goddesstogo and mr. goddess's big London adventure (an ongoing tale)
Sep 7th, 2010, 10:27 PM
#83
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BKP - meeting fellow fodorites is great fun!
jamikins, a pub is good to start with (before proceeding to the cutting table!) but I don't really know London well, so will have to rely on you for suggestions.
Should we start a separate thread? Or anyone interested can email me [email protected] and we can post back here when we've made some plans?
Goddess, have a great time in Lisbon and I look forward to hearing about it.
jamikins, a pub is good to start with (before proceeding to the cutting table!) but I don't really know London well, so will have to rely on you for suggestions.
Should we start a separate thread? Or anyone interested can email me [email protected] and we can post back here when we've made some plans?
Goddess, have a great time in Lisbon and I look forward to hearing about it.
Sep 7th, 2010, 10:43 PM
#84
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Have a great time in Lisbon! We are spending NYE there this year so will be looking forward to hearing all about it!
No worries, will find a good pub, I've been to lots!
Hahahaha - actually I am after your liver, been out for a few too many pints this week!!!
I'll start a new thread and include your email Julia!
No worries, will find a good pub, I've been to lots!
Hahahaha - actually I am after your liver, been out for a few too many pints this week!!!
I'll start a new thread and include your email Julia!
Sep 8th, 2010, 09:59 AM
#87
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Hi, yes I'd love to come along on the 7th (although surely this should be in West Hampstead!! 
)
A bagel/coffee or some such equivalent when you're back from Portugal would be great. Drop me a mail and I'm sure we can work something out.
If you like blues, then you definitely need to check out the listings at The Luminaire. It's not all blues, but they do have some.
Jonathan/@WHampstead
)A bagel/coffee or some such equivalent when you're back from Portugal would be great. Drop me a mail and I'm sure we can work something out.
If you like blues, then you definitely need to check out the listings at The Luminaire. It's not all blues, but they do have some.
Jonathan/@WHampstead
Sep 8th, 2010, 02:59 PM
#88
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Thanks, J. Please come to the GTG -- but not in West Hampstead, please. I need someone to introduce me to another part of town.
I'm giving some thought to doing a blog but won't do anything about it till we get back to London.
Today we are in Lisbon. It was remarkably easy getting here -- train to St. Pancras (why do I always type St. Pancreas?), then switch to another train to Gatwick. About an hour's ride in total and in nice, clean trains. The gentleman who checked us in at the TAP counter was very charming. He slipped me his drivers licence card and it took me a moment to realize why -- he was showing me that his birthday was the same day as mine! Of course, he's a year younger than me but enough said about that.
Here's something nice. Because our TAP flight was only a little over two hours and not at a mealtime, they gave us each a 7 pound voucher to buy food to take on the plane or eat in at any of the restaurants or pubs in the airport. Other airlines I've been on couldn't care less whether or not I've had lunch! Other than the fact that we almost missed our plane because I'd mis-read the departures board, everything went pretty smoothly. We're checked in at the Olissippa Marques da Sa, which was one of the conference-recommended hotels. It's listed as a four-star and I know it's got all the amenities that give it that rating but our room is small and plain. I think they call the decor contemporary, but PLAIN. We've done nothing more tonight than go around the corner to have dinner at a nice little place where the are (the sign tells us) 'the king of cod'. Everyone we've met so far (taxi driver, hotel people, waiters) has asked us if we're American. When we explain that we're Canadian, everyone of them has had a Canadian connection. How can we run away from home if it keeps following us here?
For those of you who celebrate it, Shana Tova -- a very happy and joy-filled new year. We're missing my family tonight but will call them at my sister's house later.
I'm giving some thought to doing a blog but won't do anything about it till we get back to London.
Today we are in Lisbon. It was remarkably easy getting here -- train to St. Pancras (why do I always type St. Pancreas?), then switch to another train to Gatwick. About an hour's ride in total and in nice, clean trains. The gentleman who checked us in at the TAP counter was very charming. He slipped me his drivers licence card and it took me a moment to realize why -- he was showing me that his birthday was the same day as mine! Of course, he's a year younger than me but enough said about that.
Here's something nice. Because our TAP flight was only a little over two hours and not at a mealtime, they gave us each a 7 pound voucher to buy food to take on the plane or eat in at any of the restaurants or pubs in the airport. Other airlines I've been on couldn't care less whether or not I've had lunch! Other than the fact that we almost missed our plane because I'd mis-read the departures board, everything went pretty smoothly. We're checked in at the Olissippa Marques da Sa, which was one of the conference-recommended hotels. It's listed as a four-star and I know it's got all the amenities that give it that rating but our room is small and plain. I think they call the decor contemporary, but PLAIN. We've done nothing more tonight than go around the corner to have dinner at a nice little place where the are (the sign tells us) 'the king of cod'. Everyone we've met so far (taxi driver, hotel people, waiters) has asked us if we're American. When we explain that we're Canadian, everyone of them has had a Canadian connection. How can we run away from home if it keeps following us here?
