Monday, 28 November 2016 - In our humble opinion 3 pm is the best possible time to ever book a flight. Anything up to 10 am means getting up foolish-early and quite possibly in the dark. Not to mention wasting part of your hotel time by checking out early. Anything in the evening seems like a cracking idea... until you realise you'll be traipsing about town and tiring yourself out all afternoon - not to mention arriving late into your next destination. 3 pm is by far the best time for us and we'll endeavour to stick to it going forward. We left the hotel in Dublin at midday, had a good cab to the airport - the driver even went and got us a trolley! First time that's happened. We settled into our exit row seats and had a lovely smooth flight from Dublin to Lisbon - even lovelier because we had a tail wind and the 2 hour 50 minute flight flew by in just on 2 hours and 30 minutes - legend! Our first impressions of Lisbon were also fine - Out of the Arrivals door, 2 minute wait for the next cab and only 10 euro into town to our small but perfectly formed guest house - Martim Moniz 28. (Only 13 rooms over two floors of an older building). This was an absolute gem of a find at 27 euro per night for our relatively large twin room with a little balcony and a small table and chairs. The balcony overlooked the route of the 12E historic tram as it hauled itself up the hill to Lisbon Castle. Picturesque indeed (don't worry - it stopped at 8.15 pm every evening and there was double glazing and roller-shutters... picturesque and quiet!) It had a shared bathroom which isn't usually our thing - but it seemed like we were the only people actually sharing it and it was just across the hall from our room. Pretty sure we had the extra nice room as we were there for 7 nights which is long term for anyone in Lisbon. And the beds - soooo comfy!!! Brand new and squishy and soft and lovely and probably the best hotel beds we've had at anything less than a 5 star hotel. The staff helped us lug our bags up the stairs and we dashed off almost immediately to allow for a good look around town and lots of oohing and ahhing at the Christmas lights. Decidedly peckish at 7pm and decided to eat immediately - Ended up at a pillar of Lisbon/Portuguese cuisine - the Alif Kebab House on a side street between Martim Moniz Square and Rossio Square. We never knew this, but the vast majority of Lisbon's population was actually born in Bangladesh - we're pretty sure we'd met six of of them prior to ordering dinner. I went with a falafel concoction but James went 'local' immediately and ordered the Bitoque. This is a Portuguese staple and is served at pretty much every food establishment. We didn't check McDonalds (but we wouldn't be surprised if they had a version too). Bitoque consists of pork steak with chips and salad and a fried egg on top. His meal included a soft drink and a coffee too. Now it seems there is even an unofficial Bitoque Index in Lisbon. The average or going rate for the meal is around 8 euro. Anything less is a bargain, anything more is a rort. So at €5.50 dinner was a steal. Might have had something to do with it being a kebab house run by Bangladeshi guys on a side street. Nevertheless, clean, friendly, yummy and they also sell that other staple... wood fired pizzas. Might have to go back another night. After dinner we enjoyed the fresh night air and walked from Rossio Square all the way down the pedestrianised Rua Augusta to the sparkling riverfront where we listened to buskers strumming Portuguese guitars (of course here, they're just called guitars). The Christmas Lights in Lisbon have been amazing so far and we have re-christened several streets in their honour - Umbrella Street, Bauble Street, Horse Street, Shooting Star Street and Bow Street just to name a few. One thing we found interesting on night one was the drugs (Drug Street would have to be classy and sparkling Rua Augusta). Not our thing, but they are essentially decriminalised in Portugal - so whilst they don't have the legal & taxed coffee shops of Amsterdam and open, legal consumption, we were offered hash and weed several times in the 30 minutes it took to stroll down town, coke only once. Persistent guys. Quite often 'no thank you' was taken to mean 'yes please but we want to haggle on price'. No Means No. Plans for tomorrow? Well obviously, not buying drugs and definitely Free Walking Tour Day! Can't wait to get our boots on the ground and see what Lisbon has to offer other than comfy beds, cheap eats, twinkly lights and shifty dudes with drugs...
