Lisbon: planning to plan

Kate and I suck at planning things.

Ok, so our wedding went pretty well - we're not saying that things go badly when we plan them, it's just that we seem to be rubbish at sticking to plans. We're too impetuous, too easily distracted and too prone to improvise. For example, originally our European travel plans hadn't included Spain and Portugal AT ALL - now we're spending a month here (all largely because of a thread we saw on the CHOKE forum). As a result we had hardly any plans, and hadn't even got around to purchasing a proper road atlas for the Iberian peninsular until we got to Bilbao.

Today was another great example of us making plans, not sticking to them, making more plans, not sticking to those either, but of generally having a lovely, if footsore, day anyway.


We're in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, a south-facing port on the Tajo river. Our plan had been to get up early, have breakfast, head into town before 9, wander around and see some of the sights, then come back for a late lunch and siesta before heading back into Lisbon for a night out in the big city. We started well, but by 12.30 we didn't really feel we'd seen much by way of the sights, just some lovely narrow, cobbled streets with tall town houses on the sides and cafe tables in the middle, opening out to big pracas named after various kings and explorers. We did find an ornate street elevator, originally steam powered and a cute funicular tramway, but we decided it was too early to eat out and anyway we weren't that bothered about a night on the tiles. So we bought a day rider (might have been a good plan to get one earlier, but never mind) and headed to the riverside Belem district, where several of Lisbon's best monuments and palaces were to be found.



After changing our plans regarding lunch a couple of times, we found a charming little pavement cafe where we managed to assemble a reasonably decent vegetarian meal from various entree and soup options. Monuments checked out, street art spotted, ice cream eaten, feet beginning to ache, we resolved to do the rest of our sightseeing by tram and bus to make the best use of our four-euro tickets. Inevitably we ended up on a different tram to the one we planned to take, but Kate's instinct was right as we were rewarded by gorgeous views on the castle circular in a splendid old fashioned vehicle with sash windows and leather sunscreens, polished wood and ample chances to exchange greetings with pedestrians and people in passing trams.

Naturally our plans to return to the campsite via a variety of Metro trains and buses were altered, changed and rearranged several times and two missed stops later, we made it back. I had planned to get our washing in from earlier then cook, but Kate had other plans, hence she's cooking and I am blogging. About plans.