This week the friends discuss their experiences in the beautiful country of Portugal and much more! We would love to hear from you. Visit us online at Friendsthatcarryon.com or your favorite social channel. And remember #lifedontsuck when you're traveling with friends!
This week the friends discuss their experiences in the beautiful country of Portugal and much more! We would love to hear from you. Visit us online at Friendsthatcarryon.com or your favorite social channel. And remember #lifedontsuck when you're traveling with friends!
Welcome, everyone, to the friends that carry on podcast where we dive deeper into our trips and tactics and everything in between. So sit back, relax, and get ready to go on a trip with your favorite refer friends.
Unknown Speaker :Hello friends. Welcome to the friends that carry on Podcast. I am Tony. Today we have a lot of people with Eric, Jim Scott, Brian, Jim Reed and Terry Hall. So how is everybody today? Wonderful. Awesome. That is great. so comfy is what you say hunky dory. hunky dory. That's awesome. Well, today we're going to talk about Lisbon.
Unknown Speaker :Whereas Lisbon, I believe it's in Portugal,
Unknown Speaker :whereas Portugal
Unknown Speaker :across the pond leave it's in Europe.
Unknown Speaker :For us across the pond
Unknown Speaker :next to what for them
Unknown Speaker :for 10 days. You're going to Spain and then stop short one subway stop short guy.
Unknown Speaker :Get one subway stop short.
Unknown Speaker :It's on the on the airplane.
Unknown Speaker :So yeah, Lisbon, Portugal. I guess three of us of the six have been and three have not. So I guess the first question I wanted to throw out to the three that have been is why did you decide Portugal?
Unknown Speaker :And specifically, why did you end up in Lisbon? So, Terry, how did you start off?
Unknown Speaker :Ah, originally got wet because look price. Lisbon's known as one of the cheapest European capital cities in Europe, I guess. But
Unknown Speaker :I hate those other European capital cities outside of Europe.
Unknown Speaker :But for eating, drinking lodging, yeah, it just ticked off a lot of my Reasons to go. And once I did, it's just a wonderful place. I'm really glad I went. price was the main thing that got me there the first time. Okay. What about you, Jim?
Unknown Speaker :Oh, you know, a lot of it was Terry's recommendation because he went there without me previously. And I heard him talk about it. And it's like, oh, man, that sounds fantastic. But to be honest, I'd wanted to go to Lisbon ever since back in Shep back at Shepherd University, Shepherd college back in the day. I read Voltaire's Candide. And in it, it describes the great Lisbon earthquake of 1755, which is just a massive thing in European history and, and it made me want to go see it. And, you know, thank God when I got there. There's lots of ways you can still see the damage that the earthquake did. You know, one big comment lift up on the hill that you could walk through, I guess we'll talk about that later. But yeah, that history and me going and so that along with Terry halls, recommended She was good enough.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, that's kind of the same thing for me with Jim. Was that to be on the same trip? Is that your first one as well? 2016? Yes. Yeah. That's kind of the same thing. I mean, I think all of us want to see all over the world. So, you know, it was just another one of those places like, Well, sure. I definitely want to go to Portugal and definitely to go to Lisbon. And they went, Terry said, yeah, this place is pretty awesome. I was like, Okay. And then we, of course, threw it into, you know, going to St. Patty's Day in Dublin and then following up with me in Paris was like,
Unknown Speaker :okay, not a bad trip.
Unknown Speaker :That doesn't suck. But yeah,
Unknown Speaker :I mean, I was very interested in I mean, I like all of the any locations, especially that have a rich history in as far as like, powerhouses. You know, it's really where center of the kind of the universe was, at that point, at least our universe, you know, and live it was just powerhouse at one point. So you always end up with great, interesting things that happen in that area, and just steeped with history so that was definitely for me. So you guys haven't been what do you guys thinking is the place you guys want to go?
