Greg's Wanderings

Author: Greg H

  • Exploring Lisbon

    Exploring Lisbon

    if I learned one thing today about Lisbon, it’s that I want to come back and spend more time here.

    This really is a charming city. It’s got a rich history, great food, very friendly people and cobblestone everywhere.

    My day started walking to find a grocery store for breakfast and snack items. If there’s a town that Lisbon reminds me of from a geographical perspective it’s San Francisco. there are hills everywhere! i’m staying in an older residential district near the city Central core. It’s a steep climb up or down in any direction for anything. The first grocery that I attempted to go to turned out to be torn down. I didn’t find a convenience store a little further up a hill and came home with the supply of fruits, cheese bread, and some dried apricots for trail food.

    after eating my breakfast, I decided to take a stroll and try to find the Lisbon cathedral before my scheduled 10 AM walking tour of old town Lisbon. According to my mapping software, I found the cathedral, but it was not open despite the fact that scheduled hours suggested it should’ve been opened by 9:30. Time was getting short for me to get to my walking tour so I decided to try to find the cathedral later in the day.

    my tour guide was named Thiago and he was a Lisbon native and a historian by trade. There were approximately 20 people in our group about half of which were US citizens. We also had couples from Canada, the UK, Germany, Czech Republic, Serbia, and Greece.

    among the things we learned was that Lisbon was actually the second oldest city in all of Europe behind Athens. It’s history dates back to over 3000 years ago that said, there is very little in the city that is over 300 years old because of a massive earthquake, tsunami and fire in 1755 that leveled the town and killed over half of it inhabitants.

    When the town was rebuilt, new reinforcing techniques were used and most buildings were built using a common plan so as you walk around, there are hundreds and hundreds of buildings that basically look the same.

    Lisbon is known for its tile work and cobblestones in Mosaic patterns. 

    Following the tour, I wandered around the city on foot, putting in a total of almost 12 miles on my non hiking day. I eventually found the Lisbon Cathedral. It was two blocks past the cathedral that I had stopped at mistakenly. I went in and got my pilgrim stamp so I can begin my walk tomorrow before the cathedral opens at 9:30.

    Many buildings used a common plan when the city was rebuilt after the quake of 1755.
    An elevator for dealing with the hills
    St George castle
    The “cursed” church has no crucifix by order of the Vatican
    Many structures have tile siding to help keep them cool and reduce spread of fire.
    Patterned cobblestone sidewalks
    More patterns
    The city’s fame for tile shows up in the gift shops
    Lisbon Catheral. Starting point for the Camino Portuguese
    Gate into St George castle
  • The LONG day

    The LONG day

    I woke up in Portland and sat down to dinner in Lisbon – 32 hours later. But let’s not get ahead of the story.

    For the most part, my flights were uneventful. My one fear was realized when I was asked to check my backpack. Fortunately, I was prepared for this and moved all of the essentials to my daypack, folded the straps backwards onto themselves and put the rain cover over the pack so that there were very few loose hoops or straps that could snag in the conveyor system. These efforts paid off when my bag arrived unscathed in Lisbon.

    I also used AirTags to ensure that my bag got on the same flight as me for each of the three legs of my trip.

    The leg from Portland to Reykjavík was long – 7 1/2 hours – and I was seated in economy. Fortunately Iceland air economy class at (least on their longer international flights) has a bit more legroom than many US carriers. Not so for my second leg from Reykjavik to Heathrow, as not only was there less space but the moment that we got to where people could put their seats back, the two people sitting in front of me dropped theirs as far as they would go, taking up half of my airspace. I really felt claustrophobic for those 2 1/2 hours.

    My third and final leg from Heathrow to Lisbon made up from a legroom standpoint, as I had reserved a row on the exit aisle with extra room.

    After retrieving my bag and clearing customs, I grabbed a cab and met Teresa, the host of the rooming house. My room makes my old college dorm room look spacious. It’s probably 6‘ x 9‘ in total dimension. The bathroom is shared and down the hall.

