Lisbon - Day 1 - First impressions

This came out in the garden today. I would love to be able to grow amaryllis in the garden!

The bud on the other plant didn't quite open yet.

Joao and Blanca drove me to the airport. They said it was to say thank you for letting them clean early. For me it was nice to have that personal send off and be able to say goodbye to the children too.
I sat in Starbucks, looking at the Isles Desertas and realized that this is where Nic and Dave must have sat a week ago as they sent me a picture out the window.
Madeira had greeted me with sun and said goodbye with rain. The flight to Lisbon was uneventful. Hard to get used to them feeding you a lunch, with wine, on an hour and 15min flight. I had to chug the wine!
I booked the hotel in Lisbon through booking.com and they sent an e-mail offering a taxi pickup for 14 Euro. As the guide book said you shouldn't pay more than 20 Euro, I took them up on it. It was very nice to be met by a guy with my name on his sign and escorted to a taxi who already knew where to take me. My hotel is on a pedestrian street but he got me as close as he could.

Across from my hotel they are renovating the building so I anticipate a construction noise wake up call.

That entire facade is blue tile.

My hotel, Gat Rossio, is ultra modern but it is in an old building.

The lounge.

Wall decoration. Perhaps this is the "Gat" part of the name, "Rossio" is the metro stop.

My room is on the fourth floor (there is an elevator), one of the ones with the little balcony.

This street, and the other pedestrian streets around, are full of restaurants. This "still life" is right outside my hotel door. I don't find it particularly appealing.

I walked for a coupe of hours, gently downhill, heading for the river. I haven't got into the guidebooks yet so just took random pictures. I can't identify them yet.

Damage in a church. I think there was an earthquake. I need to find out the history.

A lineup at this little "hole in the wall" place. Looks like alcohol of some kind.

Stalls selling cheese,

meat,

pastries and

Sangria at the Baixa market

sharing a square with this statue.

I was pulled towards that end view that was farther than it seemed.

Down to this square

on the river.

So many things to explore

I finally allowed a waiter to seat me, after so many others had tried. I have no idea how to choose one place over another but I think that the fact that my feet were tired may have played a role. It ended up being a very entertaining meal as I sat next to a couple from Wiltshire and heard about his plans to teach English as a second language in Madrid as his retirement career. Laughed with a woman from Montenegro who was visiting Lisbon with a friend from Serbia ("we are not at war, just over who pays the bill") and was shown a picture of the snow currently in Finland from another couple when we commiserated about how it was not cold here even though the Portuguese owner kept trying to get people to come inside where there was a fireplace. The meal itself was fine, wine, bread, octopus salad, coffee, creme caramel.

I managed to find my way back

I think tomorrow will be the Hop on Hop off bus, to get the lay of the land

and breakfast spent with the guide book.