We booked into a hotel in the newer part of Lisbon, which is nowhere near as interesting or convenient as the apartment near Rossio Square, but it’s been fine for a couple of days. I’ve spent most of it lying in bed, self-medicating with Voltaren and Panadol. Greg has explored the area and made good use of the free Wi-Fi in the hotel foyer.

We’re back on the road (or rail, in my case) today. Greg set off early this morning to walk 28kms to Vila Franca de Xira, I’m catching a train there this afternoon. It will probably take Greg 7 or 8 hours. The train ride will take me less than an hour. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking – why don’t we just take the train all the time? Because I won’t see, or smell, or notice, anything much from the train’s dirty window, and while he’s walking, Greg will.

My back is much better now, but I’ll give it another couple of days before I do the whole walking all day with a rucksack thing. We’ll each post more about our day later.

A few thoughts before we set off – I feel like we’re better prepared this time, in part because we know what to expect, but also because we have spent the last 2 weeks walking …. in Singapore, in Rome and Milan, and in Lisbon. In addition, we’ve acclimatised and  we’re used to the local time zone. Last time we finished work at our very sedentary jobs, left Adelaide in winter and started walking 2 days later in the south of France in late summer.

We had intended to do a few last-minute things today, in preparation for starting our walk tomorrow, but we’ll have time to do them in the morning before we set off. We’re planning on walking 13kms north tomorrow,catch a train back to Lisbon and spend one last night here. Then on Friday we’ll pack up and vacate the apartment, get a train back to where we stopped walking and keep on going 17km to our next destination. The alternative was to walk the whole 30kms in one day and on Day 1 of our long walk that seemed somewhat ambitious …. or perhaps even downright unrealistic.

We went to the Basilica dos Martires, the only church in Lisbon that issues credencials pilgrim pasports, and which also has the only chapel dedicated to Santiago Saint James. We have to go back tomorrow to get our credencials, but while we were there, I lit a couple of candles and put in a good word with  Santiago … well, it can’t hurt, can it?

And then we caught a bus to Belem, an historic district a few kms from the centre of Lisbon, to worship at the temple of Portuguese custard tarts, the Casa Pastéis de Belém. Greg’s photos below probably tell the story better than I could write it, but I’ll just add that the time lapse between the ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots of the plate was 10 minutes at the most. Those tarts were delicious, and they were still warm when the waiter brought them to us! I can’t even begin to imagine how many tarts are baked there every day, but it must be thousands, if not tens of thousands.There are 60 dozen tarts in the bakery shot below.

One of the many rooms of the bakery Pasteis de Belem, and nearly everyone is eating Portuguese Custard Tarts

Baking Tarts

Greg buying strawberries for A$3 per Kilogram

monumento dos descobrimentos, Monument to Portguese explorers

We’re staying in an apartment just off Praça de Dom Pedro IV – ‘The Rossio’, which is one of the main squares in Lisbon. The view from our window is the National Theatre D. Maria II, and the door behind the columns in the photos is the actors’ entrance. Our apartment is on the 4th floor and there are 84 steps from the ground floor. We’ve walked up and down them 4 times today – great training for our long walk, and a good way to walk off the rather large number of Pasteis de Nata Portuguese custard tarts we have consumed today.

We caught the number 28 tram this morning with an interesting mix of locals, tourists and a pick-pocket or 2 …. or maybe more. A man made a bit of a fuss trying to open a window behind where Greg was standing, whilst his female ‘helper’ tried unsuccessfully to help herself to the contents of Greg’s shirt pocket. The tram winds through side streets and up amazing hills. We just happened to hop off at the Flea Markets which are held very Tuesday and Saturday. Had a wander around, didn’t buy anything and kept on walking along the tram route. We found morning tea in one of the many, many cake shops, then kept on walking until we found a metro station just a couple of stops away from Rossio, which is the one on the main square and the closest one to where we’re staying.

Most of the streets and footpaths are paved with cobblestones. We have seen lots of shoe shops selling high-heeled shoes, but I can’t imagine wearing them around here, the streets and paths are so uneven.

This afternoon we caught a bus a few kms north to the National Tile Museum. It had been recommended to me by someone in Adelaide, and it was well worth a visit – beautiful displays of wall and floor tiles, a lot of them blue & white or blue, yellow and white.

And tonight we cooked dinner, for the first time since we left home, and enjoyed it with a glass or two of Portuguese red wine which was given to us by Travelling to Lisbon, the tour company who organised the apartment.

View at night from outside our apartment in Lisbon Portugal

the same view the next morning

The Rossio Square (click for larger picture)

84 steps up, and thats after walking up the hill!- the apartment (arrowed)

There is a bakery evey 100 metres in Lisbon. With Portuguese Custard tarts in every one