I love cloisters, and perhaps my favorite anywhere is in Lisbon at the Monastery of Jerónimos. In this clip, I marvel at the beauty spice-trade money could create 500 years ago. There are gorgeous cloisters all over Europe. Which is your favorite?
This is Day 41 of my “100 Days in Europe” series. As I travel with Rick Steves’ Europe Tours, research my guidebooks, and make new TV shows, I’m reporting on my experiences in Italy, Portugal, France, Ireland, England, Scotland, Germany, Switzerland, and more. Thanks for joining me here on my blog and via Facebook.
My favorite new eating place in Lisbon is a market turned into a food circus for foodies. The venerable Mercado da Ribeira hosts the Time Out Market. Here’s a quick stroll through a fun selection of fine places for a budget meal. You can enjoy €10 plates here with enthusiastic locals.
For a sneak peek at the 2017 edition of Rick Steves Portugal, here’s my guidebook writeup:
Gourmet Food Circus Mercado da Ribeira (a.k.a. Time Out Market): The big news on Lisbon’s eating scene is the transformation of the traditional farmers market at Cais do Sodré into a gourmet food circus. The boisterous and venerable market survives in one half of the industrial-age, iron-and-glass market hall, while the other half has been taken over by Time Out Magazine, which has invited a couple dozen quality restaurants to open stalls here. The produce and fish market is open from 7:00 to 13:00 (closed Sunday and no fish Monday), and the restaurants are open daily from 12:00 to 24:00. Join the young, trendy, hungry, and thirsty crowd grazing among a wide variety of options. Groups can split up to order and then share a table in the center — food-circus style. The north wall is a row of stalls run by five big-name Lisbon chefs (well worth consideration — enticing dinner plates for €10) but enjoy surveying the entire market: Honorato (fine burgers), O Prego da Peixaria (fish and steak sandwiches), Sea Me (famous for seafood), Aloma (in the west outer aisle for the best pastries), and Santini (the venerable Portuguese Italian ice cream). Get wine and beer from separate stalls in the center. You may find affordable percebes (barnacles) at several seafood stalls. Eating here on disposable plates and at long, noisy picnic tables is far from romantic, but the quality and prices are great. Mercado da Ribeira (like many locals, I resist calling this historic market by its new “Time Out” name) is conveniently served by the Metro (Cais do Sodré stop), tram 15E, and a ten-minute walk from Praça do Comércio. If heading to Belém, it’s a convenient stop before or after. If here for dinner, the crazy Pink Street lined with clubs and bars is lively late and just two blocks inland.
This is Day 5 of my 100 Days in Europe series. As I research my guidebooks and make new TV shows, I’m reporting on my experiences and lessons learned in Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Romania, and beyond. Find more at blog.ricksteves.com.
Just as I was an expert picnicker as a young backpacker, I’m realizing older backpackers — who are packing a little extra taste and money — find themselves seeking out wine-bar “picnics,” delightful plates of fine local cheeses and meats to match the local wine. Wine bars are popular all over Mediterranean Europe these days. Here’s a video clip of one I really enjoyed in Lisbon. And, for a sneak peek at the 2017 edition of my Rick Steves Portugal guidebook, see the listing below. (I’ve added the listing for a wonderful new bakery that only serves the favorite local custard pie — which is two blocks away and provides a great and cheap capper to your “foodie’s picnic.”)
Lisbon Winery Wine Bar and Tapas is a new and casual little hole-in-the-wall with a passion for the best wines, cheeses, and meats — finger food served on a slab of wood or slate with a thoughtful explanation. Along with its quality local ingredients, it has cork walls, a 500-year-old cistern under glass flooring, and fado music playing; it’s a perfect storm of Portuguese culture. Alex, a sommelier, is evangelical about the wide variety of Portuguese wines and ports he serves and how they complement the tasty ingredients. Just tell him your budget and he’ll work within it. I recommend two people pay €20 each for a complete array of cheeses, meats, and wines (daily 12:00-24:00, Rua da Barroca 13 in Bairro Alto, tel. 218-260-132, www.lisbonwinery.com). Cap your experience by tossing a cork into the cistern.
Manteigaria Fábrica de Pastéis de Nata is simply the best place in town for Pastel de Nata — everyone’s favorite local pastry. The key here: they only serve one treat and constantly churn the lovable little €1 custard pies out of the oven. You eat it not reheated warm…but original “hot-out-of-the-oven” warm. While here, enjoy a look at the busy little kitchen (on Rua Loreto just off Praça Camões, daily until 24:00).
This is Day 4 of my 100 Days in Europe series. As I research my guidebooks and make new TV shows, I’m reporting on my experiences and lessons learned in Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Romania, and beyond. Find more at blog.ricksteves.com.
I love how Europeans embrace their culture with such expertise, passion, and abandon. This quick video clip demonstrates what I mean: After a busy day of showing me around, my Portuguese guide, Alex Almeida, is up against a cork wall enjoying what she calls “heaven in a glass” — a 55-year-old white port. This is the kind of pure cultural joy we experience as we get to know different lands and different people. Thanks, Alex, for sharing what I’m sure is a life-long memory.
This is Day 2 of my 100 Days in Europe series. As I research my guidebooks and make new TV shows, I’m reporting on my experiences and lessons learned in Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Romania, and beyond. Find more at blog.ricksteves.com.
Each time I visit Lisbon, one of my projects is to review the many fado opportunities so those with my Rick Steves Portugal guidebook get the best late-night memory. Fado is traditional folk music that reflects Portugal’s bittersweet relationship with the sea. You can go to a fancy show in a fancy upscale restaurant for lots of money. But I like the free shows, deep in the characteristic and rough-edged neighborhoods. Here (at Restaurante A Baiuca in the Alfama, listed in my guidebook) the woman who owns the place is joined by her cooks, while the headwaiter sings at the door (along with a neighbor in the middle of the restaurant who dropped by tonight for the open mic). And they even invite the tourists to sing along “in English”…la, la, la, la, la.
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.