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Tag: 2023 Lisbon Trip

2023 Lisbon Trip (Day Two – LX Factory)

This was one of Steve’s suggestions based on a visit he had previously made to Lisbon and it transpired to be a very agreeable one. LX Factory is a creative and cultural hub which is located in a former industrial complex. It has been transformed into what is quite a vibrant space that houses numerous shops, restaurants, art galleries, and co-working spaces. With its unique blend of industrial architecture and contemporary design it has become quite a destination for locals and tourists.

There’s a mix of things to do here, including fashion boutiques, vintage shops, bookstores and other creative offerings. The complex also features several restaurants and cafes serving up a variety of cuisine, including traditional Portuguese dishes and international fare. Art enthusiasts can enjoy the many galleries and exhibitions showcasing the work of local and international artists, although Steve and I just went looking for food and drink. It was a hot day and we needed refreshments.

It’s perhaps reached the stage now, in a similar way to Camden Market, where it has become more of a tourist destination rather than the on-trend cultural treat it might once have been. However, there’s still plenty of character here.

The on-site hostel with its street art.

There are a few little structural issues to deal with.

There’s plenty of history to this former industrial site, but I’ll use the words from the official web-site:

“It is in the year of 1846 that the Company of Wiring and Fabricos Lisbonense, one of the most important factory complexes of Lisbon, settles in Alcântara. This industrial area of 23,000m2 was in subsequent years, occupied by the Industrial Company of Portugal and Colonies, Typography Anuário Comercial de Portugal and Gráfica Mirandela. A fraction of a city that has remained hidden for years is now returned to the city in the form of LXFACTORY”.

Its survival is mostly due to the financial crash, as there were plans to demolish it and construct a new development here, but then the money ran out and they never quite did anything with the site. All told, that seems like it’s for the best given what has been created here, but I’m not sure what the long-term plan is.

The area has a laid-back feel to it, very bohemian. There are free toilets which is a handy thing to have and some outlets feel quite rustic, whilst others have clearly had a lot of money spent on their design. It’s certainly worth a visit for an hour or so to explore the various floors, although it is something of a maze to get around.

March 7, 2023
2023 Lisbon Trip (Day Two – Monument of the Discoveries)

This grand monument is the Monument of the Discoveries (Padrão dos Descobrimentos) which to me looks newer than it actually is but it was constructed between November 1958 and January 1960. It celebrates the period when Portugal was one of the major political powers in the world, at a time of the Age of Discovery which lasted between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. There was a time in the late fifteenth century that Portugal controlled to a great degree African and Indian trade, giving it immense amounts of wealth. The precise timing of the completion of this monument in 1960 was to mark the 500th anniversary of the death of Prince Henry the Navigator in 1460, seen to be one of the founding figures of the Age of Discovery.

There’s some considerable detail in the monument and this is Luís de Camões (1524-1580) who is known to be one of the Portugal’s greatest poets.

It’s possible to get close to the figures on the monument and it’s a formidable thing to see from some distance.

And from the other side of the monument, which is no less impressive.

March 6, 2023
2023 Lisbon Trip (Day Two – Belém Tower)

The first historic destination we went to in Lisbon was Belém Tower (Torre de Belém), using one of the city trams which I’ll write about separately. Belém Tower, also known as the Tower of St. Vincent (Torre de São Vicente), is a historical monument which was built in the 16th century and is a prime example of the Manueline architectural style, which combines Gothic, Renaissance, and Moorish influences. The tower served as a key defensive structure for the city and played a significant role in Portugal’s maritime history. Today, it’s a tourist attraction, but a beautiful one.

The tower features several notable elements, including intricate stone carvings, a bastion with cannons, and a watchtower. It also includes a chapel dedicated to St. Vincent, the patron saint of Lisbon’s sailors. The tower has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Portugal, so it’s fair to say that they’re very proud of it and it’s also another thing ticked off my list of World Heritage Sites. That’s another one of my main projects that I need to do more work on. Visitors to Belém Tower can climb to the top for panoramic views of the city and the Tagus River, which Bev and Susanna did, but Steve and I went for a wander around to avoid all of the tourists.

