Nikki

Bailey, how odd that we both ended up asking Matt and Lobo for doctors. It helps to have friends in high places, doesn't it? I went to a different emergency room, though, at the Hospital Particular.

Sally, I am glad to have provided some diversion from your mediation statement; frankly, if it were me needing to rewrite that statement, it wouldn't take much to distract me from it.

missypie

Did the bread stew with shrimp taste good? I would have a hard time eating anything into which a raw egg had just been cracked.

bailey6325

Nikki - I know, I was so thankful that we knew someone to point us in the right direction.

Missy - I also had the bread stew on my trip and it is very good. The egg actually gets cooked when it's stirred with the rest of the piping-hot ingredients.

BostonGal

Nikki, what a fantastic report! WOW just WOW about the pharmacy bit.

Although I'm not a fan of the heat, either, I am still envious of your travels to Spain and Portugal.

I can't wait to check out your pictures!

Sher

Nikki or bailey.

Did either of you eat salted cod while you were there?

My grandmother used to make it when I was a lot younger and I did like it. But I understand that in Portugal it is cooked in cream and we could not bring ourselves to have it.

bailey6325

No, Sher we didn't have the chance to try salted cod. It sounds interesting - especially if it's cooked in cream. I don't know if I'd like it.

LoveItaly

Hello Nikki, I put aside your report until I had time to read it in one sitting, so I have now read what you have written since I last posted to you.

What an absolutely fansanating report!!
And how wonderful you got to meet up with LaClaire!!

I cringed more than once though when you were overcome with the heat as we here in CA have had triple-digit tempertures for 10 or 11 days and it has really started to bother me.

I am so glad you were not injured when you fell, I have done that twice in Italy and both times really hurt my right knee. Thank goodness for ice.

And isn't it amazing in the cost of medical care compared to the US. I have had several friends years ago from Portugal and I can truly say I have never met kinder and nicer people.

And the food you have eaten, I am drooling, well all except for the pig ears, lol.

I still need to look at all your photos. Thank you for taking us along with you on your wonderful adventure!!

Nikki

Missypie, the acorda had a nice flavor, but it sort of lost texture over time. This was the source of Lobo's criticism; with better bread it would have held up better. The egg was not noticeable at all; it cooked into the stew and acted to hold it all together.

Sher, I did not try salted cod. I'm not sure why, but I guess other things appealed to me more. I live in the land of the cod, after all, but it doesn't appeal to me much at home either.

BostonGal, I understand that the temperatures here in Massachusetts weren't any better than they were in Spain and Portugal while we were away. But at least at home there's less need to be out in the heat than there is when you're traveling and sightseeing.

lobo_mau

Sher, in Portugal cod is cooked in 1000 ways. Cooked in cream (Bacalhau com natas) is just one of them. This means there are still 999 other ways. The most popular are "bacalhau assado" (codfish grilled over charcoal) and "bacalhau cozido" (cooked in boiling water). The 1st time LDC met in Adega das Gravatas we had bacalhau assado and it was very good. Matt posted a photo of bacalhau assado in his report.
Do you feel confortable with olive oil taste?

annhig

Nikki - really enjoying the report, especially as Madrid, BCN and Lisbon are all on my to do list. Incidentally, Salt cod is a speciality in Cornwall and north devon too, but i've nver being able to bring myself to try, though we eat smokedfish all the time. Daft or what!
Please tell me that the sapnish haven't stopped eating flan altogether - i love it!

Nikki

LoveItaly, I think I would have trouble living in your climate.

Annhig, flan is still in evidence, I just have no interest. And I love smoked fish of all sorts, but I prefer it cold.

Nikki

Day 12

Thursday’s agenda was shopping. Lobo’s wife had marked some shops selling Portuguese handicrafts on a map for me at dinner Tuesday night, and Mindy and I set off to feed my addiction to ceramics. First we went to a shop up a steep street near our hotel that I had found in a New York Times article and I bought two small blue and yellow bowls decorated with a bluebird pattern from Viuva Lamego. There was a bit of a detour while I went into the FNAC store in the mall at the end of Rua Garrett to feed my French music addiction. There was a surprisingly small selection of French music in this French chain store, but I did find something to buy. This mall turned out to be a good way to get down the steep hill from Rua Garrett in Chiado to the downtown shopping area of Baixa. We entered near the top of the mall and exited at the bottom.

We walked down Rua Aurea, which is lined with jewelry shops, and resisted the impulse to buy some lovely silver jewelry, boxes, antique charms and other things. Then we walked down Rua Augusta, a wide pedestrian street covered with the tiles that line many streets and sidewalks in Lisbon. Here we found a store called Madeira House and we both spent a good long time picking out a selection of colorful ceramics. I understand that such purchases are more expensive in Lisbon than they would be in the countryside, but we had no choice and the prices seemed fair. Armed with bags and feeling satisfied with our purchases, we walked down toward the waterfront. Mindy looked at some souvenir pictures of Lisbon being sold by people on the street, and learned later that her daughter bought a similar one in a more out-of-the-way location for a third the price. Finding a huge plaza at the foot of this street with no shade or appealing waterfront locations, we headed back to the hotel with our booty.

In the interest of full disclosure, when I showed my daughter my purchases which I had spread out on the kitchen table at home, she said she had not realized those things were new. Yes, I do have quite a few blue ceramics already. And yes, quite a few of them have fish on them. But that’s what makes a collection, right?

