Finding gems on the last stop of my cruise in Lisbon, Portugal

Lisbon in Portugal was the last stop of my Mediterranean Christmas cruise. And in case you're wondering, this was a cruise from a few years ago, not in recent weeks, otherwise it could have turned out quite disastrous! This is the first time I've been to Lisbon, so it's great that I can finally add another country to my Steem Worldmap map to track my travels around the world.

We arrived in Lisbon on 24th December, and I could feel the city wasn't as busy as one would expect of a capital. This was probably due to the holiday preparations, and people already left the capital to return home for the festival.

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NUMBER 12 TRAM

Being a one day tourist in town and not having done much homework in advance, we somehow managed to end up around Praça_da_Figueira and The Rossio. This area is (now I know) the busiest area around Lisbon downtown. I can't remember if we followed other people off the cruise ship over here, or maybe the cruise ship provided us with some basic information. Either way, this turned out to be the perfect place to start our day in Lisbon.

I remember the first thing we did was a tram ride. The number 12 tram is part of the local public network, but nowadays, I think it is very popular with tourists as the ride only takes 20 minutes. It's a 4km circular route, going uphill along some narrow streets and with lots of interesting building on the way. In fact, after we did the tram ride, we walked the same route on foot again to explore the areas, which I now know is called Baixa and Alfama.

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ELEVADOR DE SANTA JUSTA

The Santa Justa Lift is something that I stumbled across after walking around the Baixa and Alfama districts. I noticed this tower with a heavy top - that's the best way I can describe it. It wasn't a building as it had open windows, and one side had a link to another building. With a little bit of difficulty, I managed to find an entrance that took me to the top level. From here, (if I remember correctly) there was a link to a building rooftop with panoramic views of the city. Boy! Was it good!!!

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STREET LEVEL BUILDINGS

The rest of the day was spent wandering aimlessly around the city. In my opinion, this is one of the best ways to explore a city otherwise you'll just be following the rest of the crowd to the same places. That being said, there really wasn't many other people around due to the upcoming holiday. It felt kind of weird, walking around one of the major capital cities in Europe but there not being that many people around. I wonder if that's most places affected by the Wuhan virus looks like nowadays?

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FOOD IN LISBON

Despite the lack of people around due to Christmas, I did manage to find some other gems in Lisbon. Food never fails me!!

Confeitaria Nacional was founded in 1829 and is said to be the oldest patisserie in Lisbon. I dropped in for coffee after lunch (see below) and to sample their mouth-watering pastries, as you do when you come across such a famous shop.

Pastéis de nata is better known as Portuguese tarts in English. They date back to the 18th century when monks in Lisbon started to make them. I've had them before as they are very popular in Macau, which is a former Portuguese colony and near Hong Kong. Although I had just had coffee and pastries at Confeitaria Nacional, there was no way I was going to pass on authentic Portuguese tarts from Lisbon!

Now to lunch. When I was on the no. 12 tram ride, we passed by a rather shabby looking shop. Hubby's eyes immediately lit up when he saw the window display. That's one of the reasons we did a walk of the tram route afterwards.

Roast suckling pig is a delicacy in Cantonese cuisine. The tenderness of the meat and crispy skin is something that you won't ever forget once you've tried it. Hubby (and me as well actually) was so pleased to see this shop in Lisbon selling roast suckling pig. We went in after our tram ride, and it was packed with people. It seems that nearly all of the customers had pre-ordered their food.

As we were waiting patiently to be served, the little piglets got chopped up one by one. We were wondering if there would be any left for us walk in tourists. The guy behind the counter hesitated for a while when we placed our order. He looked around his stock with a slightly worried look, and then pulled a piece from the window and started chopping away. Yah!!!!

We took our gem find, and headed over to the Praça do Comércio, a public square by the waterfront. Again, there was hardly anyone around. We sat outside munching away on the roast suckling pork. Boy, this must rank as my best ever Christmas eve lunch. What a great way to round off the last day on my Med Xmas cruise!

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