It’s accessed by a walkway which all adds to the anticipation of the tower. The limitation about these beautiful buildings is that the most attractive views are from outside looking at the structure rather than the other way around, so I was quite content just gazing at this piece of historic architecture.

Very artistic. Just to bring the blog back down in its quality once again, it’ll perhaps be most memorable in our group for toiletgate which took place beforehand. The local authorities think it’s a great idea to charge €0.50 to use the toilet, which isn’t ideal, but there we go. Steve and Susanna rushed in but I won’t dwell on that, leaving Bev outside with no money to get in. Patiently waiting for Susanna to return, although it transpired she was yelling within the toilets to the toilet attendant to let Bev in and she’d pay later, Bev bemoaned the charge and how she didn’t have any coins. All hunched up and complaining about her back it’s fair to say the visiting tourists took pity on her and before we know it, a kind man gave her the €0.50. Silver linings and all that…..

March 6, 2023
2023 Lisbon Trip (Day Two – Orange Juice Outside Rossio Railway Station)

I haven’t got a clue what this cafe is called (what an informative blog this is), it’s missing from Google Maps, but it’s located on the square to the side of Rossio Station. Bev was craving caffeine and so we went to this quaint little location by the main railway station and I’m pleased to say that no-one in our group repeated the actions of a tourist a few years ago….. The others wanted their morning coffee, but I’m trying to avoid caffeine and so I went for a rather more healthy freshly squeezed orange juice. There was a friendly welcome from the staff, even though we all paid separately by card which I doubt was their ideal solution to the payment situation.

Look at that healthy goodness. Well, something like that anyway, but it did taste fresh and it’s always a little bonus to see your drink being freshly squeezed. I mean, you could do that with craft beer at the bar with a little creativity and ingenuity, but it wouldn’t feel quite the same. It was a handy first stop to plan our expeditions over the following few days to ensure that we knew where we were going.

We then got muddled up thirty seconds afterwards, but I didn’t say anything.

March 6, 2023
2023 Lisbon Trip (Day Two – Using the Lisbon Metro for the First Time)

My night in the Holiday Inn Express Lisbon complete I was going to walk directly to Encarnação Metro which was around twenty minutes away, around five minutes quicker than walking back to the airport and its Metro station. Unfortunately this plan was soon set aside as the Google Maps walking route was so complex in terms of crossing major roads that I thought it would be just as quick to return to the airport. After all, the other three were desperate to see me.

The airport Metro station looking modern and contemporary, part of the Red Line extension which opened in 2012. I’d also add that it was too hot for me, the blazing February sun was already just a bit too much.

There was a sizeable queue to buy a Metro ticket, but fortunately it was efficient and so I had a wait of only around five minutes or so. Note the heap of litter as the machines automatically print out a receipt that most people clearly don’t want.A single ticket is €1.65 but there’s a €0.50 charge for the ticket itself, although that only has to be paid once as it can be reused. There’s the option of a day ticket as well which is just over €6, all a lot cheaper than TFL in London.

It’s quite a deep Metro station so there were numerous levels to descend.

I don’t know whether it’s normal for musicians to meander up and down the carriages with a dog sitting on them. I’ve never seen this in London, or indeed in cities such as New York. Perhaps it’s to try and surprise and delight the tourists arriving in from the airport station.

Inside of the Metro carriage. Basic but functional.

I was heading to Restauradores Metro station, so I switched to the Blue Line, or the Seagull Line, which was well signed. This line is the only one of the four which is entirely underground. I’m not a huge fan of seagulls, so I’m not convinced they couldn’t have found something better to name it after. I’d add that seagulls don’t offend me, they just always appear to be quite a menace in the sky, particularly when I’ve got chips. Passengers need to keep their Metro ticket, not least as they’ll have to pay €0.50 for another one if they lose it, but also to be able to exit the network through the barriers.

