Hanging gardens of Lisbon

A day of mostly walking!  

Breakfast (at noon) in the Time Out market (pasteis and a very fine local fizz!) then a long walk (via a great craft market where all found something to take home) to take in a bit of the old town.  We passed a Roman amphitheatre in the course of being uncovered, and these rather fabulous gardens on waste ground.

Eventually, with lots of hills and steps to earn our lunch, we arrived at the steakhouse and all ate magnificently.

We wended our way back to where our bags were and the others taxied off to the airport.  Meanwhile, I headed off to my slightly odd hotel.  When I booked it it looked completely normal, well-located and slightly luxurious.  But then emails started arriving about burlesque caberet, special 'intimate welcome packs' and so forth, and it appeared that folk may have left a few facts out of their TripAdvisor reviews.

Anyway, with some trepidation I checked in but, aside from pictures of naked ladies and some odd poetry, all appeared safe.  Regardless, I beetled off quickly to do a bit more exploring.  Stop one was to buy some new shoes as my ever-reliable Ecco shoes had let me down yesterday and given me huge blisters.  The only other shoes I had were flipflops - not great for a lot of hill walking.

Once appropriately shod, I climbed the mountain again to near where we had lunch, facetimed family from the park, had a mooch in the shops, then bought a small salad for dinner (which I can report I couldn't even finish).

Back at the hotel I popped my head in the 'elegant terrace bar' and quickly judged that it was not the sort of place that even an old, tired-looking lady like me was liable to be left in peace.  So, off into the square to grab a beer at one of the ubiquitous kiosk cafes.  With a labrador for company and the nice waiter being very prompt with supplying further beers I had not ordered, it made for a calm and cool end to a busy day.

Back to the hotel to binge on Netflix.  Another fine girls weekend.