We’ve just come back from Lisbon. I had never been to Portugal before and before we went I tried to learn some Portuguese. While I was there I took the opportunity to write a few letters to old friend Susan. This is the first.
Friday morning 8.30
So here we are in a very swanky hotel in Lisbon. We arrived yesterday.
We chose the hotel because it was so central and looked so yellow and pretty. And it is very central – on the Praça do Comércio, right by the river Tagus. We came in on the airport bus, passing through streets of pastel coloured buildings, Roman, Germanic, Moorish architecture, art deco, and everywhere, of course, trams.
In our hotel room we found a plate of Pasteis de Nata (the famous custard tarts), with strawberries and blackberries.
It is very central. But rather like our holiday in Toulouse last year – the main square (Praça) is where everything happens. Last year it was a pop concert so when we came back from dinner we had to queue to be searched before we could get into our hotel. Last night it was football – enormous groups of men in red and orange scarves heaving and singing in all the bars around the square. We went for a walk down to the river, looking across at the 25 April bridge and the Cristo Rei statue
and when we came back the fans had been joined by stalwart riot police, with vans and bizarrely a couple of clowns with balloons.
Benfica, the Lisbon team, were playing a Turkish team, Galatasaray – it was a rematch. The score was 0-0, but Benfica won on aggregate (I just read that – these are not my own words).
We have just had breakfast – as always, you walk in and want to eat everything – muesli, egg and bacon, fresh fruit (which in Portuguese the BBC videos tell me, is Fruta da epoca – fruit of the epoch!), croissants, pains aux raisins, doughnuts, brownies, pastel de nata … By Saturday we’ll just want toast.
Now we are going out to see the sights. I understand from Tourmeister C that we shall be going up in a great lift designed by a student of Gustav Eiffel, to see a monastery. But first we are going to have um café (com leite) in a famous café – Cafe A Brasileira – where poets and artists used to hang out (now probably heaving with tourists like ourselves).
We have a list of things we absolutely must do before we go home – drink vinho verde and Mateus Rosé. List ends.
Liz x