Tuesday, 29 November 2016 - Our groovy little guesthouse even has a kitchen, which we'll get around to soon. We were up at at 'em by 8.45 am and trundled downstairs to see our 'hood in daylight - happy to report just around the corner was Pastelaria Capelos - strong coffee, a massive ham & cheese toasted sandwich between the two of us. Perfect. And should we ever need to hit the top shelf booze at 9 in the morning, we'll know where to come for it. When it's written down, Portuguese is very similar to Spanish, Italian etc. When spoken we find it's like a depressed Spanish person with a Russian accent... will take some getting used to. We eventually followed our iPad and a lot of window shopping to Luis de Camoes Square and still had 40 minutes to spare. We discovered at breakfast even a €10 note is considered 'big money' and unchangeable in small concerns. So nipped into a bank and changed a couple of fifty euro notes into fives and tens. Aside from anything else, we'll need to tip our free guide and there's no need to go getting carried away. The bank took a solid 5 minutes so we eventually tried one of Lisbon's coffee kiosks. Just a coffee and a couple of mini Portuguese tarts... liking Lisbon very well so far. We've also been lucky so far with the weather - Tuesday is the first fine day they've had in a week. The Sandemans New Europe tour kicked off at 11 am with about 20 people in tow which was a nice number. These are our go-to guys for free tours throughout Europe and always have great guides - today was no exception and the 2.5 hours flew by. Walking with a guide is hands-down our best thing to do on day one in any new city - particularly one like Lisbon (also known as the city of seven hills)... Pascal made sure we started at a high point - a miradouro or lookout over all of Lisbon and the castle - and wended down from there. The first major stop was Igreja Sao Roque church (patron saint of diseases and dogs apparently... learn something every day). Stunning church with a trompe l'oeil ceiling that was very convincingly arched but in reality just a flat, painted wooden surface. It also had a truly beautiful chapel designed for impressing foreign dignitaries - marbles and alabasters of many colours and solid gold decorations essentially funded by the Brazilian slave trade. As a group we walked along the main pedestrian street, Rua Augusta, down towards the Arch (Arco de Augusta) and finished in Commercial Square, right on the waterfront. Turns out our tour guide, apparently a history buff, has not actually been to the Millenium Bank's Roman ruins site as we were quizzing him on it as we passed by... shame on him. We nipped in after the tour and booked onto the 5 pm free tour as we returned to have lunch in Rossio Square. Another Portuguese staple is the Bifana. It's a juicy grilled pork steak in a large crunchy roll, slathered with mustard. We shared one of these as a perfect lunch starter dish and paired it with a shot of ginjinha - a cherry liqueur that is popular with Lisbon-ites at any hour of the day or night as a little 'pick me up' (Cherries = Fruit = Healthy). We decided to hit the supermarket and take some nosh home to sit on our little balcony and watch the historic no. 12 trams go by. As it turns out white port, roast chicken, cheese and bread makes for a delightful tram watching feast. Managed to put feet up for a while and eventually shut our eyes for just 10 minutes (literally - even set an alarm) then headed out for our 5 pm tour. 99% private! Just us and a Hungarian guy. Which was lucky as its a brilliantly designed tour given space constraints, but still involved bending at the waist for the low bits. (Though not for the world's shortest bank employee who didn't have to bend at all - probably why she got the tour guide job). Because it was just the 3 of us the hour long tour only took 30 minutes and that's pretty good for 2500 years of human history in Lisbon. We actually feel for the Millennium Bank and it's site between Rua Augusta and Rua dos Correeiros... they went to dig an underground carpark and instead came across an archaeological find with multiple levels of human history going back to the 3rd-5th centuries BC. In fact the first layers of the historical onion are now 4 metres or 13 feet below current street level. When it began... Carthage, then Rome, the Visigoths then Islam in 714 AD. Busy, busy. Right up till the Christian reconquest in 1147 (got there a bit earlier than in Spain). There was even a stray burial from around the 5th century which sparked everyones curiosity as it should never have been found in a fish salting factory! We absorbed so much history from our time underground - amazing that it was all there - just piled in, layer upon layer then eventually in 1755 when the medieval centre of Lisbon was completely destroyed by the earthquake, tsunami and fire, the remnants were just piled up, levelled out and the downtown of today was build on top of it. Wow. We shared a wood fired pizza for dinner, said hi to the guys at the kebab house... then conked out. All the way out.

