We had skipped Lisbon last time we were in Portugal because it got mixed reviews and the logistics for campers was difficult. We had regretted it since, and with Kit and Stephen along we got a chance to rectify that oversight.
I put the Cathedral in for our initial destination and google said it would take over 90 minutes by transit to cover the 15 kilometers. We decided to save time by taking a Bolt ride share to the ferry terminal. We saved time, but would have saved more if I had correctly entered the name of the ferry terminal into the app. When we arrived at a place that clearly was not the ferry terminal and acted confused the Bolt driver looked at what I had put in the app for a destination and saw my mistake. So after a few extra Euros and about 20 extra minutes we arrived at the ferry.
Our first destination was an Asian Grocery store as Kit really needed fish sauce to keep producing the excellent Thai food we have grown accustomed to eating on this trip. With this mission accomplished we headed up an imposing hill towards the Cathedral and Castle.
It was a beautiful day to visit, the temperatures were perfect and the skies were mostly blue. It was crowded as there were three large cruise ships in town as well as all of the other tourists like us.
Right before we came to the Cathedral there was a nice Church dedicated to one of the patron saints of Lisbon. The interior was very nice, and we went down to the crypts of the church to see the birthplace of Saint Antonio.
The cathedral was nice, but not as impressive as many of the others we have visited. We continued our climb up the hill with the intent of visiting the castle that dominates the city.
We were about 5 minutes from finishing our quest to reach the castle when a nice restaurant stopped us for the next hour. We had a table on the patio overlooking the street, and we were lucky as there were no smokers on the patio to ruin the experience for us. There was a lot of foot and vehicle traffic on the street including some fairly large busses that barely fit. The drivers really earn their pay.
Just before we left Stephen informed us we were only 200 meters from the castle, but we would have to climb 200 feet during those 200 meters. It was going to be a good climb.
We finished the climb after a few minutes and arrived at the gate to the castle/palace. We noticed there was a large crowd milling around the entrance, but few people were entering. There were also security guards checking everyone at the gate. It turns out the ticket office was on strike, so no one could buy tickets. The only ones getting in were the people who had bought tickets on line earlier.
So a little disappointed we poked around the neighborhood for a while, before deciding to make our way back to the ferry. The walk back down the hill was easier on the lungs, but not necessarily on the legs.
The ferry was just boarding when we arrived at the terminal. We enjoyed the quick trip across the Targa. The Bolt back to the campground was a lot faster than the misadventure in the morning, though surprisingly not much cheaper. Kit prepared us another nice Thai meal of two of my favorite dishes Dom Yum and Larb. Having climbed a bunch of hills everyone turned in early for the evening.