The best thing about the light rail project in Manchester is they are actually expanding and improving it, they even just finished a new line that runs all the way to the airport - cheap and convenient.
There was total chaos when we arrived at the check-in counters. We were flying with Portugal's main airline TAP and they had a crap counter location with Norwegian and others. There was just one big mass of people trying to get to five different airlines, no lines were set up so it took about half an hour to get everyone through.
The flight to Lisbon only arrived about thirty minutes late, which was good considering we had delays boarding as well as that annoying circling-the-airport-waiting-to-land routine.
My Three UK mobile plan had data for several European countries...except Portugal wasn't one of them. I also didn't have a map yet so I had to make a bit of a guess which underground station to get off at to reach the hotel - my printed Google Map didn't have quite enough information. It all worked well and it was time to go explore the city, however it was 4:30pm already!
My first thoughts while walking the streets of Lisbon on the way to another train station:
- There are some English signs around, should be enough to get by
- There are not many street signs
- The traffic seems a bit chaotic
- The train stations not very well marked, I almost walked past it
I took the train down to Marques de Pombal square. There was a big column in the middle of the large, busy roundabout and one half was bounded by Parque Eduardo VII (a park) that I might try to revisit later. We started to look for an early dinner since a proper lunch didn't really happen with all of the travel. The first place had a very odd menu for a burger joint, like rice with spinach as the side - everyone knows chips are meant to be the side.
A lot of the restaurants have a shut down period in the afternoon and don't open up again until sometimes 7:30pm or later, so I settled for a Burger King because it was within walking distance. All of the menu items only came in M, L and XL, and they had a double patty "bean burger" that looked like a veggie pattie you would get at Subway. The burger was surprisingly better than my low expectations, it was some combination of red lentils and black beans and it came with crinkle cut fries instead of the crappy shoestring ones. Jason got a chicken burger which was bite sized, or it may have just looked like that next to the XL drink cup that was more than one litre! The best part however was that I was finally able to use my PIN with the credit card instead of having to sign everything.
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| The bean burger. |
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| At least I got some chicken? |
We set off down the Avenida da Liberdade, a long tree-lined street that reminded me a bit of Las Ramblas in Barcelona, but it was more of a business area. About half way along I just happened to catch the entrance to the Lavra funicular down a side street. The vehicle and all of the walls along the slope were covered in graffiti, there was just enough room for a small staircase to walk up alongside the tram as well, it only took a few minutes whichever option you took. There was also the Cloria funicular across the other side of the street, but it looked about the same so I didn't investigate that one.
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| Fun footpaths. |
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| The two funiculars passing by. |
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| The funicular track. |
At the end of the avenue I reached a couple of squares:
- Restauradores Square
- I think it means restaurants square
- There was a terrific Eden Theatre building full of trees growing up from the balcony
- Rossio Square
- Got a Chocolate Cornetto McFlurry, disappointing and mostly just a lot of chocolate sauce
- Souvenir shops everywhere, I found a magnet in one of the back streets
- A huge line for the Santa Justa elevadore
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| Garden of Eden I guess they were going for. |
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| Not sure, but it looked cool. |
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| Rossio Square. |
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| McFlurry's. |
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| The elevadore. |
I went to get the train back to hotel but just missed it yet again, it wasn't a problem because instead of having a fixed schedule they just run very regular trains on every line, at about 6 minute intervals all day.
The hotel review:
- The location is alright, close to a metro station
- Spacious room
- Comes with a fridge (one everything from the mini bar was moved out of the way)
- Small fitness room
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