As I described in my two previous blogs, we enjoyed 10 days in Lisbon in November. I will finish off our series with some memories of a few fun other things we did and as always, some of the great food we ate.

The Águas Livres (Free Waters) Aqueduct was built from 1731 to 1799 to provide clean drinking water to the city. It ran for 58 km and the 109 arches survived the Great Earthquake that destroyed practically everything else in the city. Today, you can walk over the 35 arches of the Alcântara valley, which cover a length of 941 metres. We had the aqueduct all to ourselves and enjoyed strolling the walkways on both sides.

The Lisbon metro system provides a fast and easy way to travel. It consists of 4 colour-coded lines with over 50 clean and bright stations. Many of the stations are decorated with wonderful tiles and murals. We spent a rainy morning riding the metro and stopping at many of the stations to enjoy the art – a great sight-seeing excursions for the price of a couple of metro rides. Here are photos of a number of the stations.

And the absolutely amazing Olaias station.

Lisbon operates a number of vintage trolleys that not only are used for transport, but provide a fun way to do some sightseeing. The #28 winds its way through the narrow streets of the Alfama, Baixa, Estrela and Graca neighborhoods. As well as passing by some notable sights and providing a look at workaday Lisbon, you can marvel at how the tram narrowly misses walls, buildings and other vehicles. The #28 is very popular with tourists and can be extremely crowded. We recommend going earlier in the day and catching the trolley at the beginning or end of the line (Martim Moniz or Campo Ourique). We had to wait for a couple of trolleys to fill before our turn but we found the driver only allowed enough people to fill the seats at the Martim Moniz stop. If you chose to disembark along the way, you probably wouldn’t get a seat when you hopped on again. There are other trolleys that provide a look at other areas of the city. We also took trolley #15E to Belém.

Nothing could delight Harvey more than a car show so it was very serendipitous that on a Sunday afternoon, we found the Parada de Automóveis Antigos. Over 150 vintage automobiles lined the Avenida da Liberdade – we were very impressed with the display, each car was in pristine condition.

Our blog followers will know that we aren’t art aficionados and unlike many European travellers, we do not visit a lot of the great museums that abound on the continent. We did however come across an interesting exhibit that we thoroughly enjoyed. The World of Banksy presents recreations of over 100 artworks of the elusive street artist, with descriptive plaques that discuss the significance of each piece.

Each evening, our hotel – The Lumen Hotel – presents a display of light, colour and music in the interior courtyard. We managed to stay awake until 10 pm to enjoy it one evening.

As always, we would like to give you a peek at some of the great food that we enjoyed while in Lisbon.

Among Portugal’s thousand recipes for codfish, the Pastéis de Bacalhau are a typical Portuguese dish made of potato puree, onion, parsley and steamed codfish amassed together in a ball and linked with eggs and milk, and then deep-fried. We enjoyed one for a snack on the street.

Never fear, we didn’t miss the pastries – here are just few!

And a beverage here and there!

That’s a wrap for our 2022 travels! Thanks for reading and we hope you enjoyed sharing in some of our memories. Stay tuned for more adventures in 2023!

Cheers,

Bev & Harvey (and our great travelling partners, Debbie & Larry)