Lisbon in autumn
We liked Lisbon even before landing at the airport. The airport is next to the city, and the planes descend right over the city, and the first views of the city open from the plane. The airport was also very good. Although it looks rather modest, but there are no queues, all the rituals like passport control and baggage claim took only 20 minutes. Then everything is also like clockwork - we got from the airport to the hotel by metro at the usual city rate of a little more than 1 euro per person .
We also checked into the Masa Almirante hotel very quickly, and went from there by metro to the Marquis of Pombal Square, from where the double-decker Sightseeing Bus departs. Sightseeing Bus is a very good way to get your bearings in a new unfamiliar city. In less than a full day, we managed to ride on three routes out of four, and besides, we also took a walk near the Belem tower and had lunch in a cafe.
A little about food - a common advice that it is better to eat in non-tourist places, does not work for Lisbon, in Lisbon it is better to choose a cafe in the center or in Alfama. Or just buy food in the supermarket if you prefer a budget option. Maybe that's why in non-tourist places cafes are empty. But it’s not at all necessary to try the famous pasties in the Belem pasties, where there are huge queues, in other pasties the pasties are just as tasty, but only without queues. In addition to the well-known sweet "Pasteis de nata", there are also potato-cod "Pasteishes de bacalau", but they are less common than sweet pasties. "Pasteis de bacalau" can be tasted, for example, in the beer museum on Commerce Square.
The Lisbon Sightseeing Bus, in addition to three urban ones, also has a suburban line - along the ocean to Estoril, Cascais and further along the coast. You should definitely ride along this route to breathe in the smell of the ocean and fried fish. And go out near some coastal restaurant and try this fish.
You should definitely take a walk around the city and on foot, it is very interesting to walk along the narrow streets with tram rails, to see how an old small tram squeezes through a narrow street. There are a lot of hills in Lisbon, and parallel streets can be connected to each other not by alleys, but by stairs. And the streets can intersect with each other at different levels, such a 3D labyrinth. There is even such an unusual type of urban transport as an elevator, which can be used to climb from one street to another. Although the line to this elevator is such that you can get there faster on foot.
And of course, Lisbon is full of observation platforms that offer magnificent views of the city, if you walk around the old city, then at least a couple of such platforms will definitely come across on the way.
