Winter in Lisbon - Portugal

It became kind of a little tradition that after the X-Mas days I hop on a plane and go somewhere near Austria to celebrate new years eve. After I did Rome, Barcelona and Bratislava the past years, this time Lisbon in Portugal was on my list.  In the last quarter of 2023 I had kind of a rough time, as well in my private and my job-life, so I really needed this trip badly. 

4 hours after having a "Weißwurst und Bier" at the Airport of Munich, I arrived in Lisbon. Good thing, the international airport is located pretty much within the city. There's a metro going downtown but I decided to take an Uber. 15 Euro in 2024 was kind of a fair price. Uber will be your choice of transportation anyway while staying in the capital of Portugal. The prices are crazy cheap, sometimes even cheaper than taking the bus.

If you are staying in Bairro Alto or Alfama (where my place was) you better bring handy luggage. The streets are narrow and steep and most of the stairs in the older part of town are made of cobblestones. Also make sure to bring some good shoes since you will be walking a lot the upcoming days.

The capital of Portugal is offering a huge amount of sights and possibilities to spend some good time. Depending on your preferences and the amount of time you have - you should organize the days you are in Lisbon. As you might know from my previous Blog posts, I'm not that "running-into-every-church-and-museum"-guy.  I like to sleep in, have brunch in some fancy breakfast place - see one or two sights per day and have a good glass of wine on the beach or as in Lisbon in a Fado bar.

You decide. First things first - probably the 2 most famous sights are the Cristo Rei Statue with its perfect view down on the Ponte 25 de Abril and the whole city of Lisbon. 

Take a ferry from Cais do Sodré Station in central Lisbon to go to Cacilhas. Located in Almada, Cacilhas is a nice little place with some cute restaurants and bars on the seaside. This place gives you a first overlook of Lisbon. Have a coffee and a little break before  you start walking up to Cristo Rei.

What a view!  Unfortunately the weather was kind of shitty when I was up there, still we had a blast watching people trying to get the perfect photo of a statue that is way to big to fit on a pictures with you standing in front of it. I've been to Rio de Janeiro and San Francisco, if you don't find the time for that, this place gives you the chance to see the almost equally sights on one spot.

Tejo is the longest waterway of the Iberian Peninsula and ends into the Atlantic Ocean. Lisbon lays right on the river and several famous sights of the city are located on the water front. Starting from Alfama, where I had my AirBnB (which was called Camelia Patio an was awesome by the way) we were heading east for the first stop: "Arco da Rua Augusta" - this enormous memorial arch is located on the "Praça do Comércio" a gigantic square. The Arch is kind of the welcoming door into the historical part of the town. For good photos, be there really early or late at night.

Next you will pass Cais do Sodre, which I already mentioned is a little dock and a train station combined, so wherever you wanna go - you'll start from there. The next few walking minutes are kind of "not that pretty" you'll pass the train station area and the huge harbor. Harbor area is kind of cool but not a place where you linger for a long time. I'll get back later what else you can do around here.

As soon as you reach the yacht and sailboat harbor, the area gets friendlier and very nice again. Stop at one of the restaurants at the yacht harbor with a perfect view of Cristo Rei and the April 25th Bridge. They offer amazing street and seafood for fair prices. 

Continue your walk on "Passeio Carlos do Carmo" next to Tejo river. Several wonderful little cafes and restaurants are located right next to the water front - so just stroll around and enjoy your day while you walk up to the Atlantic Ocean and pass two more famous sights of Lisbon. First you'll reach "Padrão dos Descobrimentos" (The Monument of the Discoveries) which honors explorers, navigators, writes, painters and travelers. Kind of hard to get this thing on a pictures without 1,000 people standing in front of it - but you'll figure it out.

On your way to "Torre de Belem" you can stop and have a break at "Praça do Império" a little park right in front of "Mosteiro dos Jerónimos" a old monastery built between 1495–1521. Continue your walk east to reach "Torre de Belem" - the tower used to sit on the shore of the Tejo river but after a huge earthquake, the river relocated and now the tower sits in the river itself.

If you bring enough time you should seriously go to Cascais, a wonderful little town on the Atlantic coast. Trains are leaving every hour at Cais do Sodré Station - Tickets are cheap - around 3 Euro one way in 2024. If you wanna go more comfy, Uber rate was about 15 Euro one way.

Cascais is so laid back. I loved it. Lisbon can get kind of hectic, so driving out of town was really nice for a few hours. The fisherman town offers a variety of wonderful restaurants to enjoy seafood and a good glass of wine. I highly recommend taking a long walk along the beach and take some nice pictures of the lighthouses you'll find not far from the city center. Another thing you don't want to miss is the Cidadela de Cascais, a building used to defend Lisbon from attacks by sea. The patio offers some art shops and gives you a wonderful place to linger for a few moments. 

Another nice spot to spend half of a day in Lisbon is at LX Factory. This place is really cool. You find a lot of pop-up stores located in an old production sight. These shops sell handcrafted stuff and all sorts of cool shit. The whole area is full of street art and offers a large selection of great food places. Highly recommend a mexican lunch at "Mex Factory".

As you know from my previous posts, eating and drink is kind of my thing. Sitting around in the sun having a good meal and a good glass of wine just makes me happy. Could spend several days of my vacation just doing that.

Therefor Lisboa again was a good place to visit. The variety of restaurants and bars is amazing. Here are just some of the places I went and really fell in love with. For breakfast you might want to check out: „JAC Brunch & Concept Store“ a cool place with a lot of fresh juices and a great variety of international breakfast. If you want to get the perfect photo of you next to the famous trams passing while you enjoy your coffee „Dear Breakfast - Chiado“ is the place you wanna go. It‘s always packed so be sure to be there early. But the one I loved the most was probably „Quase Café“. The staff is amazing and the eggs benedict are just out of this world.

While being in town, running around and having a fast lunch „Time out Market“ might be a place you want to check out. Similar to the great market hall in „Budapest“ this place offers a lot of food from all over the world. Seafood, Steaks, Burgers and Pizza for really fair prices. Also the Market might be a good place for you if you are a solo traveler. You‘ll get to know a lot of people from all over the world. We started our New Year’s Eve there and bumped into a lot of cool people from all over the globe. You will love it!

I don't know which kind of party guys you are - I prefer irish pubs and wine bars. For sure a place where you can find some fun in the evenings is "Pink Street" - a lot of bars and a mixture of locals and foreigners getting together and having a good time. Wasn't that cool to me but you find out for yourself. The street is located in the city center, so you will stumble in one day anyways.

Looking for a good glass of wine? "Vinhos do Manuel" in Alfama will make you happy.

Oh yeah, and one more thing and this one is really important! "Pastel de nata" Listen guys this cream pastries made my trip to Lisbon even greater. You can find it pretty much everywhere in town as it is kind of THE THING. Trust me, eat as much as possible while you are in Portugal. As I said you can get it everywhere but I loved the place up at: "Estátua de Sao Vicente statue". There is a small bistro offering espresso and pastel de nata. From up there you have a wonderful view all over the whole city.

• Check out all the sights on the Tejo
• Go to Cascais
• Spend a day at LX Factory
• Experiance a Fado-Bar
• Eat as much "Pastel de nata" as possible