Lisbon, Portugal Part 1 // Baixa

9 months later and Lisbon images are finally coming to the blog! And while it's so fun to get to share these images with others, the main reason why I take the time to chronicle travel images is for myself to be able to look back over time. There's well over a decade of travel documented on this blog and I'm grateful for every single experience!

Back when we already had our December 2021 Europe trip planning well under way, I booked some sweet clients who were planning to get married in Normandie, France July of 2022.  Since by that time we would have already spent quite a bit of time in France, I wanted to add a little something else on to the summer trip. Originally we were looking at a multi-city journey through Spain leading up to the wedding but after a truly hellish school year that had devastating affects on our mental health and daily well being, we decided we should just spend a week in one city. Wanting to save Spain for when we could do it justice, but still wanting something warm & sunny, we landed on Lisbon, Portugal and it quickly became one of our favorite cities to date!

I've got quite a lot of images to share so they'll be broken up into a few separate posts. And then stay tuned because we headed to Paris next, picked up some friends and stopped in Giverny, Honfleur & St Malo on our way to Normandie--  there was lots to see!

This post covers our first day in Lisbon-- exploring Baixa, the center of the city, and wandering down the Avenue de Liberdade from our airbnb near the Praca de Alegria (Plaza Alegria) towards Arco da Rua Augusta on the coast. That route is the flattest you'll find along the coast of Lisboa and the rest of the week we were averaging 8+ miles a day up and down the 7 hills of Lisboa! Highly recommend spending a month training on the stair master if you're planning a trip here:) We were both in shape but our glutes were on fire!

 Brian about lost his mind when he discovered Zara, Pull n Bear and other European clothing stores! haha Though, where in the past European stores have always been 5-10 yrs ahead of U.S. fashion trends, that isn't so much the case anymore. Perhaps due to social media? Still, he managed to find some gems.

One of our best meals was at a little indoor/outdoor spot over looking the city called Lost In (towards the bottom of this post). Highly recommend!

Brian loved trying all of the cafes/coffee shops throughout the city and I was all about the Sangria & Pasteis de Nata (a traditional custard pastry). Street food has some similarities to Spain & southern France/Germany (lots of cured meats, melted cheese, baguettes or ciabatta). A few other flavors they're known for: Azeitao Cheese (made from sheeps milk), Bacalhau (cod fish, often served with potatoes, eggs, etc or also found as fish cakes), Sardines (specifically canned sardines- found everywhere), gelato, Port Wine and a unique kind of Rose. Oh and brunch! There were amazing brunch spots everywhere. There's definitely also a moorish influence in both food & architecture, as much of Portugal & Spain were dominated by Muslims between the 8th & 15th centuries.  

Despite hearing about there being tile everywhere, it wasn't as prevalent as I was expecting (in comparison to somewhere further south like Morocco) but it still covered many of the older large buildings we came across. There are four funiculars (public elevators) around the city (the oldest, The Lavra, built in 1884) and while at first I didn't understand the purpose of them, we quickly came to see that they are so helpful in quickly ascending multiple levels of streets on the side of a hill! Definitely saves you some zig zagging up staircases.

Ok, enough for now! Onto the photos!