Unknown Speaker :Absolutely. Like I said earlier it's on my shortlist only because you've been and there's experience there and it is when I should be in Italy right now and it was through tap airplay ago and it was so I was really excited to go there at least for a layover. Yeah, even though just to see it, and then I would have probably gone back in within a year or so. To stay for a little bit anyway.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah. What about you, Jim? I definitely want to go for all the reasons I've listed out Hey, I haven't been which is a big reason I want to try to get po anywhere and everywhere. But hearing the stories that Terry and Tony and Jim Reed have shared and a few other friends less hills been there and then my daughter's went last fall. So they went there. Laser wars and had a great time. So all feedback I get is is really positive and it's just place I need to get to
Unknown Speaker :brag about you.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, for sure you know, everything that that you all have spoken about. But you know and just reading up about it a little bit the love the small quaint family run restaurants, the local feel that those types of experiences really appeal to me. The port probably appeals a little bit to me as well. It's terrible that I've heard that and, you know, being on the coast and and just the description of the city itself. The you know that. That sounds like a place I'd really enjoy.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, it's got a great vibe, absolutely great vibe. So Well, one of the first segments we really want to kind of get into is, you know what, anytime you go to a city, you have to kind of decide where you're going to stay. Right? Not necessarily just the accommodations of design between You know, hotel or do an apartment or even a hostel, you know, but you also have decide what area, you know, like we talked about Paris. There's one part of Paris is definitely not like the other part of Paris and that's the same when it comes to Lisbon. So, Terry, since you you know, you were our initial person in Lisbon. Where did you stay the first time you went? went
Unknown Speaker :off. How did you decide basically the same area? Every time I've been there, it's a
Unknown Speaker :Barrow Alto. Yep. Which is Portuguese for high neighborhood. And it's, it's on top of a hill. Lisbon's made up of seven hills much like Montmartre in Paris. Yeah. Paris has that one big hill well, Lisbon has seven and Barrow alto is one of the hills.
Unknown Speaker :It's also the it's the food and wine and Party Central to Oh, by the way, not that that had anything to do. They're dairy
Unknown Speaker :Yes.
Unknown Speaker :So, but it's also one of the cheaper places to stay. So yeah once again going back to the the price and more bang for your buck. That was also reason about first time. Once I did it the first time I've realized how much fun it was. And what a nice, decrepit rundown area which really led to a lot of that charm. I enjoyed it and I kept going back three other times.
Unknown Speaker :So what type of place did you stay and when you went Was it a hotel Airbnb?
Unknown Speaker :Now, Brian, I've stayed at Airbnb ease all four times. Although Lisbon if you Google it, it's one of the top hostel areas in the in Europe as for top of the line hospitals not your typical 20 to a room type of places. So, you know if you're a younger person, you want to stay in a hostel and save some money. Lisbon's one of the better places to do that too. But yeah, apartments for me. There are very few hotels really in the center of the old town area where we'd like to stay. The hotels, your big chain hotels are more farther, I guess at the Northwest towards a more modern part of town, which is kind of dull and boring if he asked me,
Unknown Speaker :Terry, you just touched upon. Our question is, is there an old section in a modern section? like there isn't a lot of typical big European cities? You ain't Yes, question. Yeah, yeah.
Unknown Speaker :There is what I guess there's what three of them that would kind of fall into that general area.
Unknown Speaker :There's the old we went up there. Yeah, that
Unknown Speaker :was Alabama. I think that's Yeah, pronounce it right below the castle. Yeah, I guess that's the original historical area. Okay.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah and be oxa and cerrado. Yeah, could be, are the other two places? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker :Bikes is the low area that was like 85% destroyed in the earthquake. And so yeah, you call it the new area, even though it's all rebuilt in around 17 at 1785 but it's all got the same look. I love up where we are, you know, in the bottom row Alta. Because it's just a mishmash of style. Some things survived some didn't from the earthquake. There's a lot of just really old neat, quick, quirky buildings. Oh, yeah, it's totally wild. We Yeah, you guys your apartment was actually in bear alto we stayed. I mean, it was only two blocks away. We were kind of right on the line there between Barrow Alto. I guess is the shadow
Unknown Speaker :barrel?
Unknown Speaker :There, alto that area.
