{"id":4654,"date":"2024-04-05T11:37:44","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T11:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=4654"},"modified":"2025-12-24T21:48:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T21:48:31","slug":"1-lisbon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=4654","title":{"rendered":"1. Lisbon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lisbon here we come!\u00a0 OK, I admit we set off from home a smidgeon early.\u00a0 But by Exeter, I was unsure where exactly my phone was.\u00a0 My “brain”!\u00a0 A brief diversion to Exeter services to check before heading back to Brixham to collect it!\u00a0 We had plenty of time!<\/p>\n

Fortunately, it was hiding under our coats that we had chucked in at the last minute – mainly because the early morning weather in Brixham was typically horrid.\u00a0 Cold and wet!\u00a0 I got a good telling off for being totally disorganised!<\/p>\n

The Silver Parking at Bristol airport was a smooth operation and the 60 minutes I had allowed for parking and transfer to the departure lounge was way too generous.\u00a0 We ended up well over an hour before Sqeezy Jet would allow us to drop our bags.\u00a0 Totally different attitude than we have experienced with Jet2\u00a0 – much less customer focused.<\/p>\n

A bottle of Prosecco, a late breakfast and an early lunch in the Escape Lounge and we forgot all about difficulties with Easy Jet.\u00a0 That was, until we got to the departure lounge to find no plane waiting for us!\u00a0 A late incoming flight meant late departure – made worse by missing various slots out of Bristol and into Lisbon.\u00a0 Still, at least the flight wasn’t cancelled this time!\u00a0 Think positive.\u00a0 And arrival at Lisbon was a bit of a dream – until we got to baggage reclaim.<\/p>\n

We were there as the belt started moving.\u00a0 Our blue case arrived almost immediately but the black one didn’t.\u00a0 There was a very similar looking one, black, but it had red trims.\u00a0 And, as Glenda said, ours didn’t have any red on it.\u00a0 \u00a0As the crowds dispersed it was becoming increasingly obvious that someone had lifted our case and left their’s with the red trims for us.\u00a0 After about 20 passes, this case ended up the ONLY case on the carousel.\u00a0 \u00a0So we pulled it off the belt to take it to “lost and found”.\u00a0 “Oh look – it is ours”.\u00a0 “Our case does seem to have red trims after all !!!”.<\/p>\n

The Aerobus which we had considered using to get to the hotel had stopped running.\u00a0 It stopped three years ago.\u00a0 Good Intel!\u00a0 Still that allowed us to experiment with the dreaded Uber.\u00a0 What a revelation.\u00a0 Easy, efficient, relatively cheap and with lots of useful info.\u00a0 About our car, our driver, the route, maps, times, astronomical details etc….\u00a0 I’m sure everyone knows this already.\u00a0 But now we do too!\u00a0 Not only that, but the ride was in a Tesla – our first experience.\u00a0 \u00a0Highlighted by one of us opening a door instead of a window while beavering through heavy traffic!\u00a0 Just saying!<\/p>\n

Our hotel is rather grand.\u00a0 I guess there’s a clue in name.\u00a0 \u00a0Avenida Palace.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Piano recital in the bar.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Outside last night.\u00a0 The hotel is on the extreme right.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

… and breakfast this morning.\u00a0 The only snag appears to be frequent rumbling noises.\u00a0 Maybe the Metro station outside our window called “Avenida” has some bearing here!<\/p>\n

A bit of research indicated that the hotel had never been a Palace of any sort.\u00a0 It was built in 1892 as a station hotel – the International Hotel.\u00a0 It was renamed a year later as the Avenida Palace.\u00a0 So, no real royal connections unless Air-miles Andy stayed here back in the day.<\/p>\n

This morning, over an hour walking down the main pedestrianised street towards the river has got us about a quarter of a mile and a cream coloured shawl – and nearly six pairs of sandals, a raincoat, a couple of tops and sixteen pairs of flared trousers.\u00a0 Flared being the fashion, I’m reliably informed.\u00a0 And “nearly” being a highly relevant word here!<\/p>\n

I was on a mission to find Fado Em Si, a restaurant which has a Fado show every night.\u00a0 But first, a beer on the waterfront looking out over the River Tejo (or the Tagus as it’s known in Spain where we met it several times, especially in the Monfrague National Park).\u00a0 OK, so not the cheapest beer in town, but a great view of the river, the road bridge and the river ferries and tour boats.<\/p>\n

The Fado Restaurant appears now to be called the P\u00e1teo de Alfama.\u00a0 Alfama being the Fado district of the city, close to one of the cruise liner ports.\u00a0 However, the restaurant doesn’t open until 7.30 pm and I bet the show doesn’t start till at least 8.30.\u00a0 It’ll be past my bedtime when get home.\u00a0 So we elected for a fish and chips supper (grilled salmon and Dover sole) at Restaurante Portas.\u00a0 Followed by a small icecream:<\/p>\n

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Last night we had a piano master-class.\u00a0 Tonight, it’s jazz night.\u00a0 In a few minutes.\u00a0 So I’d better finish this and get ready.<\/p>\n

Lots more adventures to follow!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lisbon here we come!\u00a0 OK, I admit we set off from home a smidgeon early.\u00a0 But by Exeter, I was unsure where exactly my phone was.\u00a0 My “brain”!\u00a0 A brief diversion to Exeter services to check before heading back to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-regent-seven-seas-cruise-travels-in-2024"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4654"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4670,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654\/revisions\/4670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}