Dinner at The Pharmacy

When we go away I always set MOH a challenge of finding us somewhere to eat, and when we went to Lisbon that was no different but there was an addition this time as it was our wedding anniversary while we were away and so our plan was to celebrate this while we were in Lisbon. The actual day was during the walk, and even I think that might have been too much of a challenge for him, but to be fair, the boy did good.

In fact he excelled himself, and it’s definitely a challenge I’ll be repeating on future holidays. His sense of direction though isn’t anywhere near as good as his restaurant choices, as he’d been trying to manoeuvre a walk past of this restaurant on our travels around Lisbon. And while we came close, when he set out to find it, i realised why he was heading in the wrong direction, and wouldn’t have it.

The restaurant of choice was The Pharmacy - or Pharmacia, not to be confused with The Old Pharmacy which his internal navigation system was veering towards. It’s in this pretty grand building, and is very popular. We didn’t have a booking, but thought we’d try our luck

We arrived at these ornate gates, which hadn’t registered on my gate scale at the time, and we were in luck. There was a bit of a wait but we were promised a table. Result.

While we were waiting I decided to check out the garden, which was mainly beds leading up to the gates and raised beds which acted as a retaining wall for the sloped grassed garden. And after a day in the sun, you can just imagine its scent.

I still don’t know the name of these pretty pink flowers, and I’m still fascinated by the square central parts of the white flowers. Unusual, and pretty aren’t they?

Much further away from the main part of the garden, and stuck out of the way I discovered this succulent beauty with its frilled edge leaves, and delicate pink colour. It’s a bit cabbage-esque isn’t it?

While I was still exploring and snapping parts of the garden our table became available, and so inside we went. The decor inside is eclectic and has a medical feel, which is carried through onto the menu, which arrives on a clipboard. Of course.

Check out the wallpaper. And the curiosities.

As we were celebrating (and to be fair even if we hadn’t been) we ordered cocktails. MOH went for an LSD which arrived in a medical looking receptacle, and my antihistamine arrived with the instructions to eat the flowers. OK…

They were great, and tasty as well as pretty. His tasted like cough candy, and mine was much preferred. Having seen the decor where we were, and in the main restaurant, I had high hopes for the loos. And the signs above the lift fed the anticipation. However, as it turned out, they weren’t anything special at all. I think this is because the restaurant shares the building with a municipal space, and well, the loos were distinctly uninspiring.

Back in the restaurant though, our table overlooked this cupboard which proved a popular stop for staff and something that provided a great people watching opportunity too.

The food was good, it was the sharing type and we had a good meal. I even took some photos, but let’s be honest there was no way he was sharing my matcha and pistachio panna cotta, which is an unusual pudding choice for me. I could have perhaps eaten at least another one.

But with these scales in sight, that didn’t happen.

Gates galore

You know when you become aware of something and then it’s everywhere you look? Like when you settle on a make of car, and then almost every other car is that make. Well, that happened on our recent walking holiday in Portugal. Not cars though, gates. And once we’d spotted one, the others just kept on coming.

The first was actually mentioned in our walking notes on day two; it said the gates might be shut and gave a detour. They were right, the gates were firmly shut, although the fence to the right had quite a large gap, and what looked like a track through. We contemplated it for a while, but on the reasoning that the gates were probably shut to stop walkers accessing the footpath, we decided against it as if we did encounter anyone we probably wouldn’t have had that warm a welcome. And more importantly, it could be a long way back retracing our steps. So instead we took the less exciting detour and missed the strawberry trees it seems - but we did take some time to admire the gates instead.

IT’S DEFINITELY SHUT

But then gates became a thing. The next is probably more accurately described as a garage door, but as it’s got a gate in front of it, I’m claiming it for this post. It was towards the end of the day’s walk as we reached Azeitão. I’m sure the pictures tell a story, I’m just not sure what it is…

A domestic gate - and garage door - in Azeitão

We stopped in the town for a refreshment or two, and could have quite easily have stopped a bit longer. But knowing we had a hotel to aim for, and reading ahead the walking notes promised some azure blue gates. Which we found easily.

The Bacalhōa gates in Azeitão

Aren’t they blue? And just look at the blue against the already blue skies. In the days to come we were to discover more blueness in the Bacalhóa estates, but for now just drink in the colour, and yes, as you probably guessed the wine also comes later.

We still weren’t at our second hotel of the walk, and with a quick glimpse behind us there were yet more gates. These only got a quick glimpse as by now, the beer consumed in the town was making its presence known, and so we were both keen to get to the hotel. We did see them a couple of times more though, as they became a bit of a marker on the walks that followed.

Ornate, but shy with it.

We also found the gates to nowhere.

The gates to where? In Azeitão

We reached the main road again and then before long we were at the gates of our hotel. We’d spotted the hotel soon after we saw the blue gates, but our route took us the long, and quieter way round.

Our Azeitão hotel

The next day we were off again exploring the town of Azeitão on foot. There wasn’t a shortage of gates that day , but only one set makes it into this post.

Azeitão town

We had three nights in the pink walled and ornately gated hotel, and for our second day based in Azeitão we took the longest, and prettiest walk to the coastal village of Portinho. Part of the route was through a convent, itself part-way up a hill. Seeing the gates was a welcome relief, until we got through them and saw the hill continued and was possibly even steeper. On the plus side we were no longer on the main road, and therefore some of this walk was backwards uphill to enjoy the views and to give our muscles a break. We’re not the only people that do that, surely?

The convent gates, but still more uphill walking

I’ll share more from the convent as it was beautiful and peaceful as you’d expect. Apart from the dog which wasn’t so keen on me. Everytime it barked I jumped, and I think it had some fun with me. MOH walked past it fine, but me not so much. In the end I took a different route giving the dog a wide berth, which suited us both.

