Oh, Lisbon…

As it turns out, Lisbon is not a city for dogs. But, dogs we have and travel we must, so we made the best of a less than ideal situation. Plus, how do we find out if a city is dog-friendly until we try?

First off, no person or book ever mentioned that Lisbon has cobblestone streets with hills steeper than San Francisco and when they get wet, they are slicker than ice. That information would have come in handy when Dan was renting a manual car 😊 But, he navigated the streets like a professional driver and we made it through without incident.

Our AirBNB was the sweetest 800 sq ft, but the door led onto a street the width of a tight alley with 12-inch sidewalks on either side and cars buzzing by at 30 mph. Taking the dogs out the door became an adventurous, albeit dangerous task that I was happy to come to an end. We had a stereotypical old Portuguese woman standing in the door next to us, always mumbling to us in Portuguese, in her housecoat and apron. She smiled occasionally, but she was ALWAYS there.

Lisbon is beautiful and old with her long history documented with gorgeous buildings and statues. The past greets you at the corner of most streets with architecture dating back hundreds of years. As a bonus, the Atlantic Ocean and the Tagus river make you feel like you are island-living. We even found a beach for an afternoon. Jezza loves himself a giant puddle.

The flip side is that because of the late 2000s financial crisis, Lisbon has found herself akin to a college graduate in her twenties. She is prepped with all the necessary tools for a giant breakthrough but hasn’t quite lived up to her potential and needs to be reminded to clean her room. Lisbon was hip, cool, grungy, smoky and needs a good wipe-down. Dan and I felt old walking the streets, and yearned to come back to our squeaky clean, mature Madrid.

All our photos are on the Photos tab. Make no mistake, Lisbon is full of the coolest street art to be found, amazing food, and scenery that takes your breath away.

Look for yourself…