Mindy’s kids had been off on a shopping excursion of their own, but when they saw the things Mindy had bought, they wanted to go back to the shop we had visited, so they all headed back down there. Meanwhile I started packing, as this was our last day and we had a 7 AM flight Friday morning.

That evening we met up with Lobo and his wife and one of his children for dinner at a restaurant called Republica da Cerveja, which translates to Beer Republic. This is located out on the edge of the city in an area developed for Expo 98, a world’s fair. It is a lovely open area with beautiful river views, including a view of the long bridge built across the Tagus on the occasion of the expo. It was a beautiful warm evening and the atmosphere was refreshing and very different from the old sections of Lisbon.

The restaurant is a large space with a cheerful family atmosphere and jokes about beer (and blondes, which is apparently a word used to describe a type of beer, giving rise to some very bad blonde jokes in Portuguese) written on the walls in Portuguese and English. The menu featured steaks in many variants, and most of us ordered steak. It was a place that one could picture in an American suburb, but the food was distinctly Portuguese. This was a lovely way to end our vacation, with good conversation and good spirits.

Day 13
We had a 7 AM plane to catch, so we were up at 4 AM and at the taxi stand at 4:30. Driving through the Bairro Alto, we saw the tail end of the fabled Lisbon nightlife, and at that hour it didn’t look so very attractive. Groups of tired looking people in the streets, still drinking. Lots of taxis at the stand at that hour, presumably to take the partyers home when they finally called it a night.

We got to the airport quickly. Not so much traffic at that hour. The plane trip home was uneventful, and we arrived in Boston to a blinding rainstorm and the detours occasioned by the collapse of Boston’s airport tunnel the previous week. The trip was over except for the sorting of pictures and the writing of the trip report.

And now, finally, that is over too.

Sher

Nikki. Thank you for posting about Portugal. It just adds to our anticipation.

lobo_mau. About the only thing I don't like to eat is ham loaf and I have no fear of seeing that in Lisbon.

My most favorite foods are anchoivies, garlic and olive oil. So I am safe just about eating anything.

moolyn

Nikki, I only spent one day in Lisbon and have always wanted to return for longer, even more so now that I've read your great report. Thanks for sharing! We ended up taking our son for emergency medical treatment in England one year after he sliced his finger to the bone in a grinding wheel at an open air museum. He was seen quickly and there was no charge, too much trouble to do the accounting we were told.

Nikki

Restaurant details:

Barcelona

Els Quatre Gats, C/Montsio 3
telephone 93 302 41 40
http://www.4gats.com/web.html

Set Portes, Passeig d'Isabel II, 14
telephone 93 319 30 33
http://www.7portes.com/ing/index_7portes.htm

Pla de la Garsa, C/Assaonadors 13
telephone 93 268 30 80

La Tramoia, Rambla Catalunya 15
telephone 93 412 36 34

Bar Pinotxo, Mercat de la Boqueria, La Rambla 91, stalls 66-67
Tel: 933-171-731



Ibiza

Restaurante Paris, Progreso 16, Sant Antoni
Tel: 971 340 018

Restaurant Hans, C./Ample 25, Sant Antoni
Tel.: 659 014 022

Café Babel, C/Ample, Sant Antoni

Kumharas, Port des Torrent
Tel: 971 805 740
www.kumharas.org

Madrid

Restaurante Botin, Calle Cuchilleros, 17
Tel: 91-366 4217
http://www.botin.es/INGindex.html

Casa Patas, C/Canizares, 10
Tel: 91 369 04 96
www.casapatas.com

Lisbon

Cervejaria Trindade, Rua Nova da Trindade, 20C
Tel: 21 342 3506

Adega das Gravatas, Travessa do Pregoeiro, 15, Carnide
Tel: 21 714 36 22

Patio da Memoria, Calcada da Memoria, 57-A
Tel: 21 364 44 51

Republica da Cerveja, Parque das Nacoes
Tel: 218 922 590

isabel

Hey Nikki. Great report. I just got back from Copenhagen Saturday so I'm still a bit jet lagged. I am very impressed with your ability to get your photos and report up so quickly. And you do such a good job. How about I send you my journal and you can write my report for me! I will be writing a report but it will be a while. In the way of excuses I offer up the fact that I left a teenager and a 21 year old home alone so I've a bit of cleaning, grocery shopping etc to get done, and we are having out of state relatives next week for a whole week.Oh well. And I have quite a few photos to sort through. I might add I like your LDC photos better than Matts. Say hi to Mindy for me.

namaka

Wonderful, Wonderful trip report Nikki!

And I have to agree with you on the heat. We drank bottle afte bottle of water each day.

Maybe one day, all of the LDC will gather for one big dinner?

Nikki

Thanks, Isabel and namaka.

Sure, Isabel, it's a deal. I'll write up your trip report if I can sign my name to your photos, which I always wish I had taken myself. And by the way, one of the ones from the LDC evening I stole from Matt; I guess it's obviously the one in which I appear.

dwsnyder

Nikki:

What a great report !!! My wife and I are headed for Portugal next month and we're very eager. We're especially excited to meet Lobo, Gertrude, Matt and Liz.

You are so right, it's so wonderful to have friends already 'in place' when you go somewhere new !

David

BYoung4u2

Nikki...let me second Davids comments..great report..certainly makes us anxious to get over there. And yes it really does add a new dimension to the trip having someone there like Lobo, Gertrude, Matt and Liz to share their city with you. Bob