Unknown Speaker :But I mean, it was funny it was it was only two blocks. But it wasn't an easy two blocks because you were just on the other side of the top of the hill and we were on the other side so
Unknown Speaker :people don't realize how hilly that city in
Unknown Speaker :well, and I think I know Terry, my daughter Lauren leaned on you a little bit for information and when she was booking her stuff, and she ended up staying in the bear alto section in Airbnb in an apartment above a bar, but I think she had booked something a little further away and then in consulting with you, you're like, you're a couple hills or whatever away and that's gonna be a heck of a white walk at night or whatever you're doing. So she ended up rebooking it, thanks to your advice, and I think that I know they had a great time.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, yes, Jeff. She wanted to stay in our farmer which is on another Hill across The main square and Lisbon you got on top of our Hill, and then he goes all the way down to the square. And then all the way up on the opposite Hill, which was alfama, which is an old section of town also. But it's mainly locals. An older crowd, and it does not do her any child's just at night party wise. She's your daughter.
Unknown Speaker :I'm not sure that means Terry, but
Unknown Speaker :we can go down that path and explain.
Unknown Speaker :I don't know we have time for that.
Unknown Speaker :That brings another question.
Unknown Speaker :So can you day trip is these hills you day trip? Okay, from Hill to Hill, or do you pick a couple hills throughout it? You know what I mean? Are they that?
Unknown Speaker :I mean, you can walk them? Okay. I mean, but I'm thinking bigger hills. Yeah. I mean, they're pretty sizable, though. I mean, it's, it's an effort. I mean, I can tell you when we got down to the to I guess the The square you know I guess the old palace square down by the river I mean walking back up to our apartment was it was a challenge yeah especially after you know a couple bottles of wine and support and some Gina's which we'll explain later. You know, I thought it was just because you were old.
Unknown Speaker :Well, it could be that too but,
Unknown Speaker :you know, but
Unknown Speaker :start looking around there's a lot of public transportation there's a funicular there's these things called the elevators that can take you up and down you know about the equivalency of like eight storeys you know, from the top to the bottom. And of course, you can always grab an Uber in and make your trip a little bit shorter going up and down those hills. Yeah, the
Unknown Speaker :elevator was pretty awesome. We did that a couple times anyway. Yeah, I mean, it was pretty neat. You just it's almost like you walk out a you know, this plank, it sticks out over top and then an elevator just go straight down there was kind of wild, huh?
Unknown Speaker :Well, can they give you the best of the city?
Unknown Speaker :Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, it's a good way to get around. I mean, you can walk around but yeah, sneaking in on those kind of elevators and some of the binoculars that are around. I mean there's obviously the infamous one that you always see on anytime they show pictures Elizabeth but there are several of them that are out there that makes it a lot easier and navigating those. Those hills.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, best thing to do is to just get a travel pass of some type either a date pass or pay as you go pass. And just use those and swipe as you go. Because the elevator, Santa's booster, the one that Jimmy's talked about, they take us all the way up to Carmo convent square that costs $5 if you don't have a pass, so it could do that once or twice a day that could really add up to some money. So a day pass cost $6 and 50 or 650 euros good information. Yeah, get your buses metros, elevators for Nicholas and all those
Unknown Speaker :yeah But as far as you know, picking a place to stay, I mean, again that's kind of the important thing is figuring out you know, what, how do you want to see the city? What do you want to do you know, if you if you're using it as a really a stopping point to kind of go on a bunch of day trips and doing different things and you know, staying close to mass transit, you know, your airport or your your airport or a train station is important, but if you want to explore the city, like we tend to want to do, you know, eat and drink logo and see, you know, the historical sites, being in downtown is kind of the way to go. So you just had to figure out the best way to navigate that that area. So but I mean, go ahead, sorry, sorry.