Wednesday, 30 November 2016 - Lisbon and trams go together like bread and jam. We didn't stop for breakfast, just bought our all day transport ticket for 6.50 each at about 8 am and kick started our travel outing with the full run of the historic 28E - electric tram from Martim Moniz, just 3 minutes from the guest house, all the way to Prazeres - about a 45 minute trip - and then jumped straight back on and came back - much more intelligible on the return voyage as we knew some of the things we were looking for. Jumped off at the Miradouro/Viewpoint at Santa Luzia and took in the expansive views out over the Alfama district and the river and saw a huge cruise-ship in port - which explained the large crowds for the trams. (Normally there are crowds... today, large crowds.) From there we climbed up the rest of the hill and considered, very briefly, spending 8.50 each to look around a re-constituted castle... naah - instead took a walk around the old walls of Lisbon - some of the ancient bits are still there - beautiful wandering area. We jumped back on the E28 and off again in Graca when we spotted a nice looking pastelaria - or coffee shop/cake shop/bar... There were a couple of nice looking older women standing at the counter having a coffee (and something?) Utterly hammered at about 10 am. Barely able to stand up - not sure if they started very early today or were finishing yesterday very late. We attacked the promotional (as in 'yesterday's tray) and snaffled breakfast - little mushroom tarts, portuguese egg tarts or Pastel de Nata and a couple of other morsels for 50 cents each. Bought a couple of cappucinos and settled in to watch the people. Then back on the tram - they are particularly busy today due to some being reserved for the screeds of tourists invading via the P&O ship. Off again at The Se - which does have an accent over the 'e' but hard to do on an English keyboard. The Se is Lisbon's cathedral and very imposing - but after the baroque grandeur, marble and gold of Sao Roque's - a bit drab. Lots of focussing on the state of one's immortal soul could be accomplished in The Se. Back on the tram - the E12 this time (where 'e' stands for electrico). Interestingly enough the lovely historic trams were actually constructed in England. Where then... Ah hah! Back into Baixa (Bye-sha) or the down town then strolled to the Elevador de Santa Justa - or, as I have christened it, the poor man's Eiffel tower as it was designed by an apprentice to Monsieur Eiffel himself. We were more than happy to do this - as it was included in our all day tickets, but if you just turn up to pay your money - it's €5 euro! Crazy money for a few minutes in a large posh lift. Very nice view at the top nevertheless. We had hoped to do it again in the evening and enjoy the city lights... so when we finished dinner next door at an Asian Buffet we nipped straight to the elevador which we knew closed at 9 pm... or, as it turns out, sometime prior to 8.45 pm... the rain, you know. We did however get tonnes of use out of our passes as we visited 2 of the other funiculars - Gloria and Lavra and essentially just jumped in and enjoyed the ride up and down the hills - 1000 percent better than hauling selves up 100s of steps, that's for sure. On the Funicurla Gloria there was also a gallery of urban art to look at. That's posh talk for graffiti. Walked home from the top of one hill which was great and eventually found ourselves at the Mercado Figueria in Placa de Figueria (imagine). Nowadays an upper echelon supermarket but also has a nice bakery/cafe counter. We trotted back there at 7pm (prior to heading to our Asian buffet dinner), to see what the Happy Hour fuss was about. Brilliant! - Everything half price! People were buying up a storm - soups, bread, juices, cakes and savouries. As an example, we'll be having quiche for breakfast in the morning along with crunchy rolls and jam. We ended our transport day (trams/elevators/funiculars) with shanks's pony back to the guest house. After a fine day for our walking tour on Tuesday, Wednesday has seen the heavens open and it looks like the rain might be settling in for a few days. An excellent opportunity to head indoors to some of Lisbon's museums and galleries.

