Alex and I booked a week in Lisbon, Portugal in November, 2004, over Thanksgiving break of her senior year in high school. We used Go-Today like we have many times, for their flights and hotels.

Thinking about this trip throughout the years, I remember the beautiful Peña Palace and moorish ruins in Sintra, the tile museum, and Christmas decorations. Then I pulled up my scrapbook journaling to write this post and I am quite disappointed both by the amount of shopping we did and eating mostly American food. Well, it’s been almost 20 years and I don’t travel like that anymore. I still enjoy local markets, farmer or craft, but don’t just go “shopping”. And I only eat local, too, it’s part of the joy of travel.

We flew out of Chicago to Frankfurt on Monday, November 22. We arrived in Frankfurt around noon on Tuesday and left for Lisbon an hour later. We had a 2 1/2 flight to Lisbon, arriving around 1530.

After collecting bags, using the ATM to get Euros, and picking up maps at the Tourist Bureau we caught a cab to our hotel, the VIP Zurique.

After cleaning up from travel, we took the Metro to Praca dos Restauradores. We had dinner then wandered around several blocks before returning to the hotel.

We were up early on Wednesday, November 24, and walked down the street to another hotel where we were to be picked up for our half-day city tour. The tour was included with our booking.

We went down to the riverfront and saw the Torre Belem. We walked down to the Monument of Discoveries, built for the 500th anniversary of Prince Henry the Navigator’s death. 

We visited the Coach Museum, some amazing carriages from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, and the Monsteiro dos Jeronimos or Monastery of St. Jerome, a UNESCO heritage site since 1983. We weren’t given time to see the cloisters and gardens. After the monastery we went to the Alfama district.

We had a free Port tasting. Alex and I agreed, neither of us are Port fans. We had lunch downtown, in the Baixa-Chiado area, where we were dropped off. It was one of our few “real Portuguese” meals.

After lunch and some window shopping, we took the bus up to Castelo de Sao Jorge. We walked down the hill and stopped at the Lisbon Cathedral, or Se, on the way. Back downtown, we did some more shopping and had sandwiches for dinner. We took the Metro to Marques de Pompal and walked a few blocks to the big mall, Amoreiras. We were there about 2 hours then returned to our hotel.

November 25, Thursday, Happy Thanksgiving! We visited Igreja do Carmo, the beautiful ruins of a church, destroyed during the 1755 earthquake. There was quite a bit of information about this event. It occurred on All Saint’s Day and hundreds died in the churches around town, fires burned for 5 days, and a large tsunami struck the city.

We also went to San Roque, another church. It has a plain facade but absolutely amazing interior. The Chapel of Saint John the Baptist is considered the world’s most expensive. It was ordered from Rome by the Portuguese King in 1742, it’s made of gold, ivory and semi-precious stone.

We stopped to admire the view at the Miradouro de Sao Pedro de Alcantara. From this beautiful hill and terraces, we could see most of Lisbon including castle hill.

We – I am ashamed to admit – actually had lunch at the McDonald’s down on Praca da Figueira. Then we took the #15 trolley back out to Belem to go in the tower, and visit the cloisters of the Monastery. We took the trolley back to the center of town and walked up and down Rue Augusta, a lovely pedestrian street. We took the Metro back to the hotel and ordered in a pizza for dinner, eating in the lobby while playing some cribbage.

On Friday we took a train out to Sintra, a town about 20 miles northwest of Lisbon. This was the summer retreat for Kings. We saw the incredible Castelo dos Mouros (Moorish Ruins) and the Palacio da Pena. The Palacio Nacional de Sintra was closed for some big function (lots of guys with suits around, and LOTS of security people). But we enjoyed the exterior, the terraces, and more before taking the train back to Lisbon around 1600.

We took the Metro then a bus to get to “Thieves Market” or Feira da Ladra in the Alfama on Saturday, the 27th. Alex bought some clothes, the “Jenny” doll as a gift for her friend Jenny, and I got a beautiful porcelain plate. From there, we took a taxi to the tile museum, Museu Nacional do Azulejo. Alex didn’t want to go, so waited in the lobby while I visited for an hour. It was amazing! Tile making goes back to the Moors in the 14th c. There are many beautiful exhibits. I had admired the tile fronted homes in the city all week, too.

We took a bus back to the Praca do Comercio. We walked to Restauradores and had lunch. We went out to Baixa-Chiado for Fado music around 2000. We walked around for quite a while, and I found the Cervejaria da Trinidade, a former monastery and the oldest beer hall in Lisbon. After the Fado music, we picked up Chinese for dinner.

November 28, Sunday, we walked up the street to the Gulbenkian Museum. They had free entrance on Sundays. What a great museum, with Egyptian art, Islamic art, rugs, tiles, porcelain, French furniture, paintings, and jewelry.  

We were up very early on Monday, around 0430 to catch the 0700 plane to Frankfurt. We arrived back in Chicago and drove home, arriving late Monday.

** All photos property of Lisa, not to be copied or reproduced **