Weather: 34º C and Sunny with some clouds

It was pointed out to us in our summary of Spain that we failed to mention the food. That was an oversight as we really enjoyed the food although did struggle with some things.

The things we struggled with were:

• lack of vegetables with the main dishes and the inability to order them even as sides. We got around this by sharing a salad as the first course. There were many varieties of salads and they were generally very good and always large enough to be shared.
• we know potatoes are a vegetable and there was no lack of potatoes. More often than not however they came as French fries and while that was not our preferred way of eating potatoes it became just that. The good thing was they were not over fried and quite tasty – probably fried in olive oil.
• there was a lot of salt used in the cooking which is something that we don’t use a lot of at home.
• sometimes we did not get what we thought we were getting but this was an issue over language and never proved too challenging.

On the positive side we:

• loved their goat and sheep cheeses. Oddly enough it was probably less salty than the varieties we get at home. There is also a variety of goats cheese here called drunken goats cheese which has been soaked in red wine for 2 or 3 days. Had some of this on cheese plates.
• liked their tortilla or Spanish omelette. It was generally served cold but sometimes slightly warmed.
• really liked their anchovies in olive oil. These were bigger than ones we get at home.
• of course enjoyed chorizo and Spanish salamis. Hard to beat these.
• liked the many available ham styles. Some of these were superb especially the smoked varieties.
• had some beautiful paellas – generally seafood. Usually needed to have them for 2 or more people.
• imbibed the wine – fantastic reds especially the Tempranillo. They chill their red wines and in the temperatures that we have been experiencing it makes a big difference. We did experience this a bit in Australia in the summer but more restaurants should do it. Difficult to find the whites as good as we get in NZ but we did occasionally.

The positives way outnumbered the negatives. Apparently Portugal has better food than Spain; can’t wait as it is going to be hard to beat.

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Now for Lisbon. Had a pretty quiet day today as we headed to the old part of town. It was all down hill from our hotel – not too steep but we may feel the return trip depending upon the heat. First stop was the tourist information centre which was well signposted. As we are here for a week we needed to investigate the various travel cards which also provide discounts for tickets into some venues. We have not selected one yet but will get one later in the week.

Next was the Santa Justa Elevator built in 1901 to facilitate easier movement between the lower Baixa area and the upper Carmo Square. The elevator is part of the city’s historical tramway network (haven’t been on one of them yet but we will). Once off the elevator we went into the Carmo Museum. We read that this was a bit “quirky”. The museum was originally a monastery and church (gothic). Badly damaged in an earthquake in 1755 which was followed by a fire, it was being restored soon after but there was not the money to continue with the restoration. Hence its present condition. Part of it is now an open air museum containing many of the larger archaeological pieces found in Lisbon and the greater area, and a covered transept area holding other pieces including Egyptian (eg mummies) along with early Roman artefacts. We found it very interesting and enjoyable.

Out onto the Carmo Square for lunch then a walk down the hill to the waterfront. Passed a number of important statues being cleaned up in one of the main squares, a number of streets where trams still operated (both new and old style trams sharing the same tracks), some government buildings etc. This area of town could do with a good cleaning of the streets and footpaths as could quite a bit of the area that we walked around in today. Perhaps it is the result of cost cutbacks by the government – shame if it is. At the waterfront we could see the Abril suspension bridge, obviously inspired by the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge and above it on the hills the “Christ the King” statue inspired by the similar statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

As we could see the top of the Cathedral from the waterfront we decided to go there. An uphill climb among debris and homeless (more than we have seen anywhere else) we arrived at this less than inspiring building. Entering it did not help but then we have seen some of the most decorated and lavish cathedrals in Europe in Spain. Some restoration work was still going on in the Cathedral but we did not realise how bad it was until we paid to go into the cloister and the treasury.

Normally the cloister surrounds a garden. In this instance it surrounded a archaeological dig. We can just imagine what happened. Someone was digging out an old tree and dug down to get out the roots. They found some relics so contacted various people who contact UNESCO and now there is a 20 foot pit where the garden should be. In there they found foundations of a fort from prehistoric, roman, visigothic and Moorish times all with accompanying relics. We did not realise that pre historic people build forts however there is such evidence. The cloister however is not in good shape and we are surprised we were allowed to wander around in it. The Treasury was different from others we had visited. The majority of the exhibits were of eclestiacal clothing and other items rather than a lot of gold and silver objects.

Now it was back uphill to the hotel for a breather before going out. We went to a nearby restaurant which was closed yesterday. We struggled with the menu a bit as it was in Portuguese and the waiter, knowing no English at all, suggested a dish called Bacalhau Fresco. Bacalhau is a dried and salted cod dish whereas Bacalhau Fresco is fresh cod. Neither of us were sure that this was cod but it was tasty and, of course, it was salty. It was definitely not dried as we saw what they cooked. It was a good evening and the waiters were really great with a lot of interaction and bantering going on between us. Some red house wine helped things along. The coffee afterwards was excellent as most of the coffee we have had on this trip has been.