Friday April 11, 2025 Lisbon

 

We decided to have breakfast at Copenhagen Coffee Lab and headed there by 8 am. By 9 we were back at our apartment and Nancy called an uber to take her to the airport.

We walked with her to the pickup spot and said our goodbyes. Once the uber came we headed in the opposite direction to visit the castle (Castelo de Sao Jorge). We arrived at the castle with no line and headed in to wander. This time I found the museum (missed it the first time around) and scrambled up and down all over. We also signed on to an 11 am tour, so we sat and had a cup of coffee and tea before we met the group.

The tour was wonderful and filled in lots of missing history. As part of the tour we also got to see inside the archaeological ruins. All very interesting.

By the time we finished it was 12:30 and we were ready for lunch. We called an uber to take us to Belem. Once there we ate at the maritime museum cafe (bowls of veggie soup, roll, pastel de natas and beer/soda for 15.5 Euros) and then headed inside to tour the museum. I enjoyed re-visiting the museum, especially after getting a broad history lesson of Lisbon from our guide at the castle.

Once we reached the military naval display area, however, I’d had enough and returned to the cafe for a cup of tea while John finished up the museum.

By 3:30 we were ready to head back to the apartment, so called an uber. Back for a rest and some downtime before our booked dinner at a Fado restaurant at 8.

I’d booked us reservations at Tasca da Bela - Casa de Fados on the recommendation of someone Nancy and I had met at our other Fado dinner. It was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel, but in a neighborhood we hadn’t wandered through before.

Once again, lots of wine, many starters and bread, and then smaller plates of main dishes (bachalau with spinach, veal stew), followed by mango mousse and chocolate cake at the end. A very small and cozy restaurant, and we were seated next to a lovely Danish couple and right near 5 Irish women all celebrating their 50th birthdays.

Dinner was paused and lights were turned down 4 times for 3 different fado singers. All wonderful and we finally stumbled out of there and up the hill to bed at midnight.