I took the group on another trip today, the theme was shopping. Quirky shopping. We started at A Ginjinha, a Cherry liqueur shop that sells only cherry liqueur, surprisingly.
I purchased a bottle as a gift and carried onto Manuel Taveres, a interesting shop that sells port, pork and sweeties.
Further on down Rua da Betesga, I brought the group into Confeitaria Nacionale, a beautiful cake and coffee shop. Simon asked the lady behind the counter to fill a box up with goodies. She gave us a nice mix of chocolate and almond covered biscuits and we headed away, munching. Thanks!
Next on the itineray was a glove shop called Livria Ulisess, a place that will measure up your handies and make a completely perfect pair of leather gloves for you, in colour and design of your choice. The glove can fit.
It is hard to locate an English book on holiday but the trip I was following recommended the Livraria Bertrand bookshop. I wanted to buy a book by the Portuguese poet, Pessoa but there were none in English so will have to make do with a quick google search!
Simon stopped off at a famous tile shop that makes hand-painted tiles, speciality of Lisbon.
The last shop was a candle shop, Vellas Loreto, which turned out less interesting than I thought it would be. A thick smell of wax gave me a bit of headache.
We spent the rest of the day rambling around that area. Dinner was unbelievably good.
It came from a recommendation from Time Out Lisbon magazine. Billed as a Tapas restaurant, we were excited as we were already tiring of typical Portuguese food.
I lost the name of the the place and could only remember 2 words-Antonio and tapas. They were enough and a slightly tipsy Portuguese Mammy led the way for us. Tucked away through the windy streets of Alfama, the place was very busy. We waited for about half an hour. We spent the time trying to figure out which Hollywood stars were in the pictures that adorned the walls.
We ordered a selection of tapas and the friendly waitress marvelled at our appetite!
The potato skins with mayonnaise were recommended and they were delish. The tapas were gobbled up quickly.
The lads were headed off to Lux nightclub, a place they and been obsessing about all holiday, apparently, it’s a must see but I thought that it would be full of beautiful people dancing and it didn’t appeal to me that much. I can see beautiful people every day.
They enjoyed it, returning at 2 am, which is when Lisbon people head out so it was odd they left when it was just kicking off. But, there you go.
They didn’t get to see their idol, Ronaldo but there’s always next year.
A nice relaxing day of speciality shopping finished off with one of Top 5 restaurants from our annual holidays-a really good Portuguese traditional place that did massive tapas type dishes. The fried potato skins and dips still hold a place in my heart.