[ Devesas train station in Vila Nova de Gaia. Chilly this morning.

Today we traveled back to Lisboa (Lisbon) for the last bit of our research trip. We wanted to spend a couple days as tourists in the capital city before flying home. We were up and packed fairly early.  We threw back some granola cereal with ultra pasteurized milk and called it breakfast then took an Uber to the nearby train station. We were way early. We wanted to know if we were going to have any trouble with the strike scheduled to start later today. There were no issues. We sat outside by the tracks for nearly an hour waiting for the train, It was the first time since arriving in Portugal that I was actually cold.

The train ride was uneventful. The couple sitting across from us this time appeared to be German. But, I really can’t tell languages apart well. We had reserved a meal online just like the last time, but we never got it. Just as well, it was pretty awful on the last trip.

We got off the train at Santa Apolonia station again. This time we took a metro just 2 stops to Baixa-Chiado. After some confusion with directions, we found our apartment quite close. We were thrilled that it was not far as Wayne was carrying both suitcases and I had the overloaded backpack and briefcase. The whole area is very steep and hilly and we took a long flight of stairs by the metro stop. We are staying in a very busy area with tons of shopping, restaurants, bars and noise. Kind of cool. Probably too hip for us oldsters. 

Our airbnb apartment is on the top (6th) floor with a nice view. Our landlord, Filipe, met us shortly after arrival. He wanted to show us every little thing. This apartment is by far the nicest of this trip. He has many thoughtful details like a bottle of chilled wine and beer in the fridge. This is also the only place we’ve seen a smoke detector. On top of that, he has a large fire extinguisher, smoke blanket, and first aid kit. He went around straightening everything the cleaning lady had just done. He was a cute nerd with thick glasses & slicked back hair. He was so attentive, but all we wanted to do was get out and find something to eat and drink. It was after 3:00 and all we’d had all day was a little granola.

We went around the corner to one of the restaurants Filipe suggested. It was an Italian place. We had a delicious meal and a bottle of refreshing white verde (green) wine. The verde wines are basically albarino with a hint of bubbles. Like a Portuguese version of prosecco. Hit the spot.

After the very late lunch, we went back to the apartment. We opened both doors to the 10-inch deep balcony to let in air and light. I was so sleepy I could barely keep my eyes open. I stretched out on the sofa to rest. Just then, it got really loud. For some unknown reason, there was a parade of probably over 1000 motorcycles up our main street. This went on for about 20 minutes. We checked online but could not find any mention of an event. 

We decided to stay in and chill for the evening. Wayne popped out to walk 10 minutes up & down hills to the nearest grocery store and picked up wine & chocolate while I tried to get a night shot of the street scene below. The place was hopping! We could hear a DJ and dance party coming from one of the rooftop bars. You could hear people singing to songs we mostly did not recognize. When it was time to crash, we closed up the windows and turned on the very rare (and subtle) air conditioning in the bedroom.

This apartment has the Best bed of the trip and we slept like logs.