Thursday, 1 December 2016 - It was pouring this morning. A continuation of last night's rain which definitely hasn't stopped. So getting up was a huge challenge. Didn't get a cup of tea into us into around 8.30 am. Then needed even further encouragement to shower, dress and mooch into the kitchen to sort out our quiche and crusty rolls with raspberry jam. And a couple of cups of steaming hot, stand-your-spoon up coffee out of the drip-o-lator. We had such a fab and filling time at the oriental buffet last night (and spent over 40 euros in one day for breakfast, lunch and dinner) that today was economico day. So lunch was also from our supermarket steals last night and dinner will be too. Why save money with a vengeance you might ask? Because after we stumbled about our room all morning, reading/planning/reviewing our adventures and listening to the rain, it fined up and we bought Lisbon Passes! Woohoo - utter exhaustion predicted. The funny thing is, for a 3 day pass, the cost for each of us is 39 euro. But just for 3 days worth of public transport, the cost is 18 euro... So a mere extra 7 euro a day for 3 days means loads of great galleries, museums, etc to visit for free and discounts on everything else. Magic and very 'economico'. With passes in hand we left the house at lunchtime and proceeded to flog ourselves to imminent exhaustion with sightseeing. We took the #15 modern tram out to Mosteiro dos Jeronimos in the pretty neighbourhood of Belem. The Mosteiro is a grand monastery funded by taxes levied on Portuguese trade. A testament to the construction in the 15th and 16th century that the monastery suffered very little damage in the earthquake of 1 Nov 1755. In fact Belem, just a 30 minute tramride along the modern day waterfront, was essentially untouched. It's no wonder the survivors of the 9.0 richter scale quake and the tsunami and fires that raged for a week wondered what they'd done to displease god... given that the vast majority of 'good' Lisbonites were in Church that morning for All Saints Day services and it was the heathens (muslims, jews, assorted Africans) who survived... In the building next to the Monastery we visited the Archeological Museum of Lisbon 'just because' - an incredible trove of ancient Egyptian artifacts but the highlight was their treasury room of gold and silver... which had the strangest security screening we've ever seen. Basically take off your bags and metal bits, walk through a metal detector then gather up your bags (and presumably all your treasure-nicking kit) and head in to the treasure. And when you leave (with your ill-gotten gold and silver in your bag) you just stroll out. On a positive note, cos we are positive people, the security check point was providing employment for 2 people. One to give instructions to visitors and one to keep him company. It was a bit of a walk to the next stop - always a toss up whether to enjoy the sun and fine weather and hoof it, or wait for a tram, but we hoofed it (it had been pouring rain all morning). Eventually we arrived at the Tower of Belem, a little fort that once guarded the entrance to the River Tejo and was built in the 1500s. The visit to the tower itself was a doddle with our passes - no queuing up which is a blessing in any faith. From there we could see the Padrao dos Descobrimentos - the monument to the Discoveries. This was the centre piece for the 1940 world expo - unfortunately completely under scaffolding - not even 100 years old and in worse nick than the 1500's Tower of Belem! Picnic lunch watching the waves crash around the base of the Tower. 30 minutes til the next tram - so got a bus 3 stops to Belem itself and nipped into the Museu Nacional dos Coches - or Cinderella's Parking Lot as it shall henceforth be known. Quick lap, back out the door and just a few minutes wait until the #15 trundled past. Trouble was it was packed and even once packed, more got on... so many we couldn't get to the door to push the button to get off at our stop for the Museu Nacional del Arte Antigua - or Ancient Art. Full of painting and jewellery extraordinaire. The hike back one whole stop and 300 odd steps to get up to it was pretty extraordinaire too. We were feeling like just so much ancient graffiti by that point. It was all we could to do drag selves back down the stairs, onto the tram and home - time for a feets up then off to our local market for 7 pm happy hour - this evening's half price selection for our dinner dining pleasure? Pumpkin soup, crusty rolls, cod-cake/empanadas - bargain. So nice having a kitchen in the guest house and dining in the boudoir with our table, chairs and balcony to see the world go by. Tomorrow? The way we're feeling, it may never come. Could be a day around town and risking exhaustion break down verses trotting out to Sintra for a day trip and guaranteeing it.

