They've Gone About as Far as They Can Go

We looked at the restaurant menu and it was all in Portuguese.
“May I help you?” asked the waiter.
“Yes, we’d like to eat. Do you have English menus?” (Many places have English menus or translations on their menus.)
“No, I am sorry we do not. But I will be glad to translate anything you have questions about,” replied the waiter.
So we sat down. He handed us the Portuguese menus. He quickly left.
He returned five minutes later and said, “So, what would you like to eat?”

 

I think I have blogged sufficiently about history, at least enough for you readers and for myself. I have also mentioned that there are days at a stretch where we seem suspended between the 12^th and 17^th Centuries. The only thing that reminds us of the 21^st Century is the breakfast buffet at our hotel. By the way, we have made an art out of getting one’s monies worth from our “breakfast included” buffets.

We really can’t complain about any…if there is yogurt, cereal, cheese and croissants, then we are set. Something I can’t quite get used to is lunch meat at breakfast. I have trouble with lunch meat before 11:30am. Europeans happily make lunch meat sandwiches at 8am, I have to avert my eyes. (I can’t take peanut butter or catsup before noon either. No problem in Europe, they appear oblivious to both. They do have a penchant for mayo on their French fries. And we saved them in WWII?)

I do love the cheeses they set out for breakfast. Lots of types and I find that cheese and tomatoes are a fine breakfast addition…along with everything else we eat. Coffee for me is lifeblood. I like its taste, not just for the caffeine, so I looked forward to the European presentation of coffee. I could have saved my anticipation. They use these machines in European hotels so that you can have the countless varieties of coffees. Coffee con leche. Coffee con chocolate, Coffee con carne. Really? You put your cup under the machine. Select the blend you want, t makes noise like a Hoover sweeper and without fail it is coffee with milk. No matter how it is described or whether milk is poured first or second…it is still coffee and milk. Save your energy Europe. Just put out some coffee in a pot. Put milk along the side. (I did ask for cream at one place, they gasped like I had requested the Queen’s Royal diamonds. What I meant was “cream” not cream.) Currently at this hotel, we have the complex “Coffee con….whatever” AND a rather nice cappuccino machine AND regular coffee and warm milk for it. Though I have a sneaking suspicion that coffee is later used to clear the shower stall calcium build-up.

In one of the more isolated towns we visited….which was rather down on its luck in the off-tourist season gave us a breakfast of lunch meat, three slices of apple (split three ways between Makaila, myself and the owners wife, I think). A slice of cheese. A slice of toast and coffee. But they redeemed the place by having killer wifi.

But I digress…so after clearing out the breakfast buffet each morning and leaving all lunch meat to our European fellow travelers…we venture over to the Aquarium here in Lisbon. It had the fancier name of “Oceanarium but it was an Aquarium and it was excellent and demonstrated the Portuguese historical dependence on the ocean for their trade. Makaila had chosen this and instead of viewing say, anther 13^th century cathedral which no doubt was the scene of some horrifying incident of religious intolerance in (pick your century) we opted for “modern” on this day.

First off we walked a couple blocks to Lisbons subway, the Metro. It is great. Big. Clean. Efficient. Nearly readable instructions in English and a reasonable price. If you can figure out a countries subway system, you feel like you have just negotiated world peace. A 15 minute journey to the far east side of town deposited us in this ultra modern development from 1997, now called The Park of Nations. It seems that Portugal hosted the Lisbon Expo of 1998 and thus totally redeveloped the waterfront on its East Side now called the Park of Nations.

Metro. Huge Vasco da Gama shopping mall. It was rather surreal to see his burial vault one day over on the west side of Lisbon in a medieval cathedral and to read of his naval exploits at the Maritime Museum next to that and then to see his namesake on a “modern cathedral” (shopping mall) over on Lisbon’s East side…all within 24 hours.

Walks along the River Tejo shore, which miles away empties into the Atlantic. Lots and lots of trees and different types of children’s parks and exhibits. A “lively restaurant district” as they called it and I am sure it is in the summer, just not on a Monday afternoon in early March. A wonderful sky ride in gondolas over the water and along the shore. Very modern condos which look like modernistic sails (very hard to describe). Lots of new offices and streets and to anchor it all…pun, perhaps intended. A 20+ story Vasco da Gama monument.

On Saturday we were in some of the most quaint “old town” neighborhoods that we have experienced in Europe and then on Monday in some of the most “American-modern type” developments that we have seen on the continent. I hasten to add that being “American-like” is neither bad nor good. It works for us but may not for Europe. But more than any other big city European nation that we have visited, Lisbon seems to have grasped the yin and yang of modern and ancient and appears to be comfortable with the differences.

And what else could be better than to have CSI Miami reruns on your hotel TV…in English!? (Portuguese subtitled) This country is self actualized when it comes to blending the old and new.

Peace, Bob