At dinner last night we were introduced to another classic Portuguese dish that I can’t believe I haven’t tried before: pica pau.
It translates to woodpecker but refers to a dish of seared cubes of beef in a thin beer or wine sauce with garlic, mustard, and pickles. It doesn’t sound much but it was so so good. The same sauce can be used for mushrooms or shrimps. Between us we ordered all three and shared, Simon being the odd one out, ordering a salad (there’s always one).
It was the highlight of another excellent meal at a local eatery, which we walked to past yet another prodigious traffic jam.
Today was Rita’s last day at the conference (I had originally planned to go but it ended up being only for surgeons). The rest of us had already decided to take the ferry across the harbour.
Would took the famous number 28 tram into town. It was packed with tourists, as there were two more cruise ships in town today. Still, it was fun to do. Three euros ten cents each, pay the driver, cash only, or you can get some sort of concession if you’re more organised than us.
We took the ferry across the harbour but it was a close thing. The lady in the ticket booth explained that there were three places the boats sailed to that had very similar sounding names, luckily Simon’s pronunciation didn’t sound like any of them so we had to clarify by saying we just wanted to go across the harbour. Two euros return, plus the reloadable card that we could have used on the tram if we’d been better prepared. The trip only took ten minutes, on a big catamaran. The ferry building is a very modern facility, for Lisbon.
We hadn’t really planned anything to do on the other side, but a quick Google while waiting for the ferry revealed that there was a decommissioned submarine you could visit, as well as an old Victorian era battleship. We did both and it was a superb way to spend an hour or so. The submarine was very claustrophobic, even though the space is well organised. It was able to stay underwater for up to a month at a time.
From there we walked along the waterfront past a lot of colourful street art towards the restaurant that we hoped to have lunch. The area is really very rundown and in need of love and money (aren’t we all).
The restaurant is obviously very popular and was busy but we managed to get a table and had a perfectly adequate lunch. It is famous for some tables that are right next to a drop into the water with no protective barrier. Apparently this is good for instagram? We didn’t sit there, though.
After lunch we continued on, somehow missing the waterfront path (it went past the instagrammable tables I think) and walked up some stairs to the top viewpoint. There is an elevator but it was out of commission so it worked out for the best. Someone had invested money and effort at some point in the recent past to have a bar at the top of the elevator, but it was shut and graffitied so that business venture didn’t go well.
There’s a Christ The King statue up here, inspired by Christ The Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro.
We wandered around the hilltop looking for access to the medieval castle up there, but now it’s some sort of military installation and not open to visitors, so we wandered back down the hillside suburb to the ferry terminal and headed back home.