April 1-3
Our drive to Lisbon today would take under four hours of driving time and we decided, based on a Rick Steves recommendation, to make a stop in Coimbra which was about halfway in the journey. To accomplish this easily Marty booked us a ride with a driver that would take us to Coimbra, drop us off and wait for us to continue on to Lisbon. This would end up working nicely and the very nice Mercedes V250D, for a little over 500 Euros, well worth the cost for the comfort and capacity it provided. If they sold them in the U.S., it would be tempting to buy one. Except it is a diesel, not the best fuel choice.
Coimbra is a university town, home to the school of the same name. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The university is among the oldest in continuous operation in the world, the oldest in Portugal, and played an influential role in the development of higher education in the Portuguese-speaking world.
We were dropped off at an upper plaza just outside the gate to the school and when we arrived there was ceremony going on that appeared to be the launch of a bike share program, much like the one we initiated at UNC Charlotte in 2016. It brought back a number of fond memories of that time in my life, when I basically did a lot of consulting on campus, that being one of my projects, in addition to running Parking Services and later the Business Auxiliary.
We walked around the plaza surrounded by the buildings of the University and then made our way downhill to our lunch spot, Boutique, which Jessica had located on-line. This would be great choice leading to a meal that would set a standard we’d be hard pressed to duplicate. We would start with a bottle of one of our favorite varieties of wine, an Alberino (we’d end up drinking two that day), to accompany a couple of meat and cheese boards.
The rest of the order, Scrambled Eggs with Chorizo and Chicken, Sauteed Peppers, a steak for Gemma (which we all helped with), a dish or two I can’t recall and finally, two portions of chocolate Mousse and a chocolate crepe. We were introduced, by our friendly waiter, to a Portuguese Liqueur, Licor de Ginja, an addictive cherry concoction that we would encounter again in Lisbon and buy multiple bottles of. We finished up with a tab of 152 Euros, not bad for a lot of food and two bottles of wine.
The rest of the drive to Lisbon went smoothly and quietly as a number of us slipped into a food induced coma that didn’t fade until we were pulling up to the spot to be dropped off, just outside the pedestrian only street where our Airbnb, A1 Chic 3BR/3BA Apt Central Lisbon, was located two blocks away. It took us a few minutes to get inside the building and then another to locate the unit, which was located on the minus one level (not as bad as it seems as the outside wall faced a sloping street which let in lots of light). We were delighted beyond imagination with the set-up, a recently remodeled and updated apartment with three large bedrooms, each with its own en-suite bathroom, a guest bathroom (with the laundry) adjacent to the front room and combined kitchen.
One note about our staying in European Airbnb’s (I’ll go into more depth in the final summary) is the array of coffee making equipment we encountered. Generally, in America, each place features the ubiquitous drip coffee maker like a Mister Coffee and more often than not a tea pot. We found a mixed bag in Europe, the most common device being some form of a Nespresso, a pod-based machine like the Keurig devices now commonly found in the U.S. We would run into a number of different variations of the Nespresso from other vendors, one being the Senseo, each using a different sized pod. I did bring my own collapsable filter cone and used it a number of times with ground coffee that we bought at the market when we didn’t want to deal with the pods.
We settled into our accommodation and hung out for a couple of hours while Joanna and Marty made a run to a nearby market for fresh provisions. Later, while still somewhat full from our large lunch, we set out a couple of blocks away for a light meal at Empanar, a small restaurant specializing in, yes, empanadas. Crowded when we arrived, we were all able to find seats, but not sit together, which worked out as it wasn’t a lengthy meal. Joanna and I split two empanadas, a chicken one and a spinach and cheese while enjoying a glass of wine apiece, all in all a nice way to finish a long day.
The next day, our first full one in town would be low key, starting with a visit to Lisbon’s well known flea market. Some folks opted to walk while a couple of others took an Uber, which was good as those of us who did would end up walking back to the apartment the whole way. The market stretches for a number of blocks uphill from the coastline to a summit (Lisbon is just about as hilly as Porto).
Jessica, Kris, Gemma and I were the first to arrive and so we started to slowly make our way up hill, passing by many, many stalls selling all manor or what many might consider to be junk, but undoubtably is a treasure to someone else. Reaching a midpoint at a building Mercados Lisboa, we found a table outside and waited for the rest of the group, who were walking, to make their way to the market.
Once Joanna arrived, she and I split an amazingly good open face sandwich known as a Torricado, ours being the version with Goat cheese, olive oil, honey, nuts, and basil. The ingredients are placed on top of half of a large baguette loaf and toasted. And sad to say, we did not run into this concept again on the trip. We’ll leave this day here and continue in the next post. See you then.
