Lisbon

Alfama, Lisbon

pajje 2024 Portugal , , 0 Comment
Här någonstans bor vi. Miradouro das Portas do Sol, Lissabon

I have now checked into our accommodation here in Alfama, Lisbon and a big, heavy stone has finally been lifted from my heart, the rental car. If I were a car manufacturer, I would have seen rental cars as an advertising window towards potential customers and thus tried to make all rental cars of my brand well equipped, comfortable, complete and working without problems. Our rental car met exactly zero of those criteria.

After almost two weeks of driving, CarPlay suddenly started to work yesterday, even though I chose No when asked if I wanted to allow CarPlay. A little curious is that I have tried to get this function to work since I picked up the car without success, but now, for no apparent reason, it started. The comfort in the car was beyond criticism, I have sat on park benches that are more comfortable, the AC in the car gave neither cold nor hot air. The car usually started but sometimes it just died right after starting, another attempt to start the car seems to work and even though it is 120km/h on the motorways in Portugal, I never got up to that speed, I was about to bounce off the road due to the lousy roadholding. As I said, a large stone has now come loose when I returned the car and it will take a lot for me to buy a Citroën in the future.

Alfama where we live now is one of Lisbon’s oldest areas and it shows, the houses are close together, the streets are more alleys that wind up the hill and here they are teeming with churches, forts, cafes, restaurants and tourists, lots of tourists. Of course, this can also contribute to the fact that it is nice to leave the car because it was no fun to drive here. One-way, narrow, hilly and people everywhere. Add to that trams and traffic signs in a language you don’t understand and I think it is acceptable that the stress level increased a level or two but we got there in the end.

Baixa-Chiado, Lisbon

pajje 2024 Portugal , 0 Comment
Baixa-Chiado, Lisbon

Our curiosity and spirit of discovery continued today and if we focus on the nearby area of ​​Alfama yesterday, today we wandered a little further towards Lisbon’s historic center Baixa de Lissabon and Chiado. The neighborhood looks pretty much the same with a lot of old, a little new, but most of it was pretty fresh and nice even though there was a lot of graffiti everywhere, which in itself feels like it is all over the country. I don’t know if they paint like crazy here or if they’re just worse at washing it off, but if there’s a free space, they paint it. I don’t mind and since there are a lot of throwups and more paintings instead of just bombing their tag, I think it can be a bit fun to see.

The areas we walked around today were a bit more up-to-date than where we live and we found one or two clean shopping streets with everything from Gucci to Rolex stores, nothing was bought in any of those stores but we did have lunch at McDonald’s. Now we may not have chosen McDonald’s because of the culinary delights served there but because it is convenient with a changing room and heating baby food but anyway, we came in, we ordered our food at the self-service kiosk and boom, an employee was right there and took our receipt to make sure we would get our food right away. Apparently, it is a law that pregnant women, people with small children like us, pensioners and probably more have the right to priority and we passed probably 30 other customers who were waiting for their food. The same goes for grocery stores, they have a separate checkout for us with toddlers and we are actually let forward in line to avoid queuing, fantastic and even though our son is certainly behaving himself, I can imagine that it is nice for everyone to avoid screaming toddlers 😉

This, combined with the fact that the people here are extremely child-friendly, everyone does their utmost to help and hopefully get to spend some time with the child, means that I have to say that Portugal is the #1 country to travel to with small children.

Moscavide, Lisbon

pajje 2024 Portugal , , 0 Comment
Vasco da Gama-bron, Lissabon

We have moved, again but we are staying within Lisbon. We have now left the old districts of Alfama and Chiado for a much more modern accommodation in Moscavide. The district, which is located in the northern parts of Lisbon, was easy to get to using the metro even though we had quite a lot of luggage in the form of suitcases, backpacks and of course a stroller and the child. However, it was much easier than I thought it would be and once there, both the cobblestones and the narrow alleys are gone. Here they are asphalted, wide avenues and newly built houses. The newly built ones are of course relative but I would appreciate that a lot was built at the end of the 20th century and the apartment we live in now was probably built around when Lisbon last had its world exhibition, expo, i.e. 1998.

