Two days in Lisbon marked the start of our Portugals River of Gold trip with Viking Cruises. Our overnight flight from Washington Dulles Airport touched down at 10:14 a.m. Viking representatives met us outside customs and baggage claim and directed us to our hotel transfer. Lisbon airport is surprisingly close to the city center. The ride in from the airport took us through several traffic circles with monuments and past houses decorated with the famous Portuguese tiles. We would learn more abut the tiles tomorrow.
We stayed at the Hotel Tivoli on Avenida da Liberdade (It was the assigned hotel for our Viking Douro river cruise.) It is a very nice hotel on the main upscale shopping street. Viking greeted everyone with a serving of Pastis de nata (Portuguese custard tarts). Just the thing to get into the Portuguese culinary spirit! Here we met our cruise director, Tamara. Never have I met a more able cruise director or tour courier. (With the exception of Valene, of course.) Tamara always appeared when needed and with the right information at hand.
along Avenida da Liberdade. The tree lined avenue is wide, divided by a broad pedestrian median. The sidewalks here are decorated with black and white tiles in heraldic or geometric designs. The black tiles are basalt and the white limestone. We headed southeast along the avenue, encountering shops for Prada, Burberry, Rolex, Hugo Boss, Montblanc and more. Liberdade includes many monuments, including a World War I memorial. At Cala da Glria is the Ascensor da Glria, one of three funiculars in Lisbon. Liberdade ends at Praa dos Restoradores (Restorers Square) with a monument to the 1640 war of independence from Spain. Monumentos, the Museums and Monuments Shop is located here. The shop made for interesting browsing of offerings from all of the national museums. At this point, we returned to the Tivoli Hotel to have lunch at the lobby bar. They provided very filling club and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches.
In the evening, Viking hosted an orientation meeting with a sampling of Portuguese Moscatel wine. It was a sweet, yet sturdy, wine, with a taste I recalled from long ago. Susan and I now set out again along Liberdade in search of dinner. This time we walked in
Palacete Valmor. Mansion built in 1906 for Josefina Clarisse Duprat de Oliveira, 2nd Viscountess of Valmor. Eclecticism style. Avenida da Repblica,
the opposite directed, towards the Praa Marqus de Pombal traffic circle. As we were to learn, the Marquis of Pombal was a pivotal figure in Portuguese history. He was chief minister under King Joseph I and led the reconstruction of Lisbon after the earthquake of 1755. More name stores and office buildings were in this direction, with surprisingly few restaurants. But we found the Confeitaria Marqus de Pombal open. Here I ordered a refreshing Gaspacho, the Portuguese version of Gazpacho, and Fried Swordfish with Chili Rice. The swordfish was prepared quite differently than I would have expected. I would be accustomed to having the fish fried in deboned fillets. Instead, the style here was to slice the fish into sections and serve it fried with bones and skin.
