Because we were leaving our hotel on the 25th, we spent the morning on the web finding a hotel for our next destination. It took some time but Oskar found something that looked good, booked it and we finally took the train from Carcavelos to Lisbon at noon. The train station is a 2 minute drive from the hotel. The tickets to Lisbon for 2 return cost 6.80 EUR. The train arrived 2 minutes after we arrived. It was a pleasant 20 minute trip to the last station, which was directly across from the big market we saw 2 days before.
We walked through the streets near the station to the Baixa. It was filled with happy and stressed shoppers on Christmas Eve. There were plenty of tourists too. The sun was shining and Lisbon really appears to be the white city. It was bright and sparkling from a distance. Close up, the buildings are a bit reminiscent of Rome. One gets the sense that the city is crumbling here and there. We enjoyed the afternoon a lot. We wandered aimlessly around. We saw the lovely Elevador do Cormo, the train station, the theatre, the Rossio square, which is very pretty. We tried to find a place for lunch that I had seen written up in every guide and walked up and down hills on the look for Cervejada da Trindade. Unfortunately, when we finally found it on Rua Nova da Trindade 20, it was closed for the holidays. We strolled around some more, made our way down the hill and decided to go into Buffet Livre, which was an all you can eat buffet for 5.90 euros. It was rather run down, a kind of hole in the wall place that we like. It was filled with tourists and inhabitants, so we tried it out. There was a salad/vegetable bar, 4 pans filled with rice, slices of baked fish, thin pork chops and French fries. Then there was a fellow cutting meats from long skewers, like you find in Brazilian restaurants. It was very good. We ate well and quickly and made our way to the Café Suica in the square to sit outdoor in the sunshine, watch people and have a coffee. Although the weather was pleasant, the coffee was not to my taste. Oh well, hard to beat Viennese coffee.
The next leg of our discovery tour of Lisbon lead us to the area behind the Rossio, where Oskar had tried to book a pension for us. It was a very unsavoury area and the pension really looked like a dive. We were so relieved that we had our nice hotel out of the city! We wandered around from there moving towards the Castle. We walked back towards the Tejo in the Baixa until we found the 37 bus stop, where we jumped on the small bus for 2.30 euros for two of us, one way. It was well worth it. The drive was short but steep and arrived outside the doors of the castle. It was free entrance (instead of 4 euros each) today. Saint George Castle is a hilltop citadel with geese, ducks, cats and peacocks roaming around the castle gardens. Conquered by the Moors in 1147, Saint George Castle has an area of around 6000 square metres with several towers, look-outs, a dry moat and two squares divided by an internal wall with a connecting door. The Ogival House has five ogival arches, where you can see the 17th-century door that made the connection to the jails once located here. The fortified walls are very impressive and the views of the city are spectacular. Oskar took many photos including the sunset. We went walking around the castle. Oskar walked along the castle wall and ramparts. I went up there but didn’t feel comfortable with the height. In fact, at one point during Oskar’s journey around the castle wall, it was so narrow that he even felt uncomfortable. My anxiety related to heights left me sitting on a bench under the trees watching the sunset. It was enough for me.
We then decided to walk down towards the Alfama. It was getting dark, but it was still nice to see the area. We walked down to the Baixa to see all the Christmas lights, which were quite spectacular. It was about 7 pm by then and so we decided that since it was Christmas eve it was better to make our way back to Carcavelos to find a place for dinner. We walked over to the train station, jumped on a train that was just about to leave and made our way back in 19 minutes. It went very smoothly.
We had a brief rest in the hotel and then made our way towards Cascais where we thought we might find dinner. Interestingly, it was quiet there too. We only saw three open places: a Thai restaurant that Oskar immediately said no to, an English pub called Checquers, and a nice looking place called Baia Grill in the Baia hotel on the seaside. We decided on that the latter one. However, when we went into the Grill, the waiter told us that dinner was for hotel guests only, which was a bit of a surprise since the Christmas menu was outside of the restaurant door. We started walked towards the next place, but we saw that there was a Baia restaurant next to the grill and decided to go into it to ask about dinner. Oddly enough, the waiter said okay. He asked us about the grill and we told him what the guy told us and he said, okay, no problem. We had the same menu and it was very pleasant. My main dish was a wonderful grilled octopus that was so tender, it was incredible. It was served with baby potatoes, and roasted small onions. Oskar ate a squid/prawn skewer. Both were great. We started with soup. Oskar had a seafood soup and I had a curry clam soup with cilantro. It was very tasty. We had a ½ bottle of BSE and felt very satisfied. It was a close call!