Friday, 2 December 2016 - Town won today. Just couldn't face the Sintra trip and have decided to save it for the next time we visit Portugal, probably on a housesit. We strolled down to Rossio Square and visited The Lisbon Story. Combination Audio Visual, historical, interior headphones on type walking tour which consolidated a lot of the history we've been soaking up over the last few days. We also climbed to the top of the Arch of Augusta and took in the views over the square, the city and the silvery sunshine hitting the river. The arch simply doesn't look that high from the ground (or the statues that large), but we were actually at the same height as the top of the Santa Justa elevador. We visited the ruins of the Roman theatre from the time of Emperor Augusta. Not very good as Roman ruins go... but given they're over 2000 years old, and the earthquake and the invasions and Islam and so forth - utter miracle there's anything there at all, so worth a look with our trusty Lisbon Passes. We took a historic tram just because it was fun and ended up in Graca again, but this time we didn't visit our Pastelaria. Instead we sat in the tram for around 40 minutes before giving up and walking home. Some utter fool had decided near enough was close enough and left the back end of his car encroaching about 2 inches in the tram route. Luckily I'm not a tram driver as I would have kept going though it probably would have damaged the tram. It was tram gridlock with 4 lined up behind ours and the Lisbon approach to dealing with such nonsense is not police/tow trucks and fines but rather coffee and cigarettes. What can we say - a country that has a concept and a tradition of revelling in misery... (in fact you can google a BBC article about the European country that loves being sad to find out more) - we think he doesn't go into it enough... Maybe they just don't like English speakers as they assume we are English/UK people... but these are a sad sack bunch of people - buying anything in a shop is about 80% of the time accompanied by heaving. Then sighing. Can't figure out if they'd be happier if we didn't actually buy or say anything or if it would make them worse. The Bangladeshi guys are always happy though... it's a relative thing). We are always in a state of fancying sushi, particularly the affordable kind, so it was back to the Asian buffet tonight (2 people, Buffet, bottle of wine - less than €25/A$36). And it's run by a happy bunch of Chinese folks. Before heading in we used our Lisbon passes and the fine weather to get right to the top of the Santa Justa Elevador - WOW! Lisbon by night is breathtaking. If we did a 'must do in Lisbon' list, this would be on it. We walked off the buffet and back to the guest house via a massive lap of Lisbon including City Hall - gorgeous by night and a stroll around one of the largest squares in Europe - Placa do Comercio / Commercial Square. Fine weather. Gotta love it!

Saturday 3 December 2016 0 Today was a day of contrasts - the worse museum in Lisbon and probably one of the best. First off we enjoyed a lap on the E12 historic tram that goes up our street roughly 3 times an hour from 6 am til around 9 pm. Three went past within seconds of each other... then we waited for another 25 minutes. Roughly. We've had bad luck with the tramskis. Eventually did our lap then walked to the Museu do Chiado - Contemporary Art from 1850 onwards. Which aside from the installations would normally be up our alley. Our first mistake was following very clear street signs. That put us in the School of Fine Arts. Looked like a museum. Was definitely, 100% in the spot the signs directed us to. Figured we'd gone in the back door. Asked the guy on guard duty if he sold tickets. No. Waved us off. Continued on looking for ticket counter. Got ran down by a guard actually doing his job... who led us out and directed us around two more corners to the other side of the block. As it turns out the MNAC was in an interesting building. It's been housed in the Sao Francisco da Cidade monastery since 1911. Some beautiful brick vaulted ceilings and ovens in the oven room which were constructed between 1830 and 1840 by the owner at the time. There were some nice bronze sculptures in the garden and some interesting oil paintings from Portuguese contemporaries of Picasso... but unless you really enjoy your contemporary art... can't say we enjoyed it much. We were admittedly a bit grumpy from getting the run around. Perhaps we are becoming Portuguese? Next stop was the best museum of the day and actually free! Down in the gorgeous Bank of Portugal headquarters building next to City Hall we went to the Museum of Money or the Museu do Dinheiro (see... very similar to the Spanish Dinero...) It took 5 minutes just to get through security and into the building. You might think it would make more sense to check people for sticky fingers on the way out of the building with the gold