Portugal - Lisbon - Day 3

LOCAL SIGHTSEEING 

Although the alarm went off at 6:30am, I laid in till 8am. The weather was a bit cloudy and there was forecast of rains today. So we decided not to take any day trips out of Lisbon. Instead we planned to visit all the local site seeing spots. 

We finished our breakfast at the hotel and then we sat at the table in the lounge area for a bit. We searched for places to visit in Lisbon and then planned our route. Nimi wanted to visit the aquarium, so we started from there. 

Here is our itinerary for the day. 

1. Holiday Inn Lisbon, Av. de António José de Almeida 28 A, 1000-044 Lisboa

2. Parque das Nações, 1990-221 Lisbon (Aquarium)

3. Praça do Comércio, 1100-148 Lisboa

4. Belém Tower, Av. Brasília, 1400-038 Lisboa

5. Padrão dos Descobrimentos, Av. Brasília, 1400-038 Lisboa

The drive from the hotel to the aquarium was about 20 mins. It was a struggle to find parking as we could not park in the aquarium's parking. Which was odd, we needed a via Verde card to be able to park which was ridiculous, as we had tickets for the aquarium but could not park. So we had to find an off street parking instead. 

We bought parking for 4 hours this time (which was a lot more than we needed at this place). We had already bought out tickets online, so we did not have to queue up. We went straight in with our face masks on. Nimi and Niki were very excited to see all the fishes and marine life in there. 

We went to all the sections of the aquarium. Although there was a lot of hype about the place, we finished seeing it in under 40 mins. The place was not at all impressive and the reviews were fake. People were bragging about the place for no reason. That was €50 unwisely spent. 

     

We then made our way to the main Commercial Square of Lisbon. This is the iconic plaza where commerce boomed in the 17th and 18th century. We managed to find a parking space and then walked our way down to the plaza. 

After spending about an hour here, we decided to have some food. Deepika had prawns. 

We then drove to the Belem Tower. It was about 25 mins away. By this time the weather was getting cold and there was some light shower as well. Parking was free at the Belem Tower. It was getting very gusty, so we were not able to spend much time here.

We quickly made our way back to the hotel. We ordered some Indian takeaway via UberEats. The food was very good. We also opened our bottle of port. After a satisfying meal and some soothing drinks, we dozed off.