The four lines, the Red, Green, Yellow and Blue lines. Although there had been plans to build a Metro system in Lisbon since the late nineteenth century, it didn’t finally open until December 1959. They started with the Blue Line, then came numerous extensions to that, then the Yellow Line, the Green Line and finally the Red Line. They don’t seem to have any plans to build a new line, with much of the city not that near to a Metro station, but there is also a train, tram and bus system to patch those gaps up.

And into the square where the three were standing to the right hand side of the monument. My peace and quiet shattered for the next few days….. At least the catching a Metro service had been simple and easy.

March 5, 2023
2023 Lisbon Trip (Day One – Holiday Inn Express Lisbon Airport)

There’s a shuttle bus that can be requested to get from Lisbon Airport to the Holiday Inn Express Lisbon Airport, but I thought that I might as well just walk. What could possibly go wrong with walking through industrial estates at night and all that?

The airport roundabout has a car on display and then I was off on my little meander.

I was delighted to see that there was a pavement as these things are never entirely guaranteed. Even so, I wouldn’t have wanted to do this walk with luggage as there were a lot of bumpy surfaces along the way.

This happened a lot in the United States and there was little option other than to walk in the road, but fortunately, there were sidewalks along both sides of the road. I do sometimes slightly dread a road closure on an expedition such as this as there wouldn’t have been an easy alternative road for me to walk along. For anyone reading this post wondering whether to walk to the hotel, I’d say it’s easy enough.

The hotel is just visible in the background, a little shining beacon.

And here we are. I then promptly couldn’t find the way in as it’s accessed from the other side and there are no signs. For a moment I wondered whether it was closed. However, after walking around looking at the hotel from numerous angles I was able to find the reception area. The receptionist was welcoming guests in English which I admit is helpful, although I was slightly surprised they didn’t at least start in Portuguese.

With the choice of a welcome drink or points, I decided I’d try the beer and I received 0.5 litres of Super Bock. It tasted of pretty much every other generic European lager, but I was pleased to be safely in the hotel and there’s a little bar area.

I was worried when I entered the room as the toilet was flushing in the bathroom and I wondered whether they’d given me an occupied room. However, it transpired that the flush was just jammed and using my extensive civil engineering skills that I’ve learned from my friend Liam, I fixed it. I nearly phoned reception to tell them I’d fixed part of their hotel, but I decided against it in case they thought that I was odd.

The breakfast is included in the room rate and the cold meats looked fairly mass produced, so I avoided those. The cheese was better, albeit unexceptional.

The pastries were better, including the pasteis de nata (custard tarts) which are a personal favourite of mine.

I think that’s suitably healthy.

It’s a large breakfast area and it wasn’t particularly busy during my visit. There was a friendly staff member cleaning and restocking, it was an inviting environment and I liked that it wasn’t too busy and bustling.

Just before I left I thought I should check the other pastries, I was very pleased with the doughnut.

This is a perfectly agreeable hotel, the room rate was around £50 for the night and it was convenient for the airport. On reflection, it would have been just as quick to get the metro into the city centre and stay in a more central hotel, but I liked being near to the airport hotel in case there was a long flight delay.

I had a look at the reviews on-line, which are broadly favourable, and wondered about this one:

“Staff is extremely unfriendly, they make you do downstairs for every little thing. Not to mention it is very expensive, I paid USD 3200 for 5 nights.
There’s no service here; it’s better to go Airbnb because you still have to do everything yourself. No microwave in the room; no cutlery, no water. The reception told me drink water from the bathroom tap”.

I’m not quite sure how anyone could spend $3,200 for five nights unless that somehow includes business class flights. And I drink water from the tap, although to be fair I have quite low standards in this regard.

“I thought I would book with an American hotel near the airport so I would not need Euros just for my overnight stay”

I’m not sure that it works like that and they were disappointed that this US hotel did charge them in euros. Most of the complaints about the hotel are around their shuttle, or lack of shuttle in many cases. But, I’d stay at the hotel again if arriving late into Lisbon Airport, there were no noises disturbances internally or externally and everything was sufficiently clean and comfortable.