and silver, but obviously could be seen as an easy target for political statements. The building is actually the former Church of Sao Juliao (which used to be a few blocks away) After the 1755 earthquake (remember 9.0 on the Richter scale), the church was rebuilt in Largo de Sao Juliao. On the ruins of another destroyed church. It was completed in 1810 and six years later the contents were destroyed by fire. Those repairs took til 1854. Truly would have thought they'd have got the hint by then. The building has been owned by the Banco de Portugal since the 1930s when they deconsecrated it and converted it to vaults and a cash distribution centre. (Money in! 300 bodies, out!) 2012 saw a massive rehabilitation of the Pombaline downtown area presumably with a big influx of EU money and now this historic building contains the Bank's Money Museum. A highlight for us was walking through the massive vault doors just to get into reception/the ticket counter. Followed by the chance to handle a 12.69 kg gold bar. Incredibly heavy relative to its size and it makes you realise how silly Hollywood can be when the bank robbers are flipping these things into bags like they weigh nothing. The Museum was one of the best we've seen in Lisbon and we spent ages wandering about - certainly the first time either of us have seen a 500 euro note, loads of counterfeit and even notes from all over the world - including the many and varied bank notes from Europe prior to the Euro. We were also surprised to see part of the medieval city walls in the basement of the museum. King Dinis's wall stood for around 75 years in the 1200s, protecting Lisbon's people and goods from attackers coming from the riverside. The remnants and artefacts have been well conserved and placed in their historical context - and are an attraction in themselves. It seems in Lisbon if you're planning to build a carpark or just do some renovations... you better be prepared for a historical time capsule under your premises. Here they found not only a medieval wall... also 300 skeletons to be exhumed! The weather was sub-par this morning but perfect for ducks and hanging out in museums, however after having lunch on our balcony the torrents really came down, our street turned into a river and we read and relaxed all afternoon. The promised Xmas market in our nearby square died an early death - they didn't even set it up. The evening will see dinner and just a stroll around the shops and lovely Christmas lights. Probably in wellies.

Sunday 4 December 2016 - There are times, very rarely, when travelling in the off season can be a nuisance. Actually this is the first time for us. It was still chucking it down rain-wise this morning, but weather is weather... no one's ever dissolved in water. So we got our coats on and nipped down to Rossio Square to catch the bus to the Tile Museum, a few kms away. Well that's where it used to leave from anyway. Then we walked to Commercial Square and realised we were smack in the middle of the Lisbon Marathon. Thousands of water-proof people running their socks off (unlike in Malaga, Spain - where the event was cancelled on the starting line due to severe rain and flooding). We, and a great many other tourists, eventually realised that transport was simply not going to be happening for at least a couple more hours. Gave up. Went home. Dried off. Ate lunch. Started again and went to one of the official, yes it's expensive but you've got to do it attractions in Lisbon. The Museu Calouste Gulbenkian has a collection of around 6000 items literally collected by Mr Gulbenkian and added to since. It is phenomenal. It is €10 to go in. It's not even on the Lisbon Pass and it's free from 2 pm on Sundays. Woo hoo! We took Lisbon's incredible metro out to the 'burbs and arrived about 2.30 pm - Spent the next 2 hours going 'ooohhhh - wrap it up!' Gainsborough, Turner, Sargent, Rodin. Huge amounts of oriental art, carpets, lights, furniture, sculpture and eventually, the piece de resistance - the Lalique Room. Filled to the brim with more Lalique than we've ever seen in one spot, bought by the collector from Rene Lalique himself. If I ever must be locked in a museum overnight - never mind the Natural History Night at the Museum - just leave me in Lalique land and I'll spend the night trying on the jewels. Hard to believe it after the inundation of recent days, but by the time we left the museum, the sky was blue and the sun was shining. November is indeed a strange and rare month in Lisbon. This evening we hit carnivore-heaven - Buffet do Leao, tucked behind Rossio Square and hugely popular with meat lovers, mainly locals by the look. They had many large, sword skewers with roast pork, beef, chicken etc - shaved off churrasco style. Great spot and we very fortunately arrived and got a table immediately at 7 pm then about 20 people queued up. Good house wine too - just like everywhere else in Lisbon - Woo hoo!