Gates and Azulejo tiles

I’ve not shared any tiles here from our Portuguese trip, and we saw some fantastic tiles throughout our whole visit. I suspect that’s why. We saw so many that it’s hard to choose a selection, or even to know how to show them at their best. I’ve realised though that the best way, like life, is to just get on and do it, so here’s two pictures of Azulejo tiles, which show two completely different uses. And luckily, both are next to gates, so they qualify for this post too.

Beautifully stylish Azulejo tiles, and a rather functional gate by comparison.

The walk to Portinho was very picturesque and challenging at times, but it was definitely worthwhile. Though I was glad we weren’t walking back. There was time for dinner in the village, and then a taxi back to the hotel ready for moving on to our final hotel the next day.

We set off for Palmela the next morning and along the way encountered these ochre walls, which if I’m honest were more attractive than the gates. I thought we were in for a day of functional gates, and initially we were, but then things changed.

On our way to Palmela

Functional gates despite their extra width and the palm tree

Our walk took us along a ridge complete with windmills. Some were in ruins, others had been made into homes. And of course the ones that were now homes had gates. The first we saw was a typical country cottage gate, though not painted white, but the white of the windmill more than makes up for that.

A simple gate for a windmill

And further along, we were back to the gates we’d become used to, but this time with a windmill residence behind them. Our hotel for the next couple of nights was the Pousada in Palmela, which didn’t have gates as such, but as you’d imagine was at the top of a hill and no doubt quite a fortress in its day.

Gates as we’ve come to expect, and for a windmill too

For our final day of the walk we took a circular route around Palmela. Once again gates were used as markers in the walking notes, and after quite a lot of ups, I for one was pleased to see these as I knew that the route would be levelling out before descending again. They do look rather swan-like to me, do you see swans?

Anyone else see swans in these gates?

As we headed down again, sure of the knowledge of what goes down in these walks most certainly goes up again, I deployed the tactic of snatching a break by taking some photos. And yes, more gates.

A few repairs underway

We went up and over the ridge with the windmills from the previous day and I was sorry to see them go until I realised that we’d be walking past the gates, quite literally, of Quinta do Piloto another winemaker, and one which was open to visitors and had a shop. You can just feel my interest peaking can’t you? We made a plan to buy a bottle of wine for our hotel room picnic, as after a week or so of eating hotel breakfasts and good dinners, neither of us could say we were truly hungry, and I was done with walking up and down (or rather down and up) hills.

Quinta do Piloto, the wine was as good as the gates

I always make sure there’s plenty of room to squeeze a bottle of wine into MOH’s rucksack. Even if that means decanting some empty water bottles into my own bag, and as we left, him laden with just one bottle of wine (and if you remember, it was the one that the cork broke) my last gate picture was of this rather magnificent (and yellow) looking house, of course, complete with gates.

Fancy and belonging to a yellow house, I was always going to include these

So there you go, plenty of gates from the Setubal Peninsula, if gates and ironwork are your thing, then you know where to head.

Overlooking the rooftops in Lisbon

I’ve finally made a start at editing my photos from our trip to Portugal at the start of June. I know, it’s taken me a while, but with so many photos I haven’t really known where to start. Eventually I worked out that the best thing to do was actually start, and so I have. And I’ve been quite traditional about it and I’m sharing some shots of the first place we stayed in Lisbon. Actually we only stayed in one place in Lisbon, but it was the first place on our trip.

I’m much more partial to an apartment than to a hotel. It gives us the flexibility to eat what and when we want, and even if we want - sometimes our days feel like they’re punctuated by food, and quite often it’s hard work fitting in three meals. Then on other days, it’s no problem at all! Anyway, once again i’d found a great looking apartment in Portugal, and I was later to recall the great lights in our Porto apartment - hold onto that thought, we’ll come onto the lights.

But first the view. I’d specifically chosen this apartment over another for its garden. As it turned out, while it was nice to look down on we never actually stepped inside it, despite its inviting shade in the mid-thirties heat.

The pastel buildings in the street behind us proved to be a good foil for the garden’s lushness, the blue of the sky and the terracotta tiles. And it was a view I was quite enthralled by, so seeing it from ground level and without air conditioning didn’t seem quite so important.

The bedroom had a juliet balcony, and if we didn’t have the air conditioning on (it’s nice, but it gets on your nerves doesn’t it?) the door was often ajar, but even so it framed the view nicely.

I could take many pictures of roof tops and their tiles, and I probably have taken countless similar shots over the years, but I’ll never tire of them. But I wanted to share more than the view outside, as the furnishings inside are also worth seeing. In the small dining area, the copper light and tubular chairs added a certain panache to our first impressions of the space.

The red lacquered wall hanging in the bedroom was a great way to add some interest, colour and design to a quite plain space (excluding the view, obviously!) It was the sort of piece that your eye could just wander over and explore, without ever finding the reason why, or losing interest.

Throughout the apartment red was used to add colour, and it’s here that we start to get onto the lights. Clearly the Portuguese have a thing for great lights, or I just have a knack of choosing apartments with great lights. I’ve a feeling it’s probably the former, I mean, just look at these bedside lamps.

Simple, modern and effective. And easy to replicate.

In the living space we were spoilt with a couple of free-standing lamps. This silver coloured ‘branch’ light and the giant anglepoise lamp, which I totally fell in love with. I’d seen them before in magazines and online, but didn’t really get them, or the need for the size. Now though, I’m sold.

It’s a design classic - whichever size you go for - and it’s an easy and effective way of adding light, and style, to the right space. Overall, as I said before, the Portuguese have great lights…