Walking Lisbon
When the Plan Gets Out of the Way
Looking out the window while riding Tram 28 in Lisbon, Portugal. Photo by Wendy Stieg.
I remember waking up in that beautiful apartment that was situated above the Fado restaurant in Lisbon. We purposely had a few days in the city to try to grasp Lisbon. A few days were not going to give us a lot, but we each had a pastel de nata and a latte for breakfast. We found a famous cafe.
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Charming Lisbon apartment, above a Fado restaurant. Photos by Wendy Stieg.
We had plans to find a tram or a funicular to ride and see the city. I remember thinking about the photographs I had seen of Lisbon with people merrily riding these cable cars through the city. We found a tram stop for Lisbon's famous Tram 28 and waited.
Prefer to have a little more of a plan? You can find tours and activities in Lisbon through Klook.
We waited at least twenty minutes. When the tram finally came, it was empty. There were tourists from all over the world, and there were a lot of us. There was a sign on the wall saying to watch out for pickpockets and open windows. We were all excited. Up the hill we climbed. Five minutes later, the tram came to a stop.
The conductor announced, “It’s done! The ride is over! Everyone, get out!” He left the tram. Everyone stayed on the tram, and everyone was confused. Then he popped his head back in and said, “Go! It’s over! Get off!”
We exited the tram and started laughing. As planned, we headed toward Belém instead and found lunch and a really hip part of Lisbon along the way. Dreams of Belém Tower were in my head. Paul was excited to walk, as that meant exercise. So we walked. The tram ride we had carefully planned was brief and entirely unremarkable. We did not expect the day to go as it did; as it turns out, that day was full of surprises.
We stayed in a beautiful apartment in Baixa, which became our base for exploring Lisbon on foot. Finding Lodging can help point you in the right direction for booking your own lodging reservations.
Funicular going up one of the steep hills of Lisbon. Photo by David Magalhães.
I had imagined myself riding through the city and seeing unique parts of Lisbon. We clearly didn’t do a great job understanding the tram's route, but the day turned out better than we thought it would.
As we walked through the city, we started to fall under its spell. Lisbon is so incredibly beautiful; I found myself taking pictures of lots and lots of tile, as well as buildings. Color is everywhere
Walking instead of riding. Alcântara, Lisbon, Portugal. Photo by Wendy Stieg.
When you travel, this seems to happen a lot, where you think you will have certain experiences; in fact, many people build their trip so that they experience everything and check every box. We knew that we were not going to be able to see everything in the short amount of time we had for this first trip. We purposely did not overplan.
That turned out to be a great instinct because even this: the idea that you would ride on a tram and then look like the postcard…and then what? What were you thinking you would experience?
As it turns out, walking turned out to be the very best thing we could have done. After our day, we found out that the neighborhoods we walked through, the cafe where we had lunch, and the whole area of Lisbon we found ourselves in gave us our best sense of this beautiful city.
Sometimes walking ends up being the best transportation decision you make. That’s exactly what happened to us in Lisbon. Europe Transportation Options, Part 1 identifies the best local transportation options.
The curves, color and Art Deco feel caught my eye. Alcântara, Lisbon. Photo by Wendy Stieg.
We had been in Portugal for going on almost two weeks. We had gotten married at the beginning of the trip, spent time in Sintra, and drove down to the Algarve and back. Lisbon was purposely planned for the end of the trip. This meant we’d already had several different kinds of experiences. For me, cities mean architecture, tile, design. For Paul it meant exploration, exercise, and just seeing the city. For both of us, it was a truly beautiful experience.
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Basílica da Estrela. Old architecture is one of the reasons Europe is my happy place. Photo by Wendy Stieg.
We never made it to the Belém Tower. Instead, we ended up by the river, standing beneath the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, the Monument to the Discoveries. We were enchanted by this monument, and so were a busload of tourists. We didn’t mind. It was a large number of people marveling at this beautiful monument to Portugal’s history.
Padrão dos Descobrimentos, Belém, Portugal. Photo by Wendy Stieg.
Did we walk back to the gorgeous Baixa neighborhood apartment? Nope! We ended up in a ride-share. Which was fine because we found a little rooftop bar and spent the rest of the afternoon there, watching boats on the Tagus River.
Putting our feet up above Lisbon, with the Tagus River and Cristo Rei in the distance. Photo by Wendy Stieg
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