28th September – 2 October
Seville to Lisboa (Lisbon) – Of course, train – EuroRail- is always the preferred mode of transport for inter-city travels in Europe. So, from Sevilla (Spain) to Lisbon (Portugal) train is obviously our first choice. However, there is no direct train connection between these 2 cities. Trains are available only from Madrid to Lisbon. So it meant going to Madrid first and then take a train to Lisbon, which would make no sense for us as we are not planning to stay over at Madrid. So, the next best way is to take a bus (We take ALSA) from Santa Justa station, Seville to Lisboa Oriente Railway station (8 hours approximately). We started off at around 1.30 pm and reached Portugal around 8.30 PM (Portugal time). Then a cab to our homestay apartment. Remember to consider the time difference – Spain is 1 hour ahead of Lisbon i.e. if your watch with Spain settings shows 10 PM when u reach Portugal, its actually 9 PM, so move your clock one hour backwards on reaching Portugal.
So, we are in our temporary abode around 9.00 PM. There is no elevator here, so its painful to carry those big bags all the way upto 4th floor. We should have asked about the elevator before booking the apartment. This particular building is in a residential location away from the Lisbon downtown. Its a 10 minute walk from here to the station and then a train to Lisbon. I wouldn’t recommend staying this far way from the city. We notice a few convenient stores (owned by Pakistani / Bangladeshi / Nepali origin) and buy our essentials like fruits, milk, juices, water etc. from the closest one.
The apartment is otherwise quite comfortable, which we co-share with 2 Brazilian ladies here on a month long vacation. A well-equipped kitchen, with basic necessities available for cooking; a dining table and a living room with books, TV and comfortable couch. English is comfortably spoken by the people here, so much better than Spain; at least we can communicate. Since we are staying in a residential town, we get a first hand experience of the Portuguese life.
Lisbon sight seeing – You will come across many websites describing the sight seeing places and their history. I would be describing Portugal from my perspective, with the aim of assisting travelers plan their itinerary. Here is our itinerary-
| Day | Date | Locations |
| 1 | 29 Sep 2017 | Praca de Comercio, Sao Jorge Castle, Belem, Elevator |
| 2 | 30 Sep 2017 | Sintra, Pena Palace |
| 3 | 1 Oct 2017 | Cascais |
Praca do Comercio
We take a train and reach the Praca do Comercio. It is in the Baixa district of Lisbon. It was once a commercial hub of Lisbon, now a beautiful place with river view restaurants ad hotels. The arc in the middle of the Praca is the Arco da Rua Augusta. A visit to the tourist centre the first thing in the morning has become like a ritual on this trip. So we wait in the queue at the tourist centre and come out with travel brochures and a lot of travel advice. From here we walk till the Sao Jorge Castle – best way to explore any city is on foot. a 30-minute walk uphill takes us to the Sao Jorge castle around 10.30 AM.
Sao Jorge Castle
A very old castle, around 900 years old, has a rich and extensive history and gorgeous views. It is in the Alfama district and we begin our first sightseeing place from here. We buy an entry ticket for the castle and there is a guided tour which starts every hour, it is free of cost. So, we wait for our tour guide to begin the tour, it is HIGHLY recommended that one takes a tour guide to understand the castle, history of Lisbon and the significance of different landmarks in the castle. Our tour starts at 11 AM and then we take our own sweet time to explore the castle till 1 pm.
Belem – Jeronimos Monastary.
Half a day trip to Belem is sufficient to enjoy the laid-back port of otherwise crowded Lisbon. We take a bus from Lisbon to Belem – 45 minutes to reach. Belem is located to the west of Lisbon. Worth Sightseeing – Belem Tower, Jeronimos Monastery, Belem Palace (view it from outside, its the official residence of the President of Portugal). We have fresh orange juice – squeezed right in front of us – tastes heavenly. Tram and bus stop is right next to Jeronimos monastery, a lavish building with intricate stone carvings. We sit here in the church for around 30 minutes. Beautiful and peaceful – and a good escape from the scorching sun outdoors. There is Euro 10 fee to enter the monastery which houses a museum. Depending on the time of the day, there could be a long queue to enter the monastery and may be easier to simply visit the Igreja Santa Maria de Belem church (right next to the monastery) is equally impressive and beautiful, the carvings are identical and there is no entry fee (you save Euro 10 per person, worth a save).