March 3, 2023
2023 Lisbon Trip (Day One – Wizz Air from Luton to Lisbon)

Before I start writing about my flight, I have to mention the enormous common sense shown by Steve. Using his initiative and experience in the car industry he had managed to acquire Bev a stick at Lisbon Airport. This seemed a good idea at the time, although we heard Bev stomping around with the stick clacking about for the entire weekend. We were very tolerant though of course.

That was my flight, the Wizz Air W4493 18:30 to Lisbon. I was slightly nervous here as it was 17:44 and it was saying that the gate would be shown at 17:40 and my experience from BA is that when the time is reached it means there’s some kind of problem. Fortunately, a few minutes later the gate was announced.

We were departing from Gate 26 and the airport has a lot of these gates downstairs to give them extra space. Some of the gates are a bit of a walk from the main terminal, this one was only around five minutes.

I managed to be third in the non-priority queue which gave me no benefits at all.

Well, other than I got a seat in the non-priority section after they had checked my passport.

The whole arrangement was efficient and well thought through, I liked the professionalism of Wizz Air here. It’s not glamorous, but I like knowing where I’m supposed to wait and they do make it clear. Wizz Air work their planes hard, this was the fifth of six sectors that the A320 was making that day. It’s aircraft G-WUKF which they’ve been operating since March 2018, their fleet is generally all modern and I feel they’re a very safe operator. Their customer service reputation is somewhat all over the place, but that is true for many budget airlines and I’ve never experienced any negative issues with them.

I didn’t get fortunate with the seat Gods insomuch as I got randomly allocated a middle seat, but all was well and there was sufficient space. The crew are much more ruthless in terms of timing than with BA, they want backpacks under the seats and larger cabin bags in the overheads as quickly as possible. I appreciated that efficiency, it meant that we landed in Lisbon on time with the flight taking just over two hours and thirty minutes.

The flight wasn’t too bad in terms of being sold stuff, as Ryanair traditionally go a little over the top. There were a couple of food and drink runs with the trolley and I think a call for duty free, but for much of the time they dimmed the lights perhaps in the hope of sedating the passengers. The aircraft was clean, the pilot making the announcements sounded competent and the crew were all friendly. Bearing in mind that this flight cost me £11, I can say that I received decent value for money.

One thing that I’ve never really understood about so many passengers is their rush to leave the aircraft. They’ll get up before the seatbelt lights are off, they’ll barge others and then push their way onto the coach that took us to the terminal in Lisbon. I don’t mean every passenger of course, but a good number and that’s been on every flight I’ve ever been on. I have no idea why some people seem so much in a rush at this point of their journey.

The reason I don’t understand it is that everyone then just meanders around so slowly to get to the border control desks. If you want to rush, my aviation top tip is just dither about on the aircraft and then walk quickly when in the terminal as you can just walk around everyone or use the stairs when others use the escalators. I know that not everyone can walk quickly, but for those that can it means getting to the border control desk ahead of everyone else and that’s what happened to me. I’ve digressed again though in my airport observations, but passengers so often seem stressed and hurried when disembarking. As an aside, after I navigated the extensive queueing system the border guard had a smile and it was good to be back in Portugal, my second time in the country and my first in Lisbon.

Here’s Lisbon airport terminal and all I had to do for the evening was walk thirty minutes to the hotel as I wasn’t going to pay €5 for the shuttle bus. I’m not made of money and I was conscious that the train from London had cost £2.90 (£1.45 after delay repay), the flight was £11 and so paying nearly £5 for a five minute shuttle was not good value.

Finally, all four of our little brigade were safely in Lisbon, but we were missing Gordon already who couldn’t come for reasons unknown, mostly ones we made up.

March 2, 2023
2023 Lisbon Trip (Day One – Getting to Luton Airport)

There was little to report from the other three over in Stansted Airport, but Bev was enjoying being pushed about and thought after her two meals in the JD Wetherspoon outlet that she’d have a Pret to wash it all down.