Here in Moscavide, they are much fully, cleaner and more modern than we have seen before in the city. There is a nice boardwalk that you can go for a run along or just walk down to, have a coffee and eat another Pastel de nata, this magically delicious pastry filled with delicious egg cream.

Looking out over the water, you see the magnificent Vasco da Gama Bridge. I thought I was driving over a completely bizarrely long bridge when I drove into Lisbon and it is indeed a candidate for the longest in Europe at 17km (for reference, the Öland Bridge is 6km). The bridge was built to reduce the pressure on traffic through the city and, as a coincidence, it was also completed in time for the 1998 World Expo, strange isn’t it.

Rain and disappointments

pajje 2024 Portugal , , 0 Comment
Soluppgång över Vasco da Gama-bron

Woke up a good while before the sun decided to rise which can be a bit bitter but the positives of it all are that I was down by the water when it finally decided to come out and what a sight. My photo below doesn’t do the experience justice and the Vasco da Gama bridge that I talked about yesterday is impressive in itself, seeing it in a cavalcade of colours while feeling the heat starting to come was a great way to get rid of the bitterness.

Apart from that, the day has actually been mostly a disappointment, I got a tip from Google to go and look at street art under/on the bridge foundation, a short walk later in a drizzle and a rushing cold wind I realize that oh well, these weren’t particularly exciting. To be honest, the so-called street art wasn’t much to rave about and I’ve seen more impressive paintings on both trains and walls.

The rain increased from drizzle to torrential rain so we decided to go to the local shopping center, here came the next disappointment as it was quite big in itself but most of the shops were closed or just completely uninteresting to someone like me. But I saw two ring-necked parakeets in a tree on the way there, at first I thought they were domestic birds that had escaped but I read on the Internet that they are apparently relatively common here. Definitely the funniest thing that happened on a rather boring day like this. Now time to “enjoy” pasta and sardines in tomato sauce because I am too comfortable to go out in the rain, I should probably just go to bed and sleep the bitterness away, at least here there are no freezing temperatures or snow.

Lisbon Oceanarium

pajje 2024 Portugal , 0 Comment
Lissabon Oceanarium

As I said, the weather hasn’t been great here the last few days and today we got enough even though it started to clear up. Instead of walking up and down the streets in torrential rain, we decided to visit Lisbon’s aquarium, or oceanarium as it is apparently called. Depending on the source you read, it is one of the largest in Europe and combined with the entrance ticket there, you can also buy tickets for the cable car that was built for the World Expo in 1998.

The cable car itself runs along the shoreline over what was the exhibition area, today it is a nice promenade with various bars and restaurants and if the weather is nice I think you get a really good view. However, they cannot be compared to the cable cars in La Paz and El Alto which are actually used to transport people around the city but as part of the visit I still think they were worth it.

The oceanarium itself was large and really well built, it felt like all the aquariums were connected and that there was only one, gigantic one, but I suppose they are different so that the sharks don’t eat the otters for example. They could have had a little more information about the different fish and animals as the ones I saw were only occasional and fairly brief pictures that described a few, hiring your own private guide was possible but felt a bit overkill, I’m not that interested.

Park Eduardo VII, Lisbon

pajje 2024 Portugal , 0 Comment
Park Eduardo VII, Lissabon

The weather continues to play tricks on us and last night’s thunderstorm was something out of the ordinary. The entire apartment was lit up by lightning, the windows rattled and the house shook. We woke up to a much calmer day but traces of the storm were visible in the form of gigantic puddles. However, that didn’t stop us, armed with a good mood and an umbrella (for three people) we set out to visit a city park and possibly do some shopping.

