Today began in the breakfast room, since this hotel comes with breakfast (I very rarely would pay for breakfast since we don’t need as much as they serve and the prices are usually outrageous).

From there (after getting things from our room), we set out, following a Rick Steves walk. We first went to the Santa Clara Bridge, walking across that.

After the bridge we landed at Largo da Portagem. If we hadn’t eaten we might have been tempted by the pastries, but after our breakfast there was no need. So on we walked.

We continued down a main drag, heading to the Church of Santa Cruz. At some point (I can’t remember exactly when) some female students in their robes came up to ask us something … but (I forgot to write about this last night so I’ll write it now) we shook our heads and walked on.

Soooo … the story from last night: prior to our dinner a young male student came up to us. The story as he told it was as a newbie (well, he didn’t use that word) they had tasks they had to do. One was to sing a song to a tourist and then get us to sing it back. So, while we weren’t all that jazzed, we let him sing some of it to us. “La la la la la” it began, then a few words in Portuguese, then more “la la la la la la la…”. Finally I said, can you show us the words to the song. And there were a LOT more words and NO “la la la”s there. But I immediately noticed one word that was the same as an English world that immediately made me understand what was going on. What we would be singing would be a song that was quite sexual in nature. At that point I said, without letting on that I understood the game, that we really couldn’t do it — that the Portuguese was just to difficult for us. I do wonder if all English speaking tourists would understand, or if he’d get a video of someone saying who-knows-what so he and all his friends could have a good laugh! In any case, when the young women came up to us today we quickly waved them off! Silly kids!

We continued on our way, and arrived at the Cafe Santa Cruz (a former church) and we did decide we had to have a coffee and small treat. (I mean, the Rick Steves’ instructions sort of told us we should.) OH … and it should be noted that the women’s bathroom used to be a confessional. Heh.

Next door was the Church of Santa Cruz (Mosteiro de Santa Cruz), and we opted to pay the 4€ each for a ticket to see more of it. There was a lot to see …

The our friend Rick told us to go on to the Jardim da Manga. I had expected some sort of large garden since I hadn’t read his description yet, but it was not a huge thing, and we too quick photos as we passed by.

Then it was the Mercado Municipal. Turns out much of the market was closed or in the process of closing, so not much to see, but we did get pastel de nata there. Because.

Rick’s next instructions were to take an elevator and the funicular to get closer to the University. Um. Maybe not. Both were not working! So we had a climb to do … but nothing we couldn’t handle!

We arrived at the university courtyard we were at yesterday, and when it was time we went to see King João’s Library. First we saw the prison, then a library before the Baroque Library, and finally the amazing library itself. I took photos of the library before the Baroque Library, but no photography was allowed in the latter. Too bad, but I guess readers will just have to visit it to see what it was like.

We also saw St. Michael’s Chapel. There were people working on a statue that had been taken down, not repainting, but just restoring it from what I understand.

We saw the Royal Palace as well.

And we had more we could see with our ticket but didn’t easily locate them, and I think we were just ready to wander back down the hill because we were feeling dehydrated. We did enter the botanical garden, thinking maybe we could get some refreshments there, but after not quickly finding anything we opted to go back to our hotel and enjoy the rooftop while have drinks, olives, and chips. First there was the downhill walk …

Another church…

Then the refreshments (some non-alcoholic … really!) with a view …

… and then one of us started her blogging while another one napped.

It was nearing dinner, so we readied ourselves for one more trip up a hill in search of food. Since I had the Rick Steves Portugal book I just looked things up there. (Last night’s was on his list as well, but we didn’t know it until we got back to the hotel.) We ended up at a nice tapas place, and it was even quiet enough that I didn’t have to worry about my bad ear! I didn’t bother taking photos … no one needs to keep seeing food photos, right? When we finished we went back to our hotel, and hit the rooftop one last time (or at least we think it’s the last time: I suppose we could end up there for a morning view if we wanted).

Tomorrow we move on to another spot. At this point we don’t know if travel will be by train or by bus. I have tickets for either because we’ve received notices that there will be a train strike. When that happens you can’t tell just which trains will be canceled, so I had been advised to buy bus tickets in case our train was a victim of the strike. We just won’t know until I check the train site in the morning, but my guess is we’ll have to take a bus. Stay tuned for that news. In my effort to be more relaxed about “when things go wrong” I am, so far, not stressing. We’ll see how I am tomorrow!

Ciao!