We flew into Lisbon after our short stay in London, caught a bus and trundled over the cobblestones to our Airbnb studio. The owner ran a microbrewery a few doors down and kindly took us on a tour of his establishment. 

Before I describe the six or so weeks we spent there I thought I would give some overall impressions of Portugal.

Compared to Spain, where we went next, Portugal is simpler, a bit faded and cheaper but still very pleasant.

• The GST is 23 percent and on top of that you are expected to tip cabs etc. 10 %
• The food and accommodation is cheap. We found, as in Italy and Spain, that there were no kettles ( I guess everyone drinks coffee) and tiny cups/mugs
• Local beers can cost as little as AUD3 a litre
• There are a lot of mainly etolls on the freeways, where we paid between - €1 - €3.70
• There are numerous good freeways with 120 km/ph limits. We were told that these were the ‘prize’ for joining the EU
• Fun oddity - We often found traffic lights at the entrance to tiny towns (not at intersections). We assumed they were used to slow the traffic before entering the town.
• In Portugal, English TV programs are subtitled into Portuguese while in Spain they dub English content resulting in the Portuguese speaking more English than the Spaniards.  
• My staple lunch was cheese and ham sandwiches. I avoided the stinky salted cod hanging in delis and found in trays at supermarkets

We spent five or so days wandering around Lisbon, Sintra and Belem. The owner of the Airbnb, accompanied by his daughter, took us on few trips around Lisbon. Lisbon is a fairly quiet, cobblestoned city, with white walls (many in need of paint) and faded red roofs. A lot of buildings are tiled.

Apart from our landlord’s tours, and one tram ride, we walked everywhere.

The Lisbon train station at night

Entrance to Comercio Plaza on the River front

Cruising the plaza

Street pics

Our host’s daughter

A game of cricket?

On one day we took the train to Sintra, a picturesque Portuguese town set amidst the pine-covered hills of the Serra de Sintra half an hour outside Lisbon. Sintra is known for its many 19th-century Romantic architectural monuments. Many of the pictures are taken in the Quinta da Regaleira gardens including the ancient shaft lined with steps.

Roasted chestnuts for sale

Human statue getting ready for the days work

Showing off to his mates

On a wet day we traveled west of Lisbon to Belem, home of the best pastels de nata – (custard tart in flaky pastry) in the country. The queue to buy one was so long, I never got to sample one. The Padrão dos Descobrimentos monument celebrating the Portuguese age of discovery (or age of exploration) during the 15th and 16th centuries overlooks the Targus River.

The Padrão dos Descobrimentos monument

Belem medieval fortified tower

Many locks make up the love

Lisbon

We decided we needed some downtime so on advice from our landlord booked for ten days in an Airbnb in Sesimbra, a seaside town south of Lisbon. We stayed in a small ground floor unit in a narrow side street close to the beach. We enjoyed ten days there chilling, walking on the beach, exploring the town and the harbour and sampling the local seafood.

Dried fish