Rick and Marie's Travels: Lisbon—October 31st-November 5th

Today we took the Rede Expresso bus from Albufeira to Lisbon where we caught the Metro to Rossio and walked all of a block to our "hotel". I put quotations around "hotel" because it's being renovated. You'll see what I mean by the pictures. In fact, when we arrived we weren't sure we had the right place, because even though it said Geres Residencia over the door, it looked as if the building was being gutted. I pressed the reception button several times and no one responded. A minute or so later one of the workers just inside the door let us in and we stepped past one guy tiling the stairwell and and another guy the next landing up sanding the plaster previously laid on, getting it ready for tiles.

We picked our way up past them and saw the sign for the reception and Pedro asked if I was Richard. So, we were expected. Before handing over my passport so he could copy its number, I asked if we could see the room and he took us up one more flight to a clean and spacious room with a 20 foot high ceiling and a comfy queen and single bed and private bathroom. Good enough!

After getting settled we walked across Rossio Square to Tapas-n-Friends for a delicious linner. We followed that up with a stroll to Baixa Chiado to see if one our favorite restaurants was still there (ya never know with restaurants) and saw that it's thriving. Satisfied we headed back to our hotel, walking all of one mile today. I'm not kidding. We took a taxi to the bus station because it was pouring buckets in Albufeira and then we sat on the motor coach for three hours to Lisbon where we walked across the parking lot to the Metro. We're gonna have to pick up the pace tomorrow.