Day trip to Lisbon

Our friends Filomena and Jose had to take a trip into Lisbon and offered to take us and show us a few of the tourist sites. So an offer like that could not be refused and I, for one, was more than happy to "take a day off" and be guided around the beautiful city of Lisbon!!!

The journey to Lisbon takes two hours using the toll roads and our first stop was a visit to their house in the city and then on for lunch! After a lovely lunch we went to Lisbon's largest shopping Centre which is called the Colombo Centre.

The centre is huge with a lovely roof-top area with gardens and fountains, sitting areas, very nice indeed. Lots and lots of internationally known shops and Portuguese shops with the usual floor dedicated to "eating". Oh! what a lovely sight, all those take-away food restaurants which we very rarely get see in our parts! Never thought I would get such a lovely feeling clapping my eyes on a K.F.C.!!!!!! McDonalds and Burger King we can get in our nearest city but not much else, e.g. indian and chinese!! For me it was a pleasure to troll round the shops but as we all know its not a "man thing" so it was off to the next venture. A glimpse of the "footie grounds" was a must for Rob. Both Benfica and Sporting football grounds are in the centre of Lisbon. I can show a photo of Benfica but not Sporting as it did not come out very well.

We parked up and took a walk past Jeronimo's and its Gardens, onto the river side of the city and down to the Marina. There are lots of cafes and restaurants and even BBQ and picnic areas for people to "do their own thing".

Here are some of the photos we took on our walk:-

Jeronimos' Monastery and Gardens

Our last port of call was to the famous "Pasteis de Belem Cafe" which surprisingly looks small from the road but the cafe is huge, just seems to be room after room and so busy, for a treat of coffee and their famous "custard tarts". Slightly different to the English version of a custard tart but very nice indeed and we enjoyed them very much.

Another visit to Lisbon is a "must" for us, there is so much more to see and do, hopefully we can snatch a few days and stay over so we can take it all in.

Would like to say a massive "thank-you" to Filomena and Jose for a fantastic treat of a day out in Lisbon.