After our aborted attempt to take the train to Toledo, we wanted to book our tickets to Porto well in advance, and in person. So first thing this morning (and by “first thing”, I mean 11:30 – we’re on vacation, after all…) we took the Metro to Santa Apolonia train station to book tickets with a real live person. I know that’s old school, but sometimes that’s best. Note the cool cork seats on the Lisbon Metro … and the old fart sitting on them.

Turns out it was a good idea to talk to a living person. The app was ready to sell us tickets, but the live agent simply said “strike”. There is an ongoing rail strike in Lisbon and our train might have run on schedule, it might have been delayed, or it might have been cancelled without explanation or recourse. When we asked what we should do, he simply said “bus”. So it was back to the hotel to consider our next step. But first, it was time for lunch on the street just outside our hotel. It was a pleasant day, and it felt even better when we checked the weather and discovered it was snowing at home.

After a little research (thanks Jan) we discovered there were two bus lines that ran hourly buses to Porto, leaving from the Lisbon Oriente station. It was possible to book tickets online but … you can probably see where this is going – after our previous experiences we were reluctant to book anything without talking to a live person. And a dry run to see how long it took to get to the Lisbon Oriente station just seemed like a good idea. So, after lunch, we were off. Along the way, we were treated to some of the lovely art in the stations.

It took a while, but we found the bus station, and eventually we found a ticket booth with a person in it. I’m happy to say that our tickets are booked, and we’re all set, at half the price of the train. Then it was back to our hotel. Lisbon is rather hilly, it turns out. Our hotel is in a relatively flat area, but on either side there are very steep hills. Here is a view of the castle – Castelo de S. Jorge.

And since this was a dry run day, we decided to take a look at the apartment we’re staying at when we come back from Porto. It’s quite close – about half a kilometer. It looked like an easy walk, and it would have been too, but for one small detail. It looked flat on the map, but it certainly wasn’t flat in reality. Our first hint of things to come was a short stairway and buildings rising up to the sky…

Note the innocent looking stairs on the lower left of this picture. But when we got to the top, we discovered …

… stairs, and then, more stairs.

And after that, even more stairs.

After several rest stops, we finally made it to the apartment, and then we had to head back down to our hotel, for a rest before dinner. Speaking of dinner, on our travels we came across a small restaurant, just a little off the beaten path, with Portuguese specialities and we decided to have dinner there. We were very pleased with out meals – I opted for the seafood skewer.

I’ll close with this thought. You may be thinking this was a wasted day, spent working out travel details. But when we travel, we like to pretend (just a little bit) that we are locals, living our lives in the city. And that is what we did today. Riding the Metro, deciding where to eat, and figuring out how to work around the ongoing strikes. So I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

For tomorrow … who knows.