Unknown Speaker :Say along with that, Tony. I've had people, several actually, that went to Lisbon and use points to stay at a Marriott or those type of hotels. And for one, all those hotels, like I said, in the new section of town, so it's gonna take 2025 minutes to get to the old section where all the happen and stuff is and to rent and apartment and living is $70 a night. So it's not like you're saving a lot of money using points and by time he paid transportation and time you're not really gaining anything from doing that, in my opinion,
Unknown Speaker :I would totally agree we, um, we ended up with a two bedroom apartment. You know, not really, we didn't need it to bed it was just shelling myself staying in there, but we were just kind of looking around for the location. I wanted to be right on the top of that hill. Again, having learned from Terry explained to me the difference I didn't want to be too far down there. So we were looking at that general area but again, a two bedroom apartment. I mean, we've been crowded for you know two couples but still mean had a full a little kitchen, a little living room in two bedrooms and a bathroom. I think it was like 73 euros a night or something. Which cheapest That's crazy. You know, to be right in the heart of everything, right? I mean, in the heart of everything. We'll talk about the nightlife of Lisbon here in a little bit, but, I mean, it sounds like we're all kind of in agreement I mean if you're going to assume you want to see the city like we do then being in one of probably the you know Barrow alto or the shadow area it's probably best and it'd be really want to kind of go to like Terry was saying more of the just the older traditional section it's not quite as a hotspot as far as the partying goes as the alfama area but
Unknown Speaker :is there any of those sections that might be kind of centrally located? One of the hills one of the seven hills? No,
Unknown Speaker :not that not the bear altos more in the middle right Terry me as far as the way that those hills are.
Unknown Speaker :It's long they the river there, so but you still got to climb down so many steps and hills it get to the river, so but that's where the main part of where people go, I guess. He says, Yeah,
Unknown Speaker :I mean, I guess I'll FAMAS the furthest to the east. If you're kind of looking at it, you know, on the map, and then when as you go Whereas to kind of go down that hill into that, that box or Baka Basha area, yeah. And then you kind of go back up the hills into the shadow and bear alto section and down another one and back up to Belgium. And it's a roaming hills. So you definitely want to do all that in one morning.
Unknown Speaker :So it was a dead Hello before the earthquake. Oh, that's a good question.
Unknown Speaker :Yes. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker :I don't know. But it but it is a gorgeous area. I mean, some of the views on top of those hills that we went to, and, you know, we can talk about them, we get into some of the places we solve it. But yeah, I guess, you know, kind of wrapping up where to stay. I mean, that's, that would hardly be my recommendation. And like, that's the group's decision to but I can't wait to actually go back. I can't wait to go for the first time. I will say you're talking about the hospitals. So you know what kind of got me You know, I think we're all chomping at the bit to get back on a plane and get someplace So I've been following a bunch of different travel podcasters. And there's a really cool a leveler story. It's a Travis and Heather, they run extra pack of peanuts. Have you guys ever listened to them? I've heard of them. Yeah, you guys love. They got a good story. They got it. They got a little, I think, a little boy now, so their travel is a little different. But, you know, they used to really focus on traveling inexpensively. You know, now they probably do, as we all do, as we get a little older, we cheeps not quite as important as you know, an experience, but
Unknown Speaker :we don't need that separate room for that. Right.
Unknown Speaker :But I was, you know, because knowing that we were thinking about, you know, Lisbon, I was just kind of going back through some of the people I listened to and seeing if they had touched on it, you know, and they, they mentioned the hospital to Terry so because one of the day trip things we were talking about was one of my places we Sentra in the train station that is right there in Barrow alto apparently goes directly to Sentra, yes, in an RTS hag near the rodeo station de Did you see the hostel that's in the train station? No, you gotta have to, you have to check it out this guy, he's an architect. He ended up buying part of the train station. Don't ask me how we work this out. But because of his architectural background, he was able to silence you know, soundproof it. And it's not like a traditional hospital that, you know, we've all kind of explored. They got private rooms, you got private baths, not all of them, but they also have shared ones. They'll do ones where they do like kind of girls only guys only. But it's it's it's pretty substantial. And supposedly, it's really nice, you know, really nice. And I think, Karen, you mentioned earlier that Portugal by, by and large usually has some of the top rated hospitals in the country in the world, actually.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, that's exactly.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah. So you don't necessarily look down on a hostel and and apparently it's as most hostels are, it's really inexpensive and you're right smack in the middle of bear Otto. So
Unknown Speaker :I was gonna ask, Are you in the bullseye of the center? Yes, there
Unknown Speaker :was but a great, great area though. So I mean, I'll put that back on the list considering just you know, listen to what they how they were describing it. And then of course, I just googled it like we always do. And they have a pretty good write up, so something guys should check out as well.