Whilst Bev was being treated like a celebrity, I’d completed my visit to the White Horse in Luton and I’ve written about that separately.

I didn’t realise that the bastion of journalism that is the Sunday Express has left Luton. Or, perhaps their sign just fell off.

It’s about a 40 minute walk to the airport from the town centre, but I managed to get lost and ended up meandering randomly around, although at least that means I saw more Luton streets than I could ever want to ever again. The reason that I mention this is that I walked by Luton Airport Parkway railway station and they’re near to opening the Luton DART, which has been in testing before passengers can use it from 10 March 2023. Some people have been more fortunate, King Charles III got to have a little ride on the DART last December.

There’s currently a shuttle bus to the airport from the railway station, or it’s around a 15 minute walk. I must admit to being quite astounded that they’re planning to charge £4.90 for this three minute journey on the DART and I can’t quite imagine many more expensive railway journeys for the distance travelled. The costs of construction are ludicrous, it was meant to cost £225 million and has gone soaring over £300 million already and judging by the local newspapers there are some slightly annoyed residents wondering where this money has gone. In the future, any ticket to Luton Airport Parkway will now include the cost of using the DART, but this raises the odd situation that I paid only £2.90 for my ticket from London St Pancras to Luton last week and so they’ll have to charge a fair chunk more for passengers who aren’t going as far (the parkway station is before Luton if travelling from London).

Anyway, I doubt I’ll ever use the DART as it seems completely unaffordable and as I won’t have any luggage, children or other things slowing me down, I’d rather just walk for 15 minutes. Maybe if Bev flies from Luton the matter might be different though.

After getting only slightly lost en route, the promised uplands of London Luton Airport appeared on the horizon. It’s a functional airport, but it struggles to cope with the number of passengers that it’s getting and it’s not really a sufficiently large terminal. To be fair, they want to change matters by expanding the current terminal and building an entirely new one as well. That would see an increase in passenger numbers from 18 million a year which they currently get to a new limit of 32 million. They’re already the fifth largest airport in the UK by passenger numbers and if they want to increase they’ll have to build that new terminal.

Inspired by Bev, I used my coffee subscription and charged my devices at the landside outlet of Pret. And, yes, I am getting onto writing about Lisbon very soon now. The screens were showing that my Wizz Air flight was going to be on time and just as I getting ready to go through security I heard that the others had landed in Lisbon. Leaving them just with one problem, they needed to find Bev a stick.

March 2, 2023
2023 Lisbon Trip (Day One – Windmilltwomealgate)

Luton’s railway station general ugly exterior isn’t helped by their new plywood doors or whatever it is that they’ve got going on there. I tried to find some quotes about Luton to add some spice to this post, but there don’t appear to be any which is slightly disheartening. Instead, I asked ChatGPT to tell me the best thing about Luton and it replied:

“Luton is well-connected to other major cities in the UK, making it easy to travel to and from the town”.

It’s not really selling the place if I’m being honest. I instead asked for a fun fact about Luton and was told:

“The town is famous for its hat-making industry, which dates back to the 17th century. Luton was once the largest hat-making center in the world, and at its peak, the town produced over 70% of all hats made in the UK. The traditional Luton hat, made from felt, was popular with both men and women and was exported worldwide”.

That’s a bit more exciting. Actually, I’ve been using ChatGPT for useful purposes over recent weeks, and not just asking for things such as funny jokes about Luton.

“Why did the tomato turn red?

Because it saw Luton’s traffic and got embarrassed!”

OK, I did ask it for a joke about Luton…. Moving on.

This is a little more uplifting than the railway station’s frontage and is visible to those walking from the station to the town centre.

I’m slightly confused about the branding that’s going on here, although it all looks quite exotic for an American diner.

There’s my destination, the White House, the JD Wetherspoon pub. There was relatively little choice for me here, it was one of a very few Good Beer Guide pubs in Luton that were open at lunchtime.

At this point I heard that the others had safely arrived at Stansted Airport and Bev was being pushed around by Steve. Just like me, he’s a very competent carer and Bev realised just how fortunate she was.