The park we were aiming for is Park Eduardo VII which is located in the middle of central Lisbon and is named after an English king. It’s a bit strange to name one of the larger parks in the capital after a foreign king, but what can you do to promote relations between countries? The park is big, really big and contains both a botanical garden, statues and fountains, which I think meets what can be required, a bit of fun is that it is built on a hill, which means you get a fantastic view of the park and the center of Lisbon. Now in January, the park itself didn’t shine in its full glory, but I can imagine what a green oasis this is in the summer.

The shopping went so well, we trotted over to a shopping mall that was adjacent to the park and thought that this would be perfect. The first store I saw when we entered the mall was Rolex, next door to Armani and Prada and so on. Seven floors of design and designer clothing, the top floor of which contained a food court with gourmet food. The fact that I was allowed in at all is a bit of a miracle and even though they were very nice, it was a couple of levels above my budget.

Instead, we headed for lunch at a small, local restaurant that wasn’t even featured on Google Maps. The menu was amazingly translated directly by Google Translate (or maybe more Bing Translate) because nothing seemed right or what they say “look in the oven” as a meat dish. Regardless of the menu, we sat down and received some of the best service during the entire trip. The waiter explained as best he could what the different dishes actually were and he looked just as confused by the menu as we were, the entire staff which turned out to be a family with a grandfather who was driving around trying to charm the little one, chatted with us a bit and to showcase a classic Portuguese dish they offered grilled sardines and some kind of porridge made from bread. That particular one may not have been the tastiest I’ve ever eaten but it’s experiences like this that make me love traveling.

Back to Sweden again

pajje 2024 Portugal , 0 Comment

The D-day has arrived and it was time to pack my bags and go home, before I summarize the trip itself and the experience of traveling with a baby, I just have to tell you about the experience of the airport in Lisbon.
We went there well in advance because we all know how they usually are at airports, queues at check-in, at baggage drop and even more queues at the security check. It went smoothly at Arlanda but then we knew the local language, we found ourselves at the airport and the little one was sedated and didn’t know what was coming but how would they go here?

Well, actually smoother than the smoothest. As usual, we printed out our luggage tags ourselves to avoid the check-in chaos and when we were somewhat confused looking for the entrance to the baggage claim, the staff came and opened the belt just for us, we with children should not have to stand in line. Up with the bags on the baggage belt but what do we do with the stroller? No problem, use your own throughout the airport and check it in at the gate, literally at the plane door. Happy in our hearts, we headed towards the security check and here too we were prioritized and referred to Fast track as we had the little one with us. When it was time to board the plane, they came out and picked us up with the stroller first of all, then those who had purchased Priority boarding were allowed to board. The airlines are happy to sell on Fast track, priority boarding and all that, but here, at Lisbon airport as a parent of young children, it is completely unnecessary to buy them, you get them automatically!

So how was traveling with children? Yes, they don’t get as crazy antics and adventures as I usually come up with and the pace is much calmer. In retrospect, I think we kept a bit of a fast pace at the beginning, even though we stayed in the same place for a couple of days before moving on, we were out discovering new things all the time, fun but incredibly tiring for the little one who soaks everything up like a sponge. We have also changed accommodation several times during the trip which has exceeded expectations, Airbnb delivers high class but even this is tiring and if anyone is going to do something similar I can’t emphasize enough to stay in the same place for at least a couple of days and keep in mind that their usual daytime rests will be longer to process all the impressions.

Portugal then? How was Portugal as a travel destination? Beautiful nature, good food and nice people. A very easy country to travel around even if you don’t speak Portuguese and my description of how we were treated at the airport above actually describes how the whole country has treated us with children. We even had a waiter offer to hold the little one so I could drink my coffee in peace and quiet. Now we were there during the low season and winter which means fewer tourists and relatively cold, how cold? Like a Swedish summer, sometimes 10 degrees, sometimes 26 but can I recommend going there? Absolutely!