We decided to try breakfast at the hotel's restaurant this morning. Fortunately an English speaking local helped us order toast and coffee. After it arrived, R decided he wanted eggs and so ordered "uno huevo"...that is, one egg. We waited for an eternity and then figured something must have got lost in the translation, so decided to skip it and pay for the bill. As soon as we were done paying, it arrived!!!! Why it had taken so long we could not figure our cos it was a barely cooked fried egg and must have taken all of 30 seconds in the pan. Anyway, R ate it and we hurried out of there. We took the metro to the airport. A small note here - ever since our pickpocket adventure on our first day, we were very careful with our money. We distributed it in various bags and pockets...some in the backpack bottom pouch, some in my pocket, some in R's back pocket, some in his wallet and so on. The only disadvantage to doing this was whenever we had to make a purchase, it took us some 5 minutes to collect all the money!!! Also, we were always on high alert and steered clear of anyone who looked suspicious, especially if they were in pairs. R claimed he could tell them apart - they had a sallow pallid complexion from spending way too much time underground!!! No pun intended!
We got to the airport and after Iberia Airlines' convoluted check in process, boarded the flight and arrived into Lisbon at noon. We bought a Lisbon guide book at the AP, and a hurried croissant lunch. We boarded the Aerobus from the AP, which dropped us off a few feet from our hotel on its way to the city center. Very convenient. The weather was fabulous....mid 70's, nice breeze! We got to our hotel about 2pm or so. What a fantastic hotel it was! After the cramped surroundings of Hotel Mora in Madrid, this was pure luxury! Plasma TV and all! We dumped our luggage, had a quick wash and left at 3pm to Rossio square, in the heart of the city. From there we took a tram to a city called Belem, pronounced Balaim, the city from where Vasco De Gama set sail! We checked out the Jeronimos Monastery, a building is an example of Manueline architecture and was built as a monument to VDG's successful voyage to India. From there we walked to the Maritime museum, where at the cafe, we had the famous Portugese custard tarts. From the museum we walked further on thru the delightful streets of Belem to Torre De Belem, the tower of Belem. Unfortunately, it was closed since it was past 5pm by this time, so back we walked to our tram stop, took the tram back to Rossio square. We had planned to eat dinner at a highly touted vegetarian restaurant called Tao, at Rossio. But too bad that ended up being closed too!!! Not sure why! So, even tho we had decided to stay away from Indian food on this trip, we trudged back to an Indian restaurant we had passed along the way and had dinner there. The owner, Massoud, from Bangla Desh, alerted his chefs that they had Indian customers, so to make the food authentic, they doused everything very liberally in oil!!!!! But, all in all it was a decent meal and obviously we were missing Indian food, the way we polished it all off!
Back to our room by about 10.30pm.
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