And just cutting into this at the same time, Nathan sent me this photo of an Amiga at The Centre for Computing History helping me relive my youth. He had been able to have a nice sit down to recover from being scared from Bev, he was being very brave.

The rather pleasant surroundings of the White House pub, but as this is a Good Beer Guide it can have its own post.

Steve was a true gentleman with all of his pushing and he showed great tolerance when Bev demanded to be taken into the Windmill Wetherspoons at Stansted Airport. She decided to order at the table using the app, but due to technical error (or user error as Steve called it) she got all muddled up and also had Susanna order her food at the bar. What happened then is that two meals turned up, which to me is just a clever ruse to not look greedy when ordering two meals. Apparently a discussion then took place and Bev is writing to the Head Office of JD Wetherspoon or something, but I don’t get involved with such things. I’m pleased that I didn’t experience any such issues. I suspect that Steve was wondering what he had taken on at this point.

I can imagine my substantial readership of two is now wondering when I’m actually going to write anything about Lisbon. But, patience, only a few more posts and I’ll be at the heart of the action writing up about an industrial estate near to Lisbon Airport.

March 1, 2023
2023 Lisbon Trip (Day One – Getting to the Airport)

I had a little local difficulty at the weekend which primarily related to a problem with this bloody blog. I don’t mean a local difficulty like Matt Hancock having all of his WhatsApp messages sent to the Daily Telegraph thanks to Isabel Oakeshott, but a slight issue with a server. I’m glad that all of my WhatsApp messages haven’t been sent to the Daily Telegraph, it’s not clear that they have enough journalists to scour all my photos of food and messages containing gossip.

There are some blog posts currently still missing, but fingers crossed that just about the whole lot will be back over the next few days as I think that they can be recovered. But, there are two posts that have been lost which were the first two documenting the Lisbon trip that four of us went on this weekend. These can probably be recovered from one of the grand total of 22 people who subscribe to this blog by email updates, but I want to rewrite them in the past tense otherwise they sound odd. Well, these posts sound odd anyway, but let’s not get distracted with that.

The above photo is of St.Pancras railway station in London where rather unhelpfully all the boards had gone down again. I was travelling to London Luton Airport (nowhere near London really) from London, whereas the other three (Bev, Steve and Susanna) were on a Greater Anglia rail service to London Stansted (also nowhere near London). There had been minor incident already which is that Bev had forgotten her stick that she needed to be able to walk around. I did note privately to myself that it seemed odd she only realised the lack of her stick so late on, but I don’t like to comment. Although there’s plenty more stick gossip to come in this blog…..

My train was the 11.45 to Corby, stopping at Luton Airport Parkway and Luton. I was going to Luton and walking back to the airport as otherwise I’d be too early, but so far the day was going marvellously and the train looked ready to go. This was a bargain fare, costing just £2.90 for a single ticket.

After boarding there was an announcement from the guard that the train didn’t have a driver. I’m not necessarily an expert on trains, but this didn’t seem entirely ideal. There were frequent announcements that the driver would be here soon, then after 25 minutes it was announced that the train service was cancelled. Fortunately though, they just operated the next service as normal, so everything was exactly 30 minutes behind schedule. And yes, I’ll be claiming the 50% Delay Repay which means this journey cost £1.45. Very thrifty.

Meanwhile, the other were now on board their train to Stansted Airport and had just reached Cambridge. When Bev looked out of the train window she saw Nathan and a friend, who were going to Cambridge for a drinking trip, fleeing the scene as it had transpired they’d all been on the same train. Bev banged on the window as hard as she could, so it’s a slight surprise that it didn’t cave in under that pressure. Nathan ignored the situation, thinking that he was under attack I suspect. If I was a betting man, which I’m not as I like certainty, I’d suspect Nathan and his friend had been hiding in the toilet for the entire journey as it seems strange to me that they didn’t bump into each other before then.

Anyway back to the trip, all was going well, as we were all on trains heading to our respective airports ready for an exciting adventure in Lisbon.

March 1, 2023