Day 12 - Wednesday, October 30, 2024 - Porto to Lisbon

 Leaving Porto was pretty straightforward, taking an Uber to the bus terminal.

I wouldn't recommend taking the bus. It was very cramped and there were no "comfort" stops for the 3 1/4 hour trip to Lisbon. The Lisbon bus terminal is huge and it took us a while to find our way out. I used the Uber app to get a ride but when the car arrived we couldn't figure out where it was - it was marked on the map but we had no indication of where we were. We eventually decided to take a taxi to the Hotel Britania.

We really lucked out at the hotel as they gave us a penthouse suite on the top floor with a king-size bed, a living room with complimentary ruby port and a huge outside balcony, big enough for a party! Don't know why we were so lucky. It is a historic boutique hotel which had many notable people stay there including Jean-Paul Sartre.

We took the metro down to the port area to visit the Cod History museum which was quite interesting. The Portuguese sailors discovered cod around Newfoundland in the 1500s and it became a huge source of fish for much of Europe. Salt cod was a staple in Portugal for centuries and continues to this day. 

We had a nice lunch of cheese, sausages, bread, beer and Aperol Spritzer. It was sunny with the temperatures in the mid-70s.

While walking around we came across the Bank of Portugal which had a free museum of money through the ages with numerous interactive exhibits. In the basement is an excavation of part of the original city wall dating back to the 1100s. It was also quite interesting.

When we went to take the metro back, there wasn't enough on our metro cards for the fare. One can just us a "contactless" credit card so I tried that and went through. When Carmen tried her card it didn't work so I used my card to go back out where I just came in. I was able to add funds to Carmen's metro card but it didn't work for mine.😒So I used my credit card again which worked fine.

When we got back to the hotel we were too exhausted to do anything and didn't feel like eating so we just watched a Netflix series and went to bed.

Final lunch near the river

Lisbon City Hall

Strange sculpture near city hall

Vault in Bank of Portugal (not in use!)




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