Unknown Speaker :And that was an extra pack of peanuts.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, your bag of beans extra pack of peanuts. Yeah. It's a good podcast, you guys to check it out.
Unknown Speaker :So I guess we'll just jump into things to see places to go while you're there. So we always want to see historical things and you know, do fun stuff.
Unknown Speaker :So maybe things to drink. Oh, we'll do that after Oh, sorry. getting ahead of myself.
Unknown Speaker :I mean, you can you can have something to drink while you're seeing these things.
Unknown Speaker :Okay,
Unknown Speaker :gotcha. Well, I tell you what I asked. Lauren ahead of time, some plate. Some of the Thing some of these topics just to get their ideas I don't have like a lot of detail but let me throw them out and then you can tell I would assume you all know about them or whatever and can can go into some more details. And all those read her little thing she sent me she said besides Reba, Rebekah, I would also recommend taking a day trip to Sentra, which is a 45 minute train ride away from Lisbon holds lots of old castles and old Freemason garden that is said to have held a Illuminati ritual, she's big into Illuminati and you're able to tour the gardens and find the different ritual sites which he said was very cool stuff. So I don't know if you've heard of either of those. But there's a couple things she she mentioned when I asked her what she like when she was there.
Unknown Speaker :We definitely know center. I know that trip that Tony when Tony and Terry and I were on. We took one day went out to century to get a train from the rosio station and took what maybe about an hour I think to get out there 45 minutes. And then yeah, we just Terry, actually, we didn't have anything set up Terry went over to the rank of taxi stands I think it was when we got there and got a guy
Unknown Speaker :in found the guy, always find the guy
Unknown Speaker :who got eight of us can you get us, you know, some kind of a van and take us around to see some of the castles here. And so you know, that's what we did for the better part of a day. Hmm. And just absolutely as your daughter said, Jim, they're the most some of the most amazing buildings I've seen. The Pina National Palace is just this explosion of styles standing high up on a hill. Just you know, it's hard to even explain you know how different all these different styles are, but they kind of work together and some of the best stained glass I've seen anywhere in the world. They had a collection of German stained glass from the like 14th and 15th centuries I've no idea how they got it, but the absolutely fantastic Terry?
Unknown Speaker :Well, I was gonna say, King Ferdinand is second he built the peanut palace actually on an old monastery. And to me, Jim, he reminds me a lot of King Ludwig in this music. You know, with his he centric style. He just had King. Yeah just added on and added on to that, that place. But yes, Central's nice. There's also the Moorish castle on the hill that you haven't been to gym or Tony but I went there my first time. There's very cool to see take from the 1100s or something like that when the Moore's at that area. And there's also the National Center National Palace in town, which is worth the trip. But I get there early before the tour buses come in. It's It's It's a madhouse once they get there.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, the thing you know, so when I was looking at Sentra, you know Honestly after we got back, because I really didn't know that much about it before we got there and I will say this. It's one of my favorite visual experience as far as looking at, like castles and enlarge buildings it is you talking about four or five different architectural styles just kind of throw it all in the pool and see what comes out. I mean, it was, it's wild, it is totally wild. This is like a fairytale castle. I mean, the colors. I mean, it's just fantastic. You know, and I saw a lot of people take the train out that way, you know, but one of the things I loved about our experiences, we didn't have just, you know, the train ride to center and then go hit the palace. We got to take that wonderful ride, you know, out to the coast. And then you know, went up the coast and got to see a couple of the small beach towns and then the further is Western most point of Europe. You know, it was it was a really cool experience.
