directions and after climbing 5000 feet up the cobblestone stairs, (Cindy said, according to her Fitbit it was only 344) we spotted the tram as it went by, and followed the tracks home. She might be right when she said, “Old people shouldn’t be allowed out alone.” 😁
I’m sure there will be more of these adventures to come. Stay tuned.
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