A Week in a Day

It's hard to believe that one month ago, today, DW and I had arrived in Portugal and headed up to Porto.

For me, the trip is still so fresh in my mind that it seems like it was only last week that we were walking across the Luis I Bridge, from Porto to Gaia, to capture the sunset over the Douro River. That we were stomping on grapes at a quinta in port wine country. That we were kayaking off the Algarve coastline. That we were riding on old trams and eating some amazing food in the second-oldest European city.

All that and more are still fresh in my head, and yet we've been home for more than two weeks.

Today, I'm going to share some of the highlights from our time in Lisbon that made memories that we will hang onto for years. I'm not going to talk about the day trips that we took: first, I've already shared one of them while I was in Portugal. There's not much more to add.

I'll share our other day trip tomorrow, and then that just might wrap up our trip. I'll move on to something new on Wednesday.

When DW and I planned our trip, we had planned to purchase a 48-hour Lisboa Card, which gave us either free or reduced admission to several museums in the city, plus unlimited access to the metro system (subways, trains, buses, trams) during that period. We checked the schedule of several museums to make sure that they weren't closed on the days that we'd have these passes and decided that we'd use the passes on the Wednesday and Thursday.

But on Sunday, we had learned that one of the museums was free after 2:00, so we used our Viva cards (think Presto cards for transit in Ottawa and Toronto) to head to the northern end of the town, outside the historic part of Lisbon, to visit the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian. The museum houses about 6,000 pieces of objects that were collected by Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian, and Armenian oil baron and philanthropist who made Lisbon his home and amassed art as far back as the early Egyptian age to Chinese vases, Middle-Eastern rugs, Renaissance paintings, and more.

The museum is surrounded by a beautiful garden that is always open to the public. It's well worth a visit.

I've already shared Belém and can't stress how important it is to make it out there for the monastery, the tower, the Monument of the Discoveries, the famous Pastéis de Belém, and the National Coach Museum. Free entry to the Torre de Belém, the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, and the museum are worth the price of the Lisboa Card, alone, including the unlimited transit rides.

You can't visit Lisbon without visiting the castle that sits atop the hill in the Alfama neighbourhood and I recommend that you go there for sunset. Most of the visitors have left by then and you have a great view of the city as the sun drops below the horizon and the lights come on across the other hills and valleys. Pick up some take-away food, bring a bottle of wine (it's legal to drink in public), and enjoy the beauty of the city.

On Saturday, November 1, 1755, the Christian families started their morning celebrating All Saints Day. They lit candles for each deceased member of their family, to honour them. They then headed to church for mass. Many gathered in the massive Carmo Convent, the cathedral in Bairro Alto. It is said that just as mass was beginning, the earthquake struck.

The roof of the cathedral collapsed. Most of the city was levelled. In the houses where candles burned, fires broke out. To escape the blazes, many people ran to the Tagus River, whose water had receded, unexpectedly.

A sign from God? No. A giant, 20-metre tsunami slammed into the city, taking more victims. It is said that as much as 80 percent of Lisbon was destroyed and as many as 50,000 people (60 percent of the population) perished as a result of the devastation.

As a reminder of the earthquake, the Carmo Convent has remained in ruins. It is now a museum that is a must-see.

If you're a wine lover, you must check out the Vinhos de Portugal centre, located in the western building off of Praça do Comércio. Here, you can sample wines from all regions of the country and have a private tasting with one of the knowledgeable staff. You can purchase a card, like the Viva card, and top it up with as much money as you'd like. There are machines that dispense wine into your glass.

DW and I signed up for a private port tasting. Our "guide" talked about the Douro Valley and let us sample four distinct styles of wine. We had a white table wine (better than the one we had from Taylor's, in Gaia), a 2016 Late Bottled Vintage, and two tawneys: a 10-year-old and one from 1980 that was incredible.

When I told our guide that the 1980 tawney was my favourite, she topped up my glass. She then made the mistake of leaving us to finish our glasses, on our own, and she left the bottles with us.

I poured myself a third glass.

Of course, much of our time in Lisbon was spent just wandering the city, checking out the neighbourhoods, trying so many dishes of food that were new to us (I recommend visiting the Time Out Market, in Cais do Sodré, at least twice), meeting the locals and other tourists, and taking lots of photos.

I'm still trying to get through all of my photos and will likely be doing so for weeks to come. But I'll leave you with a few, here.

DW and I have unfinished business with Portugal. We will return. The memories are still fresh in our heads, one month after arriving and more than two weeks after returning. I'm sure these memories will stay with us forever.

Tomorrow, for my final post about our trip (I use "final" loosely, as I'm sure I'll continue to share photos), I'll share our trip to the western coast and the town of Cascais.

Stay tuned.