I love sharing things with you on my blog and sometimes my escapades don’t leave me with much time for writing. I’m about to embark on several days of escapades with my sister, who right now is in a cab coming from the airport to visit me. Let me try to catch you up on the highlights of this past week before it all melds into this week’s new adventures.

Monday:

I find a great new coffeehouse nearby called Albi.

It is run by an Australian/Brazilian couple named Fernanda and Julian.

It’s only been open two months, but is clearly the place to be.

Waiting for a table, I meet Martijn, CEO of Bnberry, a cool company that works with Airbnb,VRBO and other lodging partners on specific aspects of their business model. He’s Dutch, but he set up the company here in Lisbon 6 years ago. Because tables are scarce, we end up sitting together for about an hour chatting. I’m sure I will see him again this trip.

Another highlight of Monday is dinner at Nick and Ivan’s place. Gorgeous food, conversation and views and I get to meet Jane, Nick’s sister visiting from London.

Tuesday:

Catarina by some miracle gets us a lunch reservations at O Velho Eurico. This old restaurant is a place of pilgrimage, with the lines and sold out reservations for weeks to prove it. The chef is young cook Zé Paulo Rocha, part of a new generation of Lisbon’s rising chefs, who have worked to move the dining scene forward, marrying traditional items with a hint of modernity. I get there early and learn Catarina will be delayed. Fortunately Ze Paulo is putting out the staff meal on an outside table. I get to talk with him and he tells me about the dishes.

The crowd grows outside and all are eager to eat at this remarkable place.

It’s on the way to São Jorge Castle and it appears on an unassuming corner as if by providence, a cozy pit stop to replenish your energy to finish the climb up. I get my table and start ordering to cover for Catarina’s delay. She whizzes in, turning heads, and whatever on the menu I have not ordered she orders. It is a feast!

I need to finish this feast, because I’m taking my new friends Susanna and Annemarie on a long tour of every Miradouro in Lisbon led by Ricardo Santos. You probably read on one of my earlier blogs that I did this myself a few weeks ago. I enjoyed it so much I decide to to share it with my friends and ask a professional guide to lead us to see if I missed anything doing it on my own. Fasten your seat belts! Here we go

We start with Miradouro Santa Catarina

Next Elevador de Bica

Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcantar

A stop at the church of São Rocco

Covento do Carmo

Elevador de Santa Justa

Miradouro do Chao do Loureiro

Miradouro das Portas do Sol

Miradouro de Santa Luzia

Miradouro da Graça

Miradouro da Sephora do Monte

What a day! I look at my watch and it says 30,478 steps and 52 floors.

Wednesday:

I am taking a train to Évora. Évora is an old Roman trading town and there still stands an impressive Roman ruin, one of the best preserved on the Iberian peninsula. Arriving at the Évora train station, I walk about 15 – 20 minutes into the city centre. All points of interest are within a 10 minute walk of each other, which makes getting around on foot the optimal choice for navigating the tiny alleyways and streets. One thing of note though, Évora is the hottest city in Portugal temperature wise. It is in the Alentejo region of Portugal, also known for fantastic wines.

You can climb to the roof of the cathedral, which I do. It is beautiful and windy.

To the surprise of no one, prior to leaving home, I snag a lunch reservation at the Michelin restaurant Dom Joaquin in Évora. I am fortunate to sit next to Raquel and Sam, a Portuguese couple on holiday. They are so kind and share tastes of their lunch choices with me. We are three foodies having a great lunch “together”.

After lunch I must see the Chapel of the Bones. It is known as Capela dos Ossos and the walls are covered and decorated with human skulls and bones. It was built to convey the message of temporariness and fragility of human life. It was built by Franciscan Friars and it is estimated there are 5,000 corpses that were exhumed to cover the walls. The bones which came from ordinary people who were buried in Évora’s medieval cemeteries are arranged in a variety of patterns. Above the entrance is a sign saying “We bones are here, for yours we wait.” I know! So creepy! Glad I didn’t see this before lunch.

I must say I thought about those bones the entire way back on the train.

