Day 2 – Tuesday 18 November 2025
Breakfast buffet at the hotel had everything.
The included Cosmopolitan Lisbon tour departed at 08:45 from the rear of the 1st Floor, and we’d been told to be by the coaches 15 minutes before. But there were conferences taking place and delegates were also heading to the meeting rooms on the 1st Floor. The automated lift system went into melt down and said there were no available lifts several times before crashing and rebooting.
Eventually all the group straggled onto the coaches and we set off. After 5 minutes or so of driving the coach had made a circle and we drove pass the front of the hotel. Traffic and the hotel location meant it took a long time to get to our first stop at the Tagus River.
We walked the short distance from the coach to the Belem Tower which was being cleaned. This castle had been in the middle of the river, but the earthquake of 1755 moved the river-course and it’s now bank side. This tour doesn’t visit inside the tower. Previous time we walked along the river bank to the nearby Monument of the Discoverers but we were shepherded back to the coach to go to the Maritime Museum where after a whirlwind tour, 40 minutes free time was announced. Some took the opportunity to walk 10 minutes to the Antiga Confeitaria de Belem Pastéis de Belém cafe, which holds the original recipe for the famous custard tart generally known as Pastéis de Nata.
We stayed in the museum coffee shop with a hot drink and a Pastéis de Nata, then the coach headed back to the hotel with a stop at the overlook I’d seen from the plane.
I think the truncated tour we’d had was because of the amount of time to get through the narrow and crowded roads from and to the hotel.
The hotel’s Olivae Restaurant & Terrace was open only for conference delegates so we had a snack in the Lobby Lounge. There’s a hotel shuttle to the city centre and a few minutes walk to the metro, but we didn’t want any more coach time and as we’d both been to Lisbon many times on business we had an afternoon walk to check local restaurants. There were several next to the hotel, but we didn’t fancy any as much as ERVA so we dined there again, this time having grilled cauliflower steak with almonds, bell pepper purée and herbs sauce.
We shared potato wedges as we couldn’t finish them the previous night and had only one salad. As we’d so much enjoyed it we again had a bottle of Quinta Da Devesa 2021.
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