Lisbon Day Three

Another busy day, making use of our three day pass on the trams. When we stepped out this morning it was eerily quiet. Nothing on the roads, and our wee coffee kiosk was shut, so we had to go to another one which didn’t have such good coffee. We continued our custard tart tastings.

On up into the Alfama district to spend the day wandering amongst the steep wee streets. Our tram driver was a George Clooney lookalike, so that was a good start to the day. A word about tram drivers in general. They are the most patient road users - inconsiderate drivers often park too near the tramlines, and cause such distruption, but they remain calm. They always stop for pedestrians (all vehicles do, unlike Bologna). They have to keep getting out and disconnecting things (not sure what) and sometimes have to go to the back of the tram to drive backwards to get out of a fix. The roads are often steep, narrow and sometimes have 90° bends. Many of them are women, and our driver back home tonight was most obliging - she stopped outside our apartment even though it wasn’t a designated stop. There were only three of us on it, and I was cheeky enough to ask her.

We walked up to the castle, which has great views of the city. JR did the ramparts. Much time spent looking in wee shops, with ice cream and coffee (and tart) stops also.

Then we got caught up in crowds and music outside a big church, lots of police and barricades and folk on horses. I asked an official looking man if someone famous was coming, and he said, 'Yes. Jesus!' 31st May is a national holiday - The Feast of Corpus Christi - around the world.

For several days we have been working up to having the local delicacies - sardines. I've had them before and have pleasant memories of barbecued sardines many years ago in Spain with a friend. JR isn’t wild about tinned sardines, but had been working up to giving them a try. When in Rome...

And so after the procession, we popped in to a wee busy local cafe. Sardines and the preferred prawns were ordered. But when they arrived, they were rather larger than JR (or I) had anticipated. (Extra) In fact, they were huge. She flatly refused to touch them, so I had to nibble away at them. They weren’t as nice as my fond memories were... The prawns were good.

All trams had been stopped because of the procession, but as we began to walk back home, or look for a tuktuk, we saw our tram passing by. We walked back and it was still at the stop (the driver was helping a tourist with map directions), and so we reached it on time, luckily - the last one of the evening. And we were dropped us off at our apartment. The Lisbon trams are epic.