Before leaving our home in Ardmore, Julie had mapped out public transportation to reach the base of Alfama, the highest hill in Lisbon. From there, we would walk up to see Castelo de São Jorge.
On our prior trip to Lisbon, we had spent a lot of time exploring villages in the countryside outside of Lisbon and had missed this Moorish-style fortress.
As it turned, our hotel offered a free shuttle van to the perfect starting point for a scenic walk through town.
Still filled from our big breakfast and Belem custard tart, we simply rested in our room for an hour following our half-day Viking excursion.
Julie and I headed down to the lobby a few minutes early for the 2 PM shuttle downtown to Praça dos Restauradores (Restauradores Square). We didn't want to be at the end of a queue and miss it.
The drive took us past Pombal Square and the famous black and white tiled sidewalks of the wide avenue otherwise patterned after Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris. We had spent an afternoon strolling along the wide street and its offshoots on our last trip, but never heading decidedly up hill.
When our driver dropped us, he provided times on the half hour when we could catch the shuttle back to our hotel. If we stayed later, we would be on our own.
The square had several beautiful fountains and monuments.
Julie had pulled up a map on her phone before leaving the hotel, and it remained on her screen when we left Wi-Fi coverage. That's a good travel tip to remember.
As we meandered slowly uphill, we window shopped.
We came upon a decidedly more uphill road, and our ascent began.
The sunny afternoon was on the warm side but not uncomfortably hot for our trek. Still, we sought out shade where we could find it.
Zigzagging on various streets, we finally came to Castelo de São Jorge.
The hill has been occupied since the 8th Century BC by Celts.
With its commanding views, defensive strongholds may have been built in the 2nd Century BC or earlier, but the Romans certainly built fortifications around 48 BC when they made Lisbon a Roman municipality.
Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Germanic Suebi, Visigoths and Moors also were among conquerors who played their time upon the stage before the Christian Reconquista reclaimed Lisbon in 1147.
The castle is huge, reminiscent of Moorish fortresses we've previously visited in Spain, like Granada.
It certainly more rough hewn and not nearly as well preserved nor ornate as Seville's Alcazar, but over the centuries it evolved to be a royal palace, military barracks and now a national monument and museum.
As you probably guessed, the name is Portuguese for Castle of St. George. It seems like we often find ourselves at someplace named after St. George, whether our church in Ardmore, our favorite place to stay in Bermuda or churches in foreign lands.
We walked around this huge structure.
Up one street, cafe tables were perched beside the castle's back gate. A sidewalk sign offered Sangria for Happy Hour. The peacock standing sentry expressed no objections.
When we first dated, Julie and I used to walk to El Paso Cantina (which by the '90s became Acapulco) on the Long Beach Marina for the Happy Hour that featured Sangria. We played backgammon by the marina view and ate the free snacks before going to dinner...only we never ate dinner, because we always ate so many snacks along with our Sangria that we would get too full.
So, for us, that sign was an irresistible Siren's Song. We took seats under an umbrella and ordered two Sangrias plus bread to act as tapas.
It took a good ten minutes before our hostess returned, but it was pleasant just cooling off at the doorway of history. Not seeing a restaurant nearby, I conjectured that maybe she had to go home to make our drinks.
I couldn't see the restaurant from our seats, but this was a sort of an outdoor annex of Mercearia Castello Cafe, based on a few photos of the same spot on their web site, even if the spelling looks different from how I read their menu. Or the menu fooled reviewers into believing it might be the cafe with good reviews.
When the waitress returned with our Sangrias, they were huge and filled with fruit. She apparently had been chopping fruit to prepare our modestly priced beverages.
As Julie said, they looked like giant servings of fruit salad in goblets of red wine. Two thumbs up!
The bread turned out to be sliced and toasted with garlic butter, but she still brought the vinegar and oil I requested on the side.
Refreshed by our snacks under a cafe umbrella, we strolled back down the hill, stopping at Lisbon Cathedral on our way to give thanks.
When we saw swordfish on a menu, and the proprietor said he was a local who used authentic recipes, we took a table.
Portugal tends to have modest pricing compared to many destinations, which is one reason Lisbon is so popular for tourism.
While we probably had already drank plenty of Sangria, we ordered a bottle of white wine.
Rather than splitting a restaurant meal as we usually do, we decided to each have full meals.
I went with the swordfish I had searched for on menus we passed, and Julie found a chicken in mushroom cream sauce for her.
The entire pedestrian street was shaded. We enjoyed a very pleasant meal.
The waiter joked that Julie didn't like the mushroom sauce at all, because she had eaten it all. I couldn't finish all of my swordfish, but I ate the best parts and was fully sated.
Viking offered an optional "Flavors of Lisbon" tour that was probably fantastic, but we loved our own version.
On the way back, we stopped into a souvenir shop, where I bought a Lisboa baseball cap. Walking quickly, we nonetheless made it to the meeting point a couple of minutes ahead of the Corinthia van.
After some bad TV and a less deep sleep than the prior night, we awakened for breakfast in Olivae's before boarding our bus excursion en route to Porto.