    Theresa recommended a traditional Portuguese. restaurant a few blocks away for dinner. After settling in, I went down to check out the restaurant although it was 6:30 PM. It was still a half hour before they were open for dinner. So instead, I took a walk around the old town of Lisbon.

    Five km later, I returned to the restaurant. I asked the waiter to recommend whatever was their favorite dish on the menu. I couldn’t pronounce it, and I didn’t recognize any of the words but a while later a giant slab of raw steak showed up sitting on top of a 1 inch thick hunk of superheated marble. It essentially is an opportunity for you to cook your own food to the temperature you desire. It was fabulous.

    I returned to my room, took a shower and after writing this post, I’m gonna hit the hay. It’s been a very, very long day. 

    My route to Reykjavik.
    The joys of sitting in an exit row
    Backpack the baggage system in a tote
    The view from my window
    My hone for the next two nights
    Colorful local conveyances
    The street is made of marble tile
    Statue of King Joseph I, 1833
    Sunset on the river Tagus
    Mosiac patterned sidewalks
    Go Ducks!
    Dinner at last
    Raw steak on a hot slab

  • Last minute details

    Last minute details

    I just had the line from “Leaving on a Jet Plane” pass through my head: “All my bags are packed and I’m ready to go…”. Since I’ve been practice hiking with my packed bag, that’s basically been true for the past month. But now it’s time to get serious and double check to make sure nothing has been removed that I won’t notice until a day or two on the trail.

    I recently discovered that despite purchasing my backpack because it was sized as carry-on item, Icelandic Air has a more restrictive standard and I’ll likely have to end up checking it at the gate.

    Fortunately, I’m bringing a small daypack that scrunches up to about the size of my fist. I will now have to move things around so that I use that as my carry-on (or personal item in case they don’t force me to check the pack). I’ll want to make sure my clothing, toiletries and electronics are with me – just in case my pack gets lost or delayed.

    I also stumbled upon a very helpful travel blog with tips for when you have to check a backpack. Unfortunately, I can’t find the link for it right now, but will add it later if I can. Their tips included making sure all of your straps are tightened and zipped inside of pockets, reversing your hip belt and shoulder straps so they go around the pack and help hold everything tight. By all means, try to avoid checking at the counter and instead, gate check so that your pack is less likely to be damaged in the automated baggage systems that frankly are a nightmare scenario for a backpack.

    I’ve been keeping a to-do list of absolute last minute things to take care of around the house Monday morning before I leave. I doubt I’ll sleep much Sunday night – I always sleep poorly the night before a big event – so I may get up in the middle of the night and tackle some of the things on the list.

    Since my flight doesn’t leave until after 3 pm, I’ve decided to utilize public transit to get to the airport. How often can you get a ride to the airport for $1.40 (honored citizen rate)? A short walk to the bus stop, a 27-minute bus ride to downtown and then 50 minutes on a train right to PDX. No stressing about an Uber driver showing up, no need to bother family or friends for a ride and no monster long-term parking charge when I return.

  • Final packing list additions

    Final packing list additions

    I’ve tried really hard to resist the temptation of adding things to my packing list. And for the most part, I’ve been successful. However, as my departure looms, I have given in and decided to add a few more things to make my stay more comfortable and enjoyable. collectively, these things come to 175g or just over 6 ounces.

    Vasoline – after reading several Travel blogs I decided having a small container of Vaseline is a good preventative in case of friction, both between toes and potentially arms or thighs if it gets hot and you get sweaty.

    Mini tripod – I’m being encouraged to try doing some video blogging and if I do, I’ll need something to hold my camera in a steady position. This little guy weighs less than 2 ounces and has flexible legs that will allow me to put it on basically any surface, including wrapping around a tree branch.

    AirPods, I do not intend to have earbuds plugged in as I’m walking, but if I want to listen to music in the evenings, I thought it would be useful to have something that would allow me to do so without bothering other people. At 65g this is the heaviest of the additions to my packing list

    Food container & spork – on a recommendation from the CaminoTellers blog, I decided bring to along a container to store food and means of eating things on the trail. I went with one of the disposable, lightweight food containers, which is roughly half the weight of a traditional Tupperware container.