Unknown Speaker :Absolutely, and Jim and other places Your daughter talked about with the Masonic rituals and all that. So the what is it Kenta de reg? alera. Yeah, probably mispronouncing that. It was you know, that's another one of those where it's, you know, an insane person put together a palace with, you know, these underground grottoes that you walked through as looking at my pictures earlier. One of the guys with us, big guy named les is one of our good friends going back for a long time, watching him trying to step across the little stones. without falling into the waters. He's going through this grotto. It just made me laugh. like crazy. But yeah, they've got that. What does it be initiation? Well, yeah, the initial Well, yeah, that goes around in a circle and you go down to the bottom, this you know, very bizarre stuff. And once you see that, if you go on and look up initiation well, Sintra in Google that and see it you'll probably have seen it before. If you're a traveler, you know in a magazine someplace or, you know on a show Yeah, there's mystic gardens are
Unknown Speaker :i mean it's it's almost as powerful as the castle itself or the palace itself. It's just just crazy that the turns the falls the you know, the well. I mean everything about it was just amazing.
Unknown Speaker :Any idea how old those are the gardens? I think
Unknown Speaker :that's 18th century I believe but but kind
Unknown Speaker :of late 18th century wasn't it? I believe so. Yes. Or at least the guy who bought it and put in the the Well, I think was later 18th century. Go back to peanut palace and I think I got that written down here someplace you know that one goes back quite a bit farther I think to like the 16th century factory and sort of the height of the Portuguese is powers.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah. Do you guys remember the little, I shouldn't say little was pretty substantial size. That hotel we stopped at. That was kind of right there on that hillside. It's the Tivoli passio days to teal. I think that's how they say it. It was at one hotel when we were heading out of out of Sentra heading towards the coast and we just kind of stopped. It was a very, very long building. And we kind of peeked our heads around the corner because it's set right there on that hillside, and apparently overlooks that Moorish castle. So Wow, yes, that's like one of those is a five star resort. I'm sure it's fantastic, but it's right there in Sentra, too. So
Unknown Speaker :you know, you can certainly do Sentra if it's your first time of Portugal, you can do a day trip and get sort of a lot of the highlights but I'd really like to go spend overnight in the town and you know, have two days to fully explore, you know, maybe get a car not rely on somebody else. So I think there's just so much to do
Unknown Speaker :there. I would agree. And then we had a great meal there too. I mean, as far as a trip goes.
Unknown Speaker :I think the name of that place was the Merck market tests.
Unknown Speaker :I can't remember how to pronounce that Merck Ricardo. Ricardo you guys remember after we got back and we stopped in late, got in there and there was one very crowded, you know, we were crew of Americans and they sat us down. They treated us pretty good. We had a lot of food that Portuguese language
Unknown Speaker :that is a little different.
Unknown Speaker :Some of the other areas what else that stands out to you guys is places to see while you're there.
Unknown Speaker :Well, well keep it on day trips. Casitas. Yes, I'm pronounced. It's a beach town. A little bit south of Sentra. It's also about a 45 minute ride by train. Hmm. Well, one thing about these day paths, as I mentioned, if you spend 10 euros a day, the round trip to Central and casca is included in that day pass. So that's something to think about too. But casca so I've really enjoyed It's reminds me of a New England beach town. It's very quiet. Once you get there, it's very walkable. You don't really need to rely on transportation to get around. And they see food's fantastic. The scenery is great.
Unknown Speaker :I have a question about climate and time of the year that you went.
Unknown Speaker :We went on that chair has been there a couple times on my trip was in March because it was St. Patty's day time.
Unknown Speaker :Right. And that was the climate at that time.
Unknown Speaker :It was very similar to here as far as springtime. Okay. I mean, it was warm. I mean, it wasn't hot, but we got a little chilly when we got along the coast. I remember that. We had some 30 mile an hour winds or something blowing up on the cliffs, but
Unknown Speaker :how about you guys? Go I'm sorry.
Unknown Speaker :Go ahead, Jim.
Unknown Speaker :Oh, are we still talking about the temperature?
Unknown Speaker :Yeah.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah. It To me it just seemed like a reminded me a California very much Mild sort of Mediterranean weather. I'm not sure in the summertime it may get a little bit more sweltering but Gosh, certainly the the shoulder seasons if you can go October and March are not only probably less crowded than other times, but the the weather is absolutely ideal.
