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Mercearia do Campo de Ourique
We find excuses to explore the many bairros of Lisbon—the city, much like Paris, is more a collection of villages than one monochromatic town. Perched on a hill overlooking the lower quarters on the river, Campo de Ourique survived the earthquake of 1755 like a bear—it’s shaped like one, and for a while I thought…
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Ouro, Incenso e Birra, Marvila
Last year, the cold of early January struck us hard, but we warmed our hearts (if not our hands) by heading down to Marvila and wrapping those hands around a succession of beers. The Festa dos Reis put on by the Lisbon Beer District, featured Cerveja Musa, Dois Corvos, and Ceveja Lince—and I guess they…
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Ode To Adamastor
Lisbon’s both a reminder to me of so many cities in Europe, but also like no other place I’ve known. It’s the first Paris of my memories, the Budapest of my dreams. Some liken it to Rome, for its supposed seven hills. Way, way more hills than that in Lisbon. And all paved with calçadas…
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Ground Burger, Saldanha
We attack shopping at El Corte Inglês like it’s a major international expedition, which it is: We’re strangers in a strange land. It’s going into foreign territory to leave our quiet town and subject ourselves to the Mall. It takes planning, fortitude—and surely a reward at the end. For me, that’s twice now we’ve landed…
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Time Stop: Açores
Nothing prepares you for the scale of the Açores islands. A short, two-hour flight from Lisbon (or twice that from Boston), and you’re there—this impossibly green flotilla of masted ships clinging loosely to each other in the midst of the Atlantic. Only Terceira (“third” in Portuguese) is vaguely round. The remainder of the archipelago form…
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Belgians Near Barcelos
We drove past a handful of tavernas, looking for something a bit more than what we called the “one-bulb bar,” dimly lit by a single florescent light hanging on a twisty wire, with a grim trio of customers inevitably looking over dark mustaches and glasses of beer at our passing. We’ve actually spent a fine…
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Down To The Duque
Lisbon’s jam-packed with tourists, so they say, but I’ve made it to September, and have found that when you stay clear of the places people say “you should see,” and focus on the neighborhoods—“what you want to see,” the crowds fall away. On a calm Saturday afternoon, in the sleepy time between lunch and happy…
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Cheeseburger Day
As the United States goes, our most impactful export can’t be Coca-Cola, KFC, or even the mighty 747. No, arguably much better, I nominate the cheeseburger. The base sandwich may have originated somewhere else, but we drove its utter ubiquitousness—as well as its multiplicity of toppings and forms. In honor of what Twitter proclaimed to…
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Hurricane Season
The wind kicks up to 20 knots or so where we sit on the shady patio overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. I take a compass heading to point us to Key West, and pull up my Aero Wx app that shows the METARs and TAFs—the weather reports and forecasts—for a slew of Florida airports. The siege…
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A Sagres In Sagres
In Portugal you’re either a Sagres fan or a Super Bock one. But there’s no town called Super Bock. So, regardless of your heart’s affiliation (because there’s no accounting for any major taste difference), it seems a fitting rite of passage to raise a glass of Sagres in Sagres. We camped our way to the…