For those of you who celebrate it, Shana Tova -- a very happy and joy-filled new year. We're missing my family tonight but will call them at my sister's house later.
Sep 8th, 2010, 03:35 PM
#89
hi goddess,
hope that you are having a fabulous time in Lisbon. i almost went there in 1974 on a school cruise, but they decided to have a revolution so we had to go to Vigo in spain instead.
one day, i WILL get there. until then, I'll just have to let you tell me what I've missed.
hope that you are having a fabulous time in Lisbon. i almost went there in 1974 on a school cruise, but they decided to have a revolution so we had to go to Vigo in spain instead.
one day, i WILL get there. until then, I'll just have to let you tell me what I've missed.
Sep 9th, 2010, 12:22 AM
#91
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We had a wondeful meal here when we visited Lisbon. Really cool enoteca and the food/atmosphere was excellent!
http://www.chafarizdovinho.com/
http://www.chafarizdovinho.com/
Sep 11th, 2010, 10:17 AM
#93
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Arrgghh! I last night I wrote a long update about Thursday and Friday's activities in Lisbon and just when I got to the end, I ran out of computer time! Well, I can't do it again. Suffice to say we're having a wonderful time here and have decided to stay a day longer so we won't be going back to London till Monday.
Here are the highlights:
We've walked millions of miles up and down Lisbon's slippery cobblestone streets. Blue skies and sun every day and HOT! The stores are selling sweaters and cords and summer dresses. We've taken the subway and tram all over the city, though all the neighbourhoods, good and bad (this is what we do instead of going to museums, I'm ashamed to say). My SO almost got pickpocketed yesterday while standing in line for a tram but caught the guy and held him in a headlock until he made sure he still had his wallet! I ate an accidental custard tart. I checked my phrasebook and thought I ordered coffee with milk but got a tiny cup of espresso and one of those wonderful Portuguese egg custard tarts. What could I do? I had to eat it, right? Beautiful churches; when you go into the back rooms of churches you find amazing things. Estrella had a huge floor-to-ceiling diorama of bible stories leading up to the nativity. You could look at it for hours and not see the whole thing.
SO's paper at the conference went beautifully and engendered a very good discussion. He's been asked about a project that's being proposed in Angola and may also be asked to give a paper at a university north of London. I was very proud of him! I went to the plenary sessions with him in the morning and they were quite interesting.
Tomorrow Sintra!
I'll do a separate post for this but I must say that lreynold's post about restaurants in Lisbon and her walk have really made this a wonderful trip for us. We had no guidebook and didn't use the hop on, hop off bus. We just took laurie's advice about everything and it was perfect. In the restaurants she suggested, we were the only people who, I think, were not locals and the food was wonderful. We're trying another of her suggestions tonight. If any of you are going to Lisbon, I suggest you take a look at her posts.
Here are the highlights:
We've walked millions of miles up and down Lisbon's slippery cobblestone streets. Blue skies and sun every day and HOT! The stores are selling sweaters and cords and summer dresses. We've taken the subway and tram all over the city, though all the neighbourhoods, good and bad (this is what we do instead of going to museums, I'm ashamed to say). My SO almost got pickpocketed yesterday while standing in line for a tram but caught the guy and held him in a headlock until he made sure he still had his wallet! I ate an accidental custard tart. I checked my phrasebook and thought I ordered coffee with milk but got a tiny cup of espresso and one of those wonderful Portuguese egg custard tarts. What could I do? I had to eat it, right? Beautiful churches; when you go into the back rooms of churches you find amazing things. Estrella had a huge floor-to-ceiling diorama of bible stories leading up to the nativity. You could look at it for hours and not see the whole thing.
SO's paper at the conference went beautifully and engendered a very good discussion. He's been asked about a project that's being proposed in Angola and may also be asked to give a paper at a university north of London. I was very proud of him! I went to the plenary sessions with him in the morning and they were quite interesting.
Tomorrow Sintra!
I'll do a separate post for this but I must say that lreynold's post about restaurants in Lisbon and her walk have really made this a wonderful trip for us. We had no guidebook and didn't use the hop on, hop off bus. We just took laurie's advice about everything and it was perfect. In the restaurants she suggested, we were the only people who, I think, were not locals and the food was wonderful. We're trying another of her suggestions tonight. If any of you are going to Lisbon, I suggest you take a look at her posts.