Links
University of Coimbra: https://www.uc.pt/en/
A1 Chic 3BR/3BA Apt: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/12113802?source_impression_id=p3_1747379773_P3OXWm4u-nDANGW8
Nespresso: https://www.nespresso.com/us/en
Blog Post 6-1-2025
Europe 2025 – Lisbon, Part One
March 26-30
Our drive to Lisbon today would take under four hours of driving time and we decided, based on a Rick Steves recommendation, to make a stop in Coimbra which was about halfway in the journey. To accomplish this easily Marty booked us a ride with a driver that would take us to Coimbra, drop us off and wait for us to continue on to Lisbon. This would end up working nicely and the very nice Mercedes V250D, for a little over 500 Euros, well worth the cost for the comfort and capacity it provided. If they sold them in the U.S., it would be tempting to buy one. Except it is a diesel, not the best fuel choice.
Coimbra is a university town, home to the school of the same name. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The university is among the oldest in continuous operation in the world, the oldest in Portugal, and played an influential role in the development of higher education in the Portuguese-speaking world.
We were dropped off at an upper plaza just outside the gate to the school and when we arrived there was ceremony going on that appeared to be the launch of a bike share program, much like the one we initiated at UNC Charlotte in 2016. It brought back a number of fond memories of that time in my life, when I basically did a lot of consulting on campus, that being one of my projects, in addition to running Parking Services and later the Business Auxiliary.
We walked around the plaza surrounded by the buildings of the University and then made our way downhill to our lunch spot, Boutique, which Jessica had located on-line. This would be great choice leading to a meal that would set a standard we’d be hard pressed to duplicate. We would start with a bottle of one of our favorite varieties of wine, an Alberino (we’d end up drinking two that day), to accompany a couple of meat and cheese boards.
The rest of the order, Scrambled Eggs with Chorizo and Chicken, Sauteed Peppers, a steak for Gemma (which we all helped with), a dish or two I can’t recall and finally, two portions of chocolate Mousse and a chocolate crepe. We were introduced, by our friendly waiter, to a Portuguese Liqueur, Licor de Ginja, an addictive cherry concoction that we would encounter again in Lisbon and buy multiple bottles of. We finished up with a tab of 152 Euros, not bad for a lot of food and two bottles of wine.
The rest of the drive to Lisbon went smoothly and quietly as a number of us slipped into a food induced coma that didn’t fade until we were pulling up to the spot to be dropped off, just outside the pedestrian only street where our Airbnb, A1 Chic 3BR/3BA Apt Central Lisbon, was located two blocks away. It took us a few minutes to get inside the building and then another to locate the unit, which was located on the minus one level (not as bad as it seems as the outside wall faced a sloping street which let in lots of light). We were delighted beyond imagination with the set-up, a recently remodeled and updated apartment with three large bedrooms, each with its own en-suite bathroom, a guest bathroom (with the laundry) adjacent to the front room and combined kitchen.
One note about our staying in European Airbnb’s (I’ll go into more depth in the final summary) is the array of coffee making equipment we encountered. Generally, in America, each place features the ubiquitous drip coffee maker like a Mister Coffee and more often than not a tea pot. We found a mixed bag in Europe, the most common device being some form of a Nespresso, a pod-based machine like the Keurig devices now commonly found in the U.S. We would run into a number of different variations of the Nespresso from other vendors, one being the Senseo, each using a different sized pod. I did bring my own collapsable filter cone and used it a number of times with ground coffee that we bought at the market when we didn’t want to deal with the pods.
We settled into our accommodation and hung out for a couple of hours while Joanna and Marty made a run to a nearby market for fresh provisions. Later, while still somewhat full from our large lunch, we set out a couple of blocks away for a light meal at Empanar, a small restaurant specializing in, yes, empanadas. Crowded when we arrived, we were all able to find seats, but not sit together, which worked out as it wasn’t a lengthy meal. Joanna and I split two empanadas, a chicken one and a spinach and cheese while enjoying a glass of wine apiece, all in all a nice way to finish a long day.
The next day, our first full one in town would be low key, starting with a visit to Lisbon’s well known flea market. Some folks opted to walk while a couple of others took an Uber, which was good as those of us who did would end up walking back to the apartment the whole way. The market stretches for a number of blocks uphill from the coastline to a summit (Lisbon is just about as hilly as Porto).
Jessica, Kris, Gemma and I were the first to arrive and so we started to slowly make our way up hill, passing by many, many stalls selling all manor or what many might consider to be junk, but undoubtably is a treasure to someone else. Reaching a midpoint at a building Mercados Lisboa, we found a table outside and waited for the rest of the group, who were walking, to make their way to the market.
Once Joanna arrived, she and I split an amazingly good open face sandwich known as a Torricado, ours being the version with Goat cheese, olive oil, honey, nuts, and basil. The ingredients are placed on top of half of a large baguette loaf and toasted. And sad to say, we did not run into this concept again on the trip. We’ll leave this day here and continue in the next post. See you then.
Links
University of Coimbra: https://www.uc.pt/en/
A1 Chic 3BR/3BA Apt: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/12113802?source_impression_id=p3_1747379773_P3OXWm4u-nDANGW8
Nespresso: https://www.nespresso.com/us/en
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