A careful reading of this humble blog might reveal some surprising, if not actually embarrassing, patterns in our travels. To wit: we’ve been visiting destinations in — let’s call it — Greater Europe while barely scratching the offerings available in our adopted home country. We aren’t against visiting within Portugal; best guess is that we’ve dreamed of visiting those other sites in Europe for many years and we’re still getting acquainted with what Portugal has to offer. In a conscious effort to correct his bias, and also because in the coming year short trips are going to be better for us, we have a plan to start nibbling away at our new home. Recently we started executing this plan by visiting Aveiro and, now, playing tourists in our capital city of Lisbon. It’s not like we’ve never been to Lisbon before… except not really. We’ve made it to a hotel in an evening to catch an early-as-hell flight the next day, and we’ve had business at the U.S. Embassy that brought us to town for a morning. What we haven’t ever done is just go, with no agenda other than to “oooo” and “aaah” at the sites. And so we did. More or less.
Us being us, we still had a bit of a double agenda for the trip. John had scheduled a trip back to the States to see his folks in South Carolina, and the flight was out of Lisbon. Once we realized (which was, like, immediately) that he’d be leaving straight after Lisa’s birthday, it was pretty easy to envision a long weekend in Lisbon before John took off and Lisa eased her way back home on the train. In the end, what we had was about a day and a half to loll about and take some things in. Definitely not time to “see Lisbon”, but at least we’d get our feet wet. And so, dear readers, what do you think Lisa and John did in a city they hadn’t visited before so they could get acquainted with it? You guessed it: hop-on hop-off, baby!
From talking to friends, I think some of you still think we’re being ironic about the hop on hop off experience; we assure you that we are not. Yes, it’s an icon of pure tourism, stripped of any sense of actual engagement of the culture. No, you don’t really experience visiting any of the major sites of the city you’re in (at least, not while on the bus). We would never say it should be the only thing you do when you visit a city. But, we’ve used them in a half-dozen places or so by now, and 100% of the time we’re satisfied with the fact that we have been given a meandering tour of the layout of the city and put some of the geography into context with what’s on the maps. Look at it from the opposite direction: when we first visited London in 2007 (which was our first trip out of North America, aw, what babies etc…) we were very proud of ourselves for getting a map of the Underground and navigating tube stops pretty efficiently by the end of our trip. On the other hand, we never made it to St. Paul’s Cathedral because it didn’t seem to line up with other places we wanted to visit, when in fact we spent our first morning (which we mostly twiddled our thumbs through waiting for a concert to start) about 100 yards from the entrance. Chalk it up to being tired and there being some tall buildings in between, but it’s a classic example of the map not being the territory. The tube stop listed as being the one to take for St. Paul’s was not listed on the Underground map as being the one we were at, and in fact was on a separate line, and so it looked difficult to get to. (“John, are you making excuses for why you made a dumb mistake?” I mean, maybe, but it’s still true. :p ) Aaaalll that to say, it’s never a bad idea to actually get a good, long, in-person look at the city you’re visiting.
One of the most fascinating things we saw was actually a museum that we *didn’t* visit, because a) we didn’t know it existed and b) it was closed the day we walked by. Nevertheless, the National Coach Museum captured our imagination. First of all, the very fact that it exists… come on, a national museum dedicated to … coaches? You may be thinking to yourself this is a translation error, that what they’re talking about is a transportation museum or something. Well feast your eyes:
Coaches, baybeeee. We didn’t even know this place existed. We saw it after having a disjointed visit to … well, what John thought was a museum about the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake but turned out to be essentially an amusement park attraction about the earthquake which apparently shakes the ever-loving crap out of you. We say “apparently” because the idea of it holds no appeal for either of us so we bailed. Walking out of that building, however, we spotted an incredibly modern and large building nearby.
It’s a seriously impressive building, and massive, and gave the impression of being a public edifice of central importance… which we guess it is? Our first guess about its origin turned out to be correct: it was originally a possession of the Portuguese royal family, who then bequeathed it to the city (always a shady dodge in our opinion for when royalty is tired of paying for upkeep on some of their stuff, but whatevs) and, apparently, is in fact a beloved institution. The museum, after all, is a post-fascism creation which means that to some extent the will of the people was required to get the dang thing erected. In any case, it may now be at the very top of places we want to visit when the chance presents itself again.
You might be thinking about now “that sounds like a busted day. One place wasn’t what you expected and you left, and the other wasn’t even open.” Weeeeelll… yes, except. Lisa had made a point of saying that she had been trying to embrace the moment over the big picture, (and John lets the wind lead him willy-nilly pretty easily) so it was a very pleasant day overall. The weather was just perfect, and the neighborhood we were futzing in is right on the water so we had excellent breezes and an intermittently lovely view. When those two things didn’t pan out, we shifted gears and went to a waterside seafood restaurant for a whole grilled fish (which was tasty, but the overall vibe was mezzo-mezzo and there won’t be a full review), then more walking along the water, and it was about then that we noticed the hop on hop off buses were driving on the very road that fronted us, so we figured out where to catch it, and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon that way.
As mentioned earlier, we were also marking Lisa’s birthday, which meant a couple of things. First of all, it meant that the Hyatt we were staying in upgraded our room without us even asking (apparently they have birthdays on file from being a member in their rewards program?) which put us in probably the nicest hotel room/suite we’ve ever had. Seriously, we were on a corner, with a huge veranda that ran the length of the suite on all sides, and the walls were floor-to-ceiling windows that could be opened wide. We caught gorgeous breezes in the evenings, it was wild. A small but complete kitchen, dining room AND separate living/sitting room, bedroom in an enclosed space of its own… it was bonkers. Thanks, Hyatt! We threw a dart at a restaurant in the heart of the city that was… fine, but once again not really worth digging down into the deets with you. (Yes, we hoped for more for a birthday meal, but the overall day had been so nice that it was fine.)
After dinner we meandered the back streets of Lisbon for awhile, just taking it all in (and getting a little lost :p) before finally arriving back on a main drag, from whence we hailed a ride and went back to the hotel. The final little treat was that the hotel had a beautiful little “Happy Birthday” desert treat and a bottle of champagne waiting when we got back; I had asked for the assist but you never know when it comes to hotels. Once again, hats off to the Lisbon Hyatt Regency. (To be clear, we aren’t even “top level” in their rewards club, they were just taking care of us. Kudos.) Another bit of evening taking the air on our super-deck, but we were aiming for an early night so John could catch decent Zs before jetting off. When all was said and done, we said our goodbyes and then bedded down (which was, yes, a little weird) but John left at about 4 AM to catch a cab to the airport. Lisa left at a much more reasonable time for the train station and returned home to Braga.
Last little note, should you ever need to know – the direct train service between Braga and Lisbon is nicely affordable and very comfortable. As opposed to the commuter lines (which also aren’t bad, honestly, just a little slower) you only stop in Porto. It’s a comfy ride that has you to your destination in a bit more than four hours.