Sep 12th, 2010, 12:36 PM
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Hello from our last evening in Lisbon!
Last night we took another of lreynold's suggestions and took a cab to the neighbourhood called Campo d'Ourique. LR says it's a very nice residential neighbourhood with a pleasant square but unfortunately we didn't get to see any of that because we were just there at night. The restaurant (called Tasquinha d'Adelaide and picked arbitrarily from her list of three) was tiny and charming. It probably seats no more than 25 people. There was no English on the menu (always a good sign) so the couple sitting next to us helped us out with the translations and we got into an evening-long conversation with them. It turned out that she's a professor at the same university where my SO had just given a paper and that their fields overlap somewhat. They were lovely people and we talked until we were the last ones in the restaurant. We thought we were keeping the owner and his staff too late but they they poured us all glasses of port on the house and kept us there even longer!
Today we took the train to Sintra -- it was packed! We took the hop on, hop off bus to the Moorish Castle and walked the high walls. We have now decided that this is our last ruined castle. After a while, they all begin to look alike and I can only walk up so many million uneven stone steps to parapets before I lose interest. However, hour next stop was the Pena Palace which was absolutely gorgeous. It looks like one of those currently popular wedding cakes -- all wonky towers and coloured fondant. There were many many rooms set up as they would have been when the palace was 'alive' and it was fascinating. Palaces, yes; castle ruins, no -- that's our plan.
We had a quick sandwich lunch back in the historical centre of town and walked around a bit. I was a little disappointed at the lack of art galleries and local crafts but by that time we were pooped anyway and glad to walk back to the train station and come back to Lisbon.
Had a quick dinner around the corner from the hotel tonight and tomorrow we're off, back to London. It's exciting to know that one adventure ending just begins another!
Last night we took another of lreynold's suggestions and took a cab to the neighbourhood called Campo d'Ourique. LR says it's a very nice residential neighbourhood with a pleasant square but unfortunately we didn't get to see any of that because we were just there at night. The restaurant (called Tasquinha d'Adelaide and picked arbitrarily from her list of three) was tiny and charming. It probably seats no more than 25 people. There was no English on the menu (always a good sign) so the couple sitting next to us helped us out with the translations and we got into an evening-long conversation with them. It turned out that she's a professor at the same university where my SO had just given a paper and that their fields overlap somewhat. They were lovely people and we talked until we were the last ones in the restaurant. We thought we were keeping the owner and his staff too late but they they poured us all glasses of port on the house and kept us there even longer!
Today we took the train to Sintra -- it was packed! We took the hop on, hop off bus to the Moorish Castle and walked the high walls. We have now decided that this is our last ruined castle. After a while, they all begin to look alike and I can only walk up so many million uneven stone steps to parapets before I lose interest. However, hour next stop was the Pena Palace which was absolutely gorgeous. It looks like one of those currently popular wedding cakes -- all wonky towers and coloured fondant. There were many many rooms set up as they would have been when the palace was 'alive' and it was fascinating. Palaces, yes; castle ruins, no -- that's our plan.
We had a quick sandwich lunch back in the historical centre of town and walked around a bit. I was a little disappointed at the lack of art galleries and local crafts but by that time we were pooped anyway and glad to walk back to the train station and come back to Lisbon.
Had a quick dinner around the corner from the hotel tonight and tomorrow we're off, back to London. It's exciting to know that one adventure ending just begins another!
Sep 13th, 2010, 02:17 PM
#99
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Well, here we are, back in London. From blue, blue skies to grey, grey skies!
The flight was fairly uneventful (and isn't that the way you want a flight to be?) It turns out that we only got those TAP meal vouchers on the flight to Lisbon because they were short staffed so they cancelled the meal service on the plane. Coming back, it was the normal sandwich lunch.
Tomorrow will be a stay-in-the-neighbourhood day for us, needing to catch up on things here -- laundry, grocery shopping, etc. Hey, it can't all be custard tarts and palaces, y'know!
Have we settled on October 7 as the GTG date? And jamikins, I'm going to send you an email re meeting sometime soon. And jonathan, I haven't forgotten that we owe you a bagel and coffee!
The flight was fairly uneventful (and isn't that the way you want a flight to be?) It turns out that we only got those TAP meal vouchers on the flight to Lisbon because they were short staffed so they cancelled the meal service on the plane. Coming back, it was the normal sandwich lunch.
Tomorrow will be a stay-in-the-neighbourhood day for us, needing to catch up on things here -- laundry, grocery shopping, etc. Hey, it can't all be custard tarts and palaces, y'know!
Have we settled on October 7 as the GTG date? And jamikins, I'm going to send you an email re meeting sometime soon. And jonathan, I haven't forgotten that we owe you a bagel and coffee!
