Our travel journey started with our check-in; we realized our flight was leaving an hour and 10 minutes earlier than when we booked it. It made things a bit tight for Aubrey at work, but by some miracle he came home in time, we got to the airport in time, the traffic wasn’t bad, and there was NO line at security. It didn’t hurt we weren’t checking any bags. We left on time and then arrived in Lisboa EARLY. Yes, early. I think it was one of our smoothest trips ever. Hallelujah!
We tried to sleep on the plane but were not very successful. So, we arrived here at approx 6:20am, having been awake for more than 20 hours already. We knew it would be a long day. I had organized an airport transfer to take us directly to Sesimbra, a town surrounded by the Arrabida Nature Park. The goal was to come here to experience a coastal fishing village and go kayaking. Unfortunately the seas are very rough, and the forecast is calling for quite a bit of rain for the next few days. The kayak trip was cancelled so we exchanged it for a Jeep tour of the highlights of the area instead, but that is tomorrow’s activity.
Today we found a cool little place to eat breakfast right across the street from our apartment, called Snack-Bar Formiga.
Our Airbnb host picked up our carry-on luggage from the restaurant “The Ant Bar” so we could explore unencumbered by our bags, especially as we had been up all night. Rui has been a lovely host so far.
First on the agenda was to walk along the beach. It was blustery, but breathtaking. We walked around looking very wind-blown for the rest of the day.
We headed to the tourist office to see what we could do for the day as we weren’t able to check in until 4pm, and this is off-season in a small beach town. While I chatted with the super friendly tourist office staff, Aubrey passed out in one of the chairs for a short nap 🙂
After my long chat with Sylvia, I had a plan. We went to the Mercado (local market) to buy some of the local cheeses, rustic loaves of bread baked in a wood burning oven, along with some gigantic, strawberries, an avocado and some fresh cherry tomatoes. We then sat down and had a bench picnic as the sun came out briefly (although it was a bit challenging with the wind).
After our snack, we set out to find a museum – “Capela Espírito Santo dos Mareantes” housed in an ancient building which at times was a church, and other times housed a hospital in the basement. It also housed a collection of devotional art.
Sesimbra was originally a fishing village, which has expanded a bit, but still only has a population of about 49,500 people. Many of the streets are narrow and winding with cobblestone sidewalks, and sometimes the roads themselves are also cobblestone, so it is hard sometimes to tell where the road starts and the sidewalks ends. It is a charming city with gorgeous street art, shops, and buildings covered in painted tiles, with external metal faux balcony railings.
After exploring some more, we headed to the award winning Sesimbra Maritime museum, which was very interesting. This small museum is located in the Santiago Fortress. It exhibits a rich heritage linked to the sea and fishing, especially connected to King Carlos, from the early 20th Century, who spent 12 years on expeditions exploring the waters off the coast of Portugal and especially near Sesimbra. He scientifically documented fish of the depths of the sea, established connections to the local fishers, and used depth fishing to establish evidence of deep sea channels off the coast of Portugal. There are a variety of artifacts- including a 5000 year-old anchor, ancient fishing artifacts, pottery, and then more “modern furnishings” from the last century as well. We all learned a lot but found it hard to retain many of the facts, as we had barely slept in almost two days.
Luckily for us, the host let us check in early and we all had a decent nap. When we woke up, we pulled out our market spread again, and enjoyed it even more this time.
Teva and Aubrey played an intense game of “Batalha Naval” (Portuguese Battleship) while I worked on some logistics for the next two days.
For dinner we went back to Snack-Bar Formiga, as it came highly recommended from multiple places for dinner. We had some really awesome food, including a dish called “cod fish’s spawn salad”. Everything was delicious and even though we were stuffed, we had dessert.
The end of a great first day…