Thursday:

Back to Coffehouse Albi for some more writing and my friends come into tonight from Vienna so I am getting organized for their visit. I met Arno in the Naschmarkt in Vienna on my birthday in 2017. I was shopping and Arno helped me talk to the shopkeeper. We hit it off so well and the following year I stayed with him and his family in the Dolomites prior to Shirleyfest Amsterdam. Their family joined me at Shirleyfest Bologna in 2022. Their girls were only 5 and 7 when I met them and now they are teenagers!

Friday:

We meet at A Brasileira to fuel the children.

Next we tour around many of the important Lisbon spots. Suddenly lo and behold we are passing O Velho Eurico. Do I dare? Yes I must. I go talk to the chef and tell him we are 5 people without reservation. He says, “you must love my food, as you are back so soon.” “Well yes I do….any chance of fitting us in?” “Stay here”, he says “ and we will definitely try”. Score we are in! Or rather out. We have a nice table under the trees and once again we order the whole menu.

In the afternoon, the girls whiz off to my fancy nail place to get their first professional manicures.

A little break before we meet back up at the Food Temple and eat delicious vegetarian food out on the steps. It is truly a gorgeous evening and so much fun to be sitting here sharing a meal with my friends.

Saturday:

I’ve organized a tour of Belém for everyone. What a surprise when our tour guide just cuts the enormous line at Pastéis de Belém and comes out with the beautiful tarts for everyone.

Everyone enjoys the tour and after lunch at the cultural center, we tram back to Lisbon central.

We meet later at my apartment for drinks. And then we head to Decadente for a multi-course meal.

Later we adults hit the rooftop bar at Hotel Chiado.

At midnight, I’m catching the Metro home very happy with our lovely day.

Sunday:

I go to mass at Church of our Lady of the Loreto of the Italians, a church built at the outer perimeter of Lisbon in 1676.

We only have time for one more activity with my Viennese friends so we pick riding the tram ride around the city.

Afterwards, off go my wonderful friends on a flight back to Vienna. I hope to see them on next year’s Shirleyfest or maybe even a visit from them to California next summer

Monday:

My friend Linda arrives. I met Linda in Shirleyfest Melbourne and what luck that she is touring around Portugal while I am here. We meet for coffee and plan out our day. We walk through Time Out market where I examine the Aperol spritz options for later. We end up at Taberna da Rua da Flora for a seafood lunch. It was so so good!

Linda has the good idea of a boat ride on the Tagus River. It is such a warm day that this is the ideal activity.

Later, we have dinner at Tasca de Esquina, a highly rated restaurant with a celebrity chef, near my apartment.

The restaurant is beautiful and the food perfectly prepared, yet even with those two things I cannot recommend this restaurant for 3 reasons. The servers were apparently having some internal tiff and in every action their unhappiness was obvious. The tables are fairly close together and I’m afraid this restaurant must have been featured in an American magazine or food blog recently, because all the other tables were populated with Americans and unfortunately for us….very loud speaking Americans. Finally when our bill came there were many items on it we had not ordered. We of course pointed this out and they took off those items, but I’ve eaten out at dozens of restaurants in Lisbon and this is the first time this happen to me. Too many great restaurants to consider going here again.

After dinner, Linda ubers off and I stop by Pinot Bar for a nightcap and a look at the beautiful moon before heading home to bed.

Tuesday:

I like to try things I do at home in my host city. Today I am getting a facial. It’s a lovely treatment room and many many steps and I am so happy with my facial. It was a 90 minute complete professional facial and guess what….it was 60 euros. Unbelievable!

Since I’ve skipped both breakfast and lunch and I spy Versailles, a famous pastry and gelato shop near my spa, I decide gelato is the perfect lunch.

Later I take myself and my new facial out to Belém as I am going to a concert at the Centro Cultural de Belem. At this late hour, Belém is magic. All the tour buses are gone and the place is serene.

I meet Ivan and Nick for a rooftop dinner first at Este Oeste.

The concert is Mahler’s 8th symphony. This is a large scale work with a huge choir and a huge orchestra. It is in two parts and the theme of the piece is being saved through the power of love. It is said that this symphony expresses confidence of the eternal human spirit. As an optimist, I’m a fan of this! It is so enjoyable.

Afterwards in the night we walk along the water and see the Belém monuments lit up by the moon, stopping for tea at a hotel on the water. We uber home very happy.

And that is wrap for another week of Shirleyfest. As usual I appreciate you coming along on my journey. Stay tuned!!