Entrance of carmo convent 
view from san jorge castle 
Arco da Rua Augusta 
Alleys of lisbon 
Padrao dos descobriments 
Jeronimos monastery
Belem – Padrao dos Descobriments
This is a Mindblowing monument built on the banks of Tejo Estuary, to commemorate the sailors who undertook several voyages from this location to India and Brazil. On western side of this monument are the depictions of the explorers while on the eastern side are the key financers. Its shaped like the sail of a boat to honour those sea-fearing men like Vasco-da-Gama.
Fábrica dos Pastéis de Belém Bakery
This bakery, 150 years old, is the place where the popular custard tart (Pastel de Nata) originated. It has egg yolks in it – in case you are vegetarian please avoid this. Nevertheless, we want to be a part of this history so we decide to have coffee and snack here. The moment we set our foot inside it reminds us of our Indian Udupi restaurants – chaotic, noisy, no one to attend to the customers, the waiters are too busy to even cast a look at you. So, we look around, locate a table where people are about to pay the bill and stand around them indicating that we would be taking over the table. Thus, we manage to get a table, then manage to convey to the waiter that we would like to have a vegetarian sandwich and 2 coffee. Once, we are done with our food, we realize there is a group waiting for our table, so we quickly pay up and leave. We get the next bus around 5.45 pm and get back to Lisbon to continue the visit to “elevador de Santa Justa”.
Ride on the Tram # 28.
Ride on the tram # 28 is a unique one and it’s the most highly recommended by one and all. It passes through many of Lisbon’s historic districts including Graca, Alfama, Baixa, Chiado and Sao Bento – almost like a city tour – and all this for Euro 3. A tip here is that take an early ride else it gets too crowded. We have to wait at least 40 mins in a queue to get into this bus post noon.
Elevador de Santa Justa
This is an ago old industrial lift originally powered by steam. There is a long queue to get into the elevator, So Hiren waits in the queue and I set out to explore the shops on both sides of the street. Its a very unique experience to ride the elevador, ride lasts just a few minutes, it kinda seems like we are in this ride for a “time travel”. Even the lift-man is dressed up in old-age costume and it is a noisy lift. Reminds me of the movie “Kate and Leopold” wherein The lead actor gets into this elevator made by “otis” (Mr Otis is the inventor of elevators – as per the movie) and time travels to his future. Kinda feeling like that right now.
The top deck of this elevator once housed the steam engine, now is a panaromic view point. There is a restaurant located at the top deck and one can enjoy a serene candle-light meal with a loved one. Highly recommended.
Carmo Convent
Located in the area of Chiado, this is a historical convent is more than 700 years old. We did not explore the convent in detail due to lack of time but its beautiful. Its enroute tram # 28, so we hop out of the tram, pay a quick visit to the convent and hop back on to the next tram. The route takes us though various alleys of Lisbon – absolutely breath-taking. I am falling in love with this town.
Elevador da Bica (Funicular)
Highly Recommended. Do not miss to experience this great piece of history. Any funicular is a great experience and a fun ride. We have done a couple of funiculars in Spain, even then we thoroughly enjoy this funicular in Lisbon. Especially because it gives us a respite from walking non-stop in the alleys of Lisbon. If weather permits, The hard core trekkers can climb uphill instead of funicular to do the sight seeing. But we choose to take the elevador da Bica both ways – uphill and downhill.
Statue of Cristo Rei
Cristo Rei is one of Lisbon’s most iconic monuments. The Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio, Brazil is the inspiration for the statue of Cristo Rei. There is a ferry ride and a bus ride to reach here. We choose to visit the Cascais instead of Statue of Cristo Rei. While at Belem, we get a beautiful panaromic view of the statue of the Cristo Rei.
Day trip to Sintra
Day trip to Cascais
Traveller tips-
- Lisbon is beautiful, stay preferably in downtown touristy Lisbon. We stayed in a suburb of Lisbon and had to take 2 trains to reach Lisbon. I would not recommend it.
- Belem, Sintra, Cascais are pretty and small towns. If small countryside, laid back towns are what you enjoy, then you could stay in any of these places as well and visit Lisbon for a day.
- If time permits, do take the ferry ride to Cristo Rei.