Unknown Speaker :We were there in April and there were people actually in the ocean cost us a lot of people sunbathing. So it's very mild climate.
Unknown Speaker :Oh here July and Lisbon. The high is 82 it says on average that is very southern California. Absolutely. So it you know, the thing about Lisbon it even looks like Southern California, because they built you know, rebuilt the city all at one time and put in those red clay tiles. And it looks just like it you know, could be San Francisco or Santa Barbara or someplace like that. Other places that were destroyed by earthquakes and rebuilt at one fell swoop, but a very comfortable city. Any little islands or anything off the coast. coastline there to visit or get out to or anything like that. I don't I don't know much about listening.
Unknown Speaker :Not that I know of,
Unknown Speaker :or port, you know, like Jimmy. Jimmy said, the doors where his daughter's went
Unknown Speaker :to the couple hour flight I think by playing
Unknown Speaker :right.
Unknown Speaker :Yep. And they had a great time there but that's different from this.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah. Another place though that I think is kind of a almost a must see when you're in town, you always have to, by default fall into it is the commerce square, right there down along the river, which is I guess, where the one of the original palaces was built once they moved outside of the alfalfa area, and that places pretty amazing too. I mean, I guess it was completely destroyed in the earthquake.
Unknown Speaker :You know what happened? The palace was destroyed. But after the earthquake, fires broke out in the upper hills, and everybody rushed down to that to commerce square, you know, to what was open. So sort of like The dock land where they could bring in this the ships and stuff. And that's when the tsunami came and then, you know, wiped out all the people would rush down there
Unknown Speaker :would was that earthquake
Unknown Speaker :17 1755
Unknown Speaker :How bad was it? How big
Unknown Speaker :8.5 to nine is an estimate? Wow, like I said destroyed 85% of the houses in the lower part of the town, which was the main part and killed anywhere from as the estimate 10,000 to 100,000 people in a city that was only about 200,000 people at the time.
Unknown Speaker :Holy cow.
Unknown Speaker :Well, it was a strange combination of coincidences because it happened on All Saints Day. So, you know, All Saints Day. It's one of the main glitches, a Catholic holidays. People are burning candles at home. They were in church when it happened. So yeah, that's where the fun came from all the candles. A lot of people died in the churches.
Unknown Speaker :Wow. No. Yeah. Virtual feel good story. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker :Well, this has been one of the centers of Catholicism in Europe at the time. It was really looked at as a not a holy city but but a city that was very steeped in its religion, in fact that they had the Inquisition, they had their own version of the Inquisition, and the audit phase where they burn the Jews who would come over from Spain and converted Catholicism, they just decided to burn them anyway to appease, you know, whatever. So, you know, to have all this happen on All Saints Day in this town, this holy town destroyed, you know, really was sort of the beginning of a lot of that questioning of faith. That's why I talk about Voltaire, who, you know, uses this as a central argument that we aren't living in the best of all possible worlds. overseen by a beatific God. But anyway,
Unknown Speaker :I guess I guess I'll I guess I'll take a pandemic about
Unknown Speaker :maybe that's why the nightlife is so robust now
Unknown Speaker :Oh, maybe. But you know, one of the thing is down about the commerce square so when they rebuilt it now it does house a lot of, I guess government buildings and restaurants and you know, some shops and things like that. But it's a very wide open square, and you can there's almost like a boat ramp, we can walk right down to the river, and it's pretty cool. But one of the really coolest places in there is called Vin Portugal. Tara, do you remember that place? little wine bar? Yes,
Unknown Speaker :sir. Oh, it's so neat.
Unknown Speaker :So we see these in a couple of wine shops around, you know, some of the higher end places where you know, like the little dispensers where you can you pay a certain amount you get a sip or a half a glass or a whole glass, but that's usually a way they can put expensive wines and you can get a good Glass without having to buy a whole bottle. Well, this is a wine place and it's kind of in Portugal, that's right there that has over 1000 bottles that you can taste. And it's very contemporary when
Unknown Speaker :you only got halfway through about two thirds.
