Our trip to Lisbon started a day later than planned. We were going to fly out on Wednesday, June 3, but there was a going to be a national strike that day. We fortunately could book a day later on each end. We were going to be staying at the HF Fénix in Plaça do Marqués de Pombal for the first part of the trip, and the nearby Epic Sana for the meeting, and we were able to move our first night at the HF Fénix to our last night. It meant changing hotels twice, but they are 5 minutes walk apart.

So on June 4, we flew TAP airline out of Boston terminal C. We checked our bags which are carry-on size, but Eileen was worried about under the seat size and weight restrictions, so we used our backpacks as our carry-ons. As it turned out, no one checked either even though the website is very clear about limits. We also got our TSA precheck added when we checked our bags. Lastly, we got paper tickets, which is what the gate wanted to see rather than the boarding pass on the phone.

Our flight left about 11 pm and arrived about 9:45 am. We previously filled out our Travel to Europe app with details on our stay. We went to the EES kiosk, put in our passport, had our picture taken, and fingerprints done. The last step at the kiosk was scanning the QR code on our Travel to Europe app. All ok, we proceeded to the E-gate, the real passport control, where we put in our passport and had our picture taken again. All told, about an hour total. Following a long walk to baggage claim, we immediately grabbed our luggage and headed to the metro.

We took the metro red line to Saldanha and the yellow to Marquês de Pombal and came out right at our hotel — the HF Fenix. We used contactless payment using our phones and our watch. The express transit didn’t seem to work in that we had to double-click. We got to the hotel a little before noon. Fortunately the room was ready and we dropped our things, rested a bit, and then went out walking.

We headed down to the Baixa (low) area. We walked down the broad, modern (but cobbled) Avenida da Liberdade, switching over to Rua das Portas de Santo Antão, a pedestrian street of restaurants, and ate at Inhaca Marisqueira. Larry had 5 large sardines, potatoes, and a salad. Eileen had grilled cod (bacalhau), cod that has been salted and dried, reconstituted, and grilled, a well-known local dish.

After lunch, we walked by Rossio square (an oval probably a Roman racetrack), the real name being Praça Dom Pedro IV. We walked back to Praça dos Restauradores to take a picture of the 1920 Art Deco Eden Theatre, then back to the Rossio train station.

We continued south to Praça do Comércio to the water. Along the way, we passed the famous Santa Justa lift off of Rua Áure, the metal cage elevator that takes you to Chiado and Bairro Alta. It is closed for maintenance due to a funicular accident last year, when it was determined that it should also be examined and upgraded. Eileen rode it when we were here in 2015.

We were pretty exhausted by the time we got to the water, so we headed up Rua Augusta to Rossio, and took the metro from Rossio back to the hotel about 4 pm.

We rested until dinner and then went further north from our hotel to Cave Real, a small restaurant we liked 11 years ago and is still good. We started with sheep cheese. Larry had bream and Eileen had cod fish cakes. We split dessert — an almond wedge.

Links: HF Fenix Lisboa
Epic Sana Marques
Cave Real