When was the last time you smiled for two hours? Seriously? I didn't know what to expect and to be honest, I was a little scared. Once I got comfortable on the bike, felt the sunshine on my face, wind in my hair, excitement of the power of the bikes, and charm of the winding streets, I didn't want to stop.
We got a quick lesson on how to use the bikes around Commercial Square, then off we went to Alfama. I have a little trouble getting on & off bikes since my knee replacement so our guide, Peter made sure to help me. I was hoping to learn something about Lisbon and was pleasantly surprised about how much history we learned about the country and how knowledgeable Peter was.
The Portuguese conquered much of the world. Lots of Africa, Asia, Europe, etc--> got far by boat. The honesty of Peter to say, that doesn't happen by being nice....and how Kings and Leaders had no problem taking land/people.trade routes was really refreshing.
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This is where we started, the famous Commercial Square.
We practiced riding our bikes around this square.
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We rode through these beautiful narrow streets with tiles on all buildings. So charming.
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We rode uphill to Alfalma.
Thank God we had the electric bikes to take us up the steep hills. All I could think was how scared I'd be going down.
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Famous Portuguese dignitaries are buried here.
Even the famous soccer player Eusebio is buried here and perhaps Rinaldo will be buried here.
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Rested during the bike tour at the Lady of the Mountain Saint monument. Best view in Lisbon.
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Practicing my jump
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Portuguese started the first Templar Church order.
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Lisbon is a city of 7 hills. Here we are at the free elevators to go up to the Castle St. Jorge. Saved walking up the equivalent of 10 floors up steep hills we just blew through on the e-bike.
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Ate lunch at a restaurant called Tram 28. Tried bacalhau, salted cod. This version was a mushy salty fish texture. Not great, not bad, good experience to try it. Wish I could have tried other versions too.
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Castelo de St. Jorge
After lunch we went to Castelo de St. Jorge (St. George Castle). We missed the 2 pm tour but lucked out and were 2 of 20 people in the Periscope room. What's a periscope? Its a set of two mirrors (top & bottom of tower), reflecting an image. Basically you can see outside through this instrument. It was fascinating, we saw the river Tagus, bridge, different neighborhoods full of cars and people! During the war, the castle was used as a base to see intruders coming in off the waters. It was like a live movie of real life. Felt like we were spies in the tower of a castle.
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See the trees? We saw the place where we rested on the bike tour from the Castle (Lady of the Mountain Saint monument)
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David felt tired as we left the Castle. I was annoyed at him because I had told him to exercise, walk around the block and get ready for our trip. Don't know if he was jet lagged or just tired. He said he was tired from the bike riding {hello, it was electric, how can you be tired?} so we rested. I wanted to take the elevators back down to the metro because the elevators are such a big part of the city. He saw some taxi's and wanted to take one. Ugh. Finally I said yes (what a waste of our Lisbon cards which includes free metro)!
We asked the driver how much to the Intercontinental and he said no more than $15 Euro. We said ok and he knew right then and there we were tourists as it should have costed no more than 8-10. To top it off, I handed him a 20 Euro bill and somehow he switched it and said, "this is a 5". Caught off guard and believing I handed him a 5, I said, ok and handed him a new 20. It was only when we got in to the hotel that we realized he switched my 20 for a 5. Ugh. Took Uber from there on in.
Rested in the room with our red wine from Douro, cheese and tangerines.
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