Unknown Speaker :But now we we walked around and they have great descriptions on all of them and you know, you prepay a card and you just go up and swipe it and I think Shelley and I sat there for a while. I'm not sure how long but we were there for a little while.
Unknown Speaker :So were they descriptions in English?
Unknown Speaker :Yeah. Yeah, they had it was like one of those dual you know, where they have priorities that they might have more languages that honestly but but it big open area with a lot of cool tables and chairs. So you can go and sit and chill out and apparently do a lot of different events in there and you can do private events. But this is one of those things when you're walking by it looks like a typical shop and then you realize it's a giant wine tasting bar free cool. So Highly recommend stopping in if you like wine, because you get to see try all it's all Portuguese wine.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, I think we just popped in Tony because we wanted a glass of wine exact that was the only place we saw.
Unknown Speaker :We were walking I was like there's got to be a place around here we can grab a you know a glass of wine. Got more than a little did we know like, wow, we hit the mother lode. Yeah, here's
Unknown Speaker :the lady was really nice. She's like, Oh,
Unknown Speaker :you can come back every day. We'll show you around. I'm like,
Unknown Speaker :that sounds tempting.
Unknown Speaker :So, you know, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Yeah. I was gonna say if we're talking about places to see, one of the thing that's sort of in between a day trip and a place to see in wisdom is on the far west side of of Lisbon. The town of Bella. Yep. I really love that if you go out there. There's a huge monastery, the Hieronymus monastery World Heritage Site was begun in 1501. But it's got the tomb of Vasco de Gama, the Portuguese explorer in there, as well as the, you know, the most famous poet from Portugal, Louis cromoz. A, there's also, you know, a tower out there on the river from 1514. And a monument to the discovery of the great discoveries from the Age of Discovery. Just a lot of things. And it's only like maybe about a 1520 minute tram ride out of town.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, we took the tram out.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, we took the tram out and tore that whole place. And then we walked down towards the tower. The tower is really cool. I mean, there's some great user up there, too.
Unknown Speaker :It's sounding like you need about three trips there.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, or three months one trip
Unknown Speaker :there. Again, however, the math ends up.
Unknown Speaker :Generally talking about the monastery, one of the things I've discovered since our trip. Yeah, the lines are ridiculous long to get into the monastery. The church itself is free to get in the cloisters thinker. 10 euros or whatever. But if you go next door to the National Archaeological Museum, you can buy a combination ticket for 12 euros. Go to the museum first. And there's a door that leads you into the monastery to bypass the lines. Very cool. good tip secret
Unknown Speaker :door. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker :secrets are.
Unknown Speaker :That's it. I think that's actually it's one of my muscies I'm glad you mentioned that. Jim. That was my list that was that was on there because it was just a very, very cool place to visit.
Unknown Speaker :Did you find that most of the museums or castles things that you visit had entry fees?
Unknown Speaker :Yeah. I don't know if you went to any free places did we
Unknown Speaker :ever call the the military police museum right next to karma was free. That little weird place that sort of a lot of it was the history of the revolution was Episode 1970s or whatever, but that was the only place I remember. Really free
Unknown Speaker :And I mean as far as things to do to, I mean, we always highly recommend San man's tours. And I don't know if everybody did it. I know we did the walking tour. Terry. Jim, did you guys do that?
Unknown Speaker :Yeah, I did not. I have before, Tony. Yes.
Unknown Speaker :Yeah. So they have a great free walking tour. They also for those that are interested, they have a public crawl. I definitely do that. So I haven't done that one yet. But I might have to put that on the list. They do a couple other twos. They do that I'll find a walking tour. Also. Suppose it's pretty cool. But we went over to a farm and did kind of like an afternoon and did little street cars and kind of wandered around a little bit and that's a good place to see to really see like Terry said, it's an older section and smaller streets and older crowds but
Unknown Speaker :what about wine tours?
Unknown Speaker :I don't know about a toy. Wine tour about port you sit in your seat and they give you the tour.