Monday, 28.08.17. Lisbon, Portugal. 3 days until the wedding. Second full day in Europe.

Ah, Monday. Three days before our wedding and our third day in Lisbon! It was really nice not to have to go to work on a Monday or check email (#weddingweek – this would never happen otherwise).  Dan and I woke up relatively early and went to breakfast around 9, where we ran into a lot of our guests! I, of course, had another croissant with Nutella…

After breakfast at Hotel Avenida Palace, Dan, Craig, Pryor, Bryan, and I set off to explore Lisbon’s most charming neighborhood, the Alfama! We had planned to do no (or at least minimal) wedding stuff today and instead, tour Lisbon with our friends. This was quite fun and a very necessary wedding week break! Our (well really, my) tour started with a walk through Rossio and Figueira Squares, and eventually up to Sao Jorge’s Castle in the Alfama. Luckily, the weather was, once again, gorgeous.

After crossing the Baixa‘s Squares, we made our way into the Alfama and slowly to the top…we stopped along the way for photos, ceramic shopping, and the occasional wrong turn.

Approximately 1,000 pictures later, we made it Sao Jorge’s Castle – the castle overlooking Lisbon, purchased tickets, and went inside!  If anyone has not been, the views from Sao Jorge’s Castle are some of the best in all of Lisbon, and the views are really the reason to go! That being said, the castle, while a shell castle, is interesting and you can climb on its remnants (i.e. RUINS!).

There is also another Wines of Portugal cart stationed at Sao Jorge’s Castle. We obviously had to have a glass before climbing the castle walls…

We climbed all the way to the top of the castle for some more stunning pictures of Lisbon and, we ran into Dan’s parents and their friends! We headed back into the Alfama for some shopping after about an hour.

On our way out of the Alfama, we took in more amazing views of Lisbon, did some shopping, stopped for some Gelato Therapy at one of my favorite gelato shops ever, Gelato Therapy! I enjoyed the Pistacchio Siciliano Guarnito con Pistacchio Iraniano (Sicilian pistachio with Iranian pistachio) and Stracciatella. Dan ordered an affogato.

We eventually made our way into the Praça do Comércio just before it started pouring rain! We managed to snap a few pictures before heading into Wines of Portugal to escape the storm! Wines of Portugal is a shop specializing in, what else, wine from Portugal and we sampled their wine for about an hour.

Our friends, Jimmy and Cassandra, met us in Wines of Portugal and after a little over an hour, the rain stopped. We walked back to the hotel to meet Aunt Di, and the me, Dan, Craig, Aunt Di, Pryor, and Bryan walked 20+ minutes to the Barrio Alto for one of Dan and my absolute favorite restaurants – 100 Manerias!!

As mentioned, Dinner this evening was at one of Dan and my favorite restaurants, 100 Manerias. We always eat at 100 Manerias when we are in Lisbon and I made a reservation way in advance. As we usually do, we did the seven course tasting menu and wine pairing (a steal at less than €100/person). My favorite dish was a tomato and cheese dish served on a gorgeous plate; Dan’s was the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (or pigeon served three ways…).

As had become a trend, night 3 ended with light night drinks at the Hotel Avenida Palace bar. Another great day in Lisbon, and more friends had arrived! Everyone was excited to head to Ericeira the following day!

Stolen Photo Creds.: Joanne Cozzi.

For more on our wedding week, see my other wedding week posts: 

• Wedding Week Day 1: Finally in Lisbon Portugal
• Wedding Week: Day 2. A Tour of Belem and a Sunset Cruise on the Tagus River!