Ask David #16 Lisboa & Day Trips

This response is brought to you in part by Green Media Graphics. Hey everyone, so welcome to another episode of Ask David. This is episode two to Marci Gordon's trip to Portugal. She's going to Porto for nine days and then also going seven days to Lisbon and the surrounding areas. And I'm going to give you a quick tour of what you need to see in Lisbon and you can see this pretty much in one day. You can see all of this. So here we are in Lisbon. So right here by the water, you have Plaza do Comercio. This is the main square. It's a beautiful square. And then you make your way up right here, Rua Augusta. This is the main pedestrian street or the most touristic pedestrian street. And what I would suggest is you go here. See this? Go up this. Once you get here, make your way up the castle to Castle São Jorge, which is St. George. Once you're done seeing the castle and seeing the views from here, because the views are incredible, come down to the Cathedral of Lisbon and then make your way back this way. Go back up Rua Augusta. Go up the elevator, the Santa Justa. The elevator Santa Justa was designed by the architect that designed the Eiffel Tower. And when you get to the top there, you can have great views of the historical center. And this right here is Alfama, where is, that's the oldest part of the city. And Alfama is an Arab word. This whole area was mainly Arab while the Moors conquered, well, while they settled here in Lisbon for a few hundred years, I think it was 600 years that they were in Lisbon. And then you could explore that whole area. So you come up here to the elevator St. George, you see the views, and then you cross because they have a bridge. You cross right here to the convent do Carmo. This convent was destroyed in the earthquake of 17 something in Lisbon. It was destroyed and when you walk inside, you see that it's like ruins, but it's beautiful and they have a little museum and it's a great place, you have to see this, it's a must here in Lisbon. Okay, so right here in this area, you have a little place called Al Brasileiro, which this is the best place to get a bica, which is an espresso, and you have a pastel do Brasil. This is a typical pastry they have here throughout the whole entire country of Portugal, but here they make it very different. And then also when you go to Belém, which I'll explain now, you try something different there. Okay, so right here, so that's right here in this area. All right, so there's a few different restaurants that I would recommend. You have Manifesto, Largo, Alma, Casca da Esquina, and then you have to go to Baiuca, which is a fallow house, which plays traditional fallow music, which is a must in here in Lisbon. And you have to go to Baiuca, and that's in Alfama, which is the old district, which I just spoke about. And then, okay, now we're done with restaurants and this, oh, and also for nightlife, the best place to go is called Lux, which is over here in this area. And then also Embariato is full of bars and pubs, and the whole area is, I mean, it's crowded with people. You'll see, there's hundreds of people in Embariato at night, okay? Then, all right, so something that you have to see, it's a little outside the city. Well, it's not outside the city, but you need to take a taxi drive to it. You can't just walk there. It's Belém. Here you have to see the Tower of Belém. You have to see the Monastery of Belém. And you have to go to eat a pastel at Pastelera de Belém, which is a famous place. It's been open since 1837. And they have, it's almost like a creme brulee, but it's not creme brulee, it's a little dessert. And you eat that with a coffee, uma bica, uma bica, and it's delicious, you have to do this. And then the day trips, okay? The day trips are a must here from Lisbon, okay? Because Lisbon, yeah, it's, you know, it's the capital, there's a lot of things to see, but I mean, two full days, you see everything. I mean, you see everything there is to see, and then you can go and just explore more, okay? So, okay, so here we have Lisbon, right? And then you have Cascais right here. Cascais is where people go to the beach. It's a little fishing village. It's very picturesque. You should see it. And then from here, you make your way up on this highway. So what I would recommend is early in the morning, leave to Cascais, see Cascais in the morning, make your way up to Cabo do Roque, right? Which is right over here, which is the westernmost point in the European continent. So as the continent, forget Ireland and, you know, Iceland, just the continent of Europe, this is the westernmost point, which is right here. I went to a restaurant called Fortaleza, which is right here. It's a Michelin star restaurant. It's a little expensive, but it was delicious. And from here, they have a beach next to it, and you can see Cabo do Roque, okay? Then keep going, Cabo do Roque, I mean, you're there 20 minutes, 30 minutes, and I mean, you see it. I mean, all there is is rocks. So just go there, see it, then make your way up to Azenas do Mar, which is a 15-minute drive. So Azenas do Mar, it's a beautiful, picturesque town. Here if I put pictures, I just want to show you what Azenas do Mar, Azenas do Mar. So that's it right there. As you can see, it's a beautiful little town. And then, let me get rid of the pictures. And then, another must-see is the town of Sintra. There's a few things to see there. It's the old town. This town was created for the kings and queens for their summer estates, okay? So there's a few different palaces here. One of them you have to see is Palacio de Peña. And you also have to see the Castle do Mors. So this is the Mors castle that was built in 900 AD. And it's incredible because from there, it's the top of the mountain, you can see everything. It's incredible. These are the day trips. And then also, I'm missing a few, hold on, there's also Mafra, which is, there's also a royal palace there. I went to see it. It was a rainy day and it was Tuesday and it's closed on Tuesdays. So if you're going to go see Mafra, it's about a 45-minute drive from Lisbon. And it's only the royal palace, that's the only thing you have to see there. And then another thing that you could see is this bridge right here, which is Vasco da Gama, right? Vasco da Gama, this is the longest bridge in Europe. So it's the longest bridge in Europe. From here, you don't even see this side. Well, maybe for me, because it was winter and you're going to be there in winter too. So you might not be able to see the end, but it's pretty cool how long it is, okay? As you can see, it's probably longer than the whole city of Lisbon, okay? And then you have to also cross to Amada and go to the Cristo. So the Cristo Rei. This Christ was built here because the Cardinal of ... Well, everybody wanted to build a Christ here in Lisbon, looking at the city of Lisbon, because what happened in Brazil and Rio, because they built theirs. And then the Cardinal here in Portugal said, we will build it, we will raise the funds if we do not enter the war, which is World War II. They didn't enter the war. They started raising funds and then 10 to 15 years later, they built it and it's there. And it's a humongous Christ and you have to see it. And I mean, that's pretty much it because it's winter. If it was summer, I would say, go down here to Setubal and this area because there's beaches out here. But this is winter, so this is what you have to do. All right. So Marci, I hope you enjoyed my little tour of what you should do. This is Lisbon in a nutshell, as I could say it. Okay. So Marci, I hope you have a great time. Keep me updated on your trip. And to everybody else, keep asking questions and I'm going to keep answering. Take care.