Monday 5 December 2016 - We did have plans today - afterall the sun was shining, the sky was blue and it wasn't actually pouring with rain. Coulda' done this, coulda done that - coulda, shoulda, woulda... didn't. What we did do as a precursor to even leaving the guesthouse was pack. Altogether now: "Packing Day"! Arrrgh! Could well be the moisture in the air, which is super high after all the rain. Everything we own feels vaguely damp. Unless it's actually just plain wet. Well it all seems to have swollen up and proved a right nuisance to get back into the bags. On a positive note, instead of Aer Lingus's awkward 20 kg Checked / 10 kg Cabin combo, we were back to 23 kg Checked / 8 kg Cabin on TAP Portugal... which worked much better - not least because it's an extra kilo each. I managed an extra pair of shoes and some raspberry jam for tomorrow's breakfast, James had some tinned Portuguese sardines. Oh... alright... there were two pairs of new earrings and a necklace in my gear as well. Just don't know how it happens. So eventually, with the bags safely packed we finally headed out into the sunshine. All the tourists who've been hiding away from the rain have come outside en masse. Obviously us too - but we were out in the rain even when no one else was. Enjoyed a final lap around the lovely ("flat") Pombaline/post-earthquake of 1755 part of Lisbon. Thought about a trip out to Belem and a visit to an art gallery. Then returned to one of our favourite geezer-bar, cafe haunts in Rossio Square - 'A Tiendinha'. But first a word about Rossio... it's been a major part of Lisbon since the 12th and 13th century when people started to settle on the flat land below Lisbon Castle. Rossio apparently equates to the English word 'commons' for common land. One of the palaces built in the square ended up being the headquarters for the Portuguese Inquisition and just like their Spanish neighbours, they took to torturing, burning and being nasty b******s just like ducks take to water... All in public in Rossio Square. Thankfully the inquisition palace (which survived the earthquake) was destroyed by fire in 1836 - in that spot now stands the stunning National Theatre - who's columns are enmeshed in fairy lights - it's a wondrous sight by night. Other features of the square include the wedding-cake-confection of Rossio Train station from 1886 (it's officially an example of Manualine architecture - but it looks more like marzipan to me). There are also beautiful bronze fountains imported from France in the 1800s that light up prettily at night. Next door to our hole-in-the-wall is the Arco de Bandeira / Bandeira Arch which was part of the post-earthquake reconstruction. It connects Rossio to the much quieter Street of the Shoemakers / Rua do Sapateiros. Though that needs to be renamed as it was delivery vans and taxis while we were sitting there. We quite loved that about the 'new' post-1755 section of Lisbon - all the streets were named after their occupations - Gold / Silver / Shoes - just as they were in pre-earthquake times. Seems quaint but it's lovely when you're walking on gold street for instance and stroll past a jewellers. So our plans for getting out and about essentially came to a grinding halt at about 11.30 am, when we ensconced ourselves for 2 wines, 2 beers, a bifina (roast pork/mustard sandwich) and a fish sandwich and roughly 2 hours at an outside table for lunch and people watching. One of the things we adore about this capering-on-a-shoestring lifestyle is that we can actually afford to enjoy life without working all the stressful hours god sent in Sydney (not every country in Europe is inexpensive... we didn't go out in Ireland for instance - but Lisbon is super-affordable). Drinking, eating, fending off the odd request for dosh from beggars, snuggling into my fur coat (it's vintage! all the way from Florence, Italy and found in a second hand store! - but the beggars weren't convinced)... all that cost for 2 hours was 14 euro... or about A$20. Which, if we were lucky, would buy 2 glasses of wine in Sydney - and it wouldn't be in a posh square either. So after enjoying our lounging we went via our favourite market/supermarket and bought quiche and some other bits for our final in-room dinner. Then it was time for a feet up and nap before dinner and before heading to the airport far too early. It feels like a waste sometimes, but we are religiously early for flights. And we've not missed one yet. So that is us. That is Lisbon. Next time we'll definitely visit Sintra, Caiscai and Porto... this time was just a tasting-plate of the capital city. Spain - our spiritual home - pour us a sherry because here we come!