Bought Out The Restaurant - Leisurely Sunday

Ever had a whole restaurant to yourselves for Sunday lunch? We did yesterday. We had the most relaxing day, again in Lisbon. We decided that we'd make a trip to the botanic gardens and lie under the trees reading our books. We left the B+B around 12:30 after a very leisurely breakfast, a little nap, ages getting ready and then strolling out the door - heaven when you're used to doing everything to a tight schedule. We walked for about ten minutes and then the overpowering heat meant we needed to sit down for beer, water and coffee! Those who know us well will never believe who had what. After a lovely hour on the Lisbon version of the Champs Elysees - Avenida de Libertade, we ambled a little further, though we were under strict instructions from my sister that lunch had better be soon or crankiness would ensue. When Sinead and I began to see the approaching signs, we were in the middle of the commercial district with very few food choices unless we were prepared to pay 99 Euro a kilo for lobster and unfortunately that isn't in our price range just at the moment. Anyway we spotted a potential neighbourhood restaurant with a sign outside which said open and the prices looked reasonable, but we couldn't open the door. We kept rattling the handle, but nothing. We tried calling in the window as we could hear life inside - nothing. In desperation, because my sister was getting seriously ratty now, we even attempted climbing in the open French windows which were about 3 feet off the ground to the delight of the old lady cleaning her front step, just next door. Sinead is the most athletic of the three of us, but even she found the table and chair arrangement just by the French window impossible to hurdle. Some higher power obviously took pity on us then, as they decided the eejit foreigners had been tortured enough and the door was opened.

We arrived in to a very traditional Portuguese restaurant, a big long room with linen covered tables, a tv at one end of the room and an aquarium at the other. We ate a very pleasant meal and had a great girly chat, one of many on this holiday and had the whole restaurant to ourselves for about 3 hours. There wasn't a single other paying customer in there. The waiter told us, it's August and his regular Sunday clientele is at the beach for the day or on holiday themselves. Their main business he said is Monday to Friday. I was amazed they bothered opening for three foreigners only, but it was fantastic. Just in case you want a similar experience Forno Velho .

We did make it to the botanic gardens at around 5:30pm and it was dim and cool and quiet with lovely woody smells and we wandered around aimlessly for a while. Perfect!