Saturday, October 31, 2026
We met Josh around 8:00 at Copenhagen Coffee Lab for breakfast, a cute coffee house next door to our hotel. We all enjoyed our healthy meals and “coffees.” I put that in quotation marks because the Portuguese don’t make drip coffee, only espresso. It is good…and strong!
From there, we explored the city on foot. Did I mention that Lisbon is 99% cobblestones – streets AND sidewalks? And it is 100% hills? True story (according to my experience and math). I walked 20,000 steps again today. We also took two Bolt rides (like Uber) when we had to go a long distance and back down a steep hill – thank you, Josh!!
Below is a photo record of things we saw…
Christo Rei (Christ the King) from across the bay – a small version of Christ the Redeemer in Brazil.
The earthquake-safe bridge designed like the Golden Gate Bridge (they haven’t had to test it yet).
The Marcado – Time Out Market – a huge food court on one side, huge produce and fish market on the other, and nice restaurants mixed in. We were there soon after breakfast so we didn’t eat there.
There is a picture of a lobster 🦞 like we are familiar next to a Portuguese lobster with lots of skinny long legs and no big pincher claws.
An incredibly steep and long hill we walked up. There are trolley tracks in the middle that stop at each end. There are no trolleys though. Half way up we passed a memorial for people who got killed in a trolley accident. I assume that brought an end to the rides up and down the hill.
We ate cream custard pastries at the famous, original shop near St Jerome’s Monestary. The monestary is HUGE! We had done so much walking that we decided to not go in. It is probably worth a whole day to visit.
The monks invented the pastry recipe. You can eat them plain (my preference) or with cinnamon and/or sugar. Very yummy!
We took a Bolt back to where our tour ended last night. Our guide suggested a restaurant there, Pinocchio. We had an amazing meal there. Josh had crab, I had cod, Gregg had vegetable paella.
Across the street was a peaceful demonstration in favor of helping Ukraine. It was very sober as a loud gong was tolling slowly.
We had seen an Autumn Market in a square so we walked there to see what it was about. Lots of small tents, like a Christmas market in Pittsburgh or Europe. (Okay, we ARE in Europe.) Josh and I each bought a ceramic dish with spikes in it. It is a grater! Once they showed me how well it grates ginger without ripping off the tough fibers, I was sold!
All over the city were kiosks selling Pina colotas in pineapples and others roasting chestnuts.
We walked up to a fort (similar to the Castillo in St Augustine) but didn’t pay to go in. Josh bought a tasty fresh-squeezed lemonade there.
We ended the evening giving Josh the Gelato Therapy experience before walking back to our hotel together. It was hard to say goodbye so we talked on the narrow sidewalk, all in a line, for a while. Josh had a 10 minute walk back to his AirB&B. His flight back to Malta is before sunrise tomorrow morning.
We really enjoyed spending time with Josh! So glad it worked out and thankful he made the effort, PTO, and expense to meet us. ♡
