We kicked off the week taking a guided tour of the B-MAD Art Deco museum. It was exceptional for a small museum off the main tourist path. Rooms from the Craftsman Era through Art Nouveau to Art Deco. We didn’t know much about the history of these movements, but now know a little more and are very impressed, especially with the woodwork on display. An album of the museum tour is here.
After the museum tour, they offer a wine tasting. The museum is owned by the owner of the Bacalhoa winery in Setúbal.
We got dinner at a nice Lebanese restaurant in LX Factory called Barouk. Excellent food and a nice vibe.
As usual we walked all over, including down to the Belém Tower and back. When we were in Lisbon last year it was shrouded for cleaning and maintenance, but now appears to be open.
On Wednesday evening we went to a salon for Re. Punk, organized by its founder Sabine Seymour. She is trying to fight autoimmune diseases by building a movement with a non-profit arm and supporting innovators in the area.
Thursday morning Ben went up to the SIM conference in Porto, taking the early train and returning Friday night late. The SIM conference tries to bring together startups and investors in the Portuguese ecosystem, so Ben went up to meet folks. It was intense, but very enjoyable, and after the conference Ben got to meet up with one of the entrepreneurs he had mentored in 2025 in a Portuguese accelerator program. Ricardo had a beer while Ben ate his early dinner before his train, and they chatted about business and life.
Saturday we set off to find the restaurant at the top of Monsanto park that has spectacular views of the city. Sadly, the place is closed, but the walk was beautiful.
We hiked up and then went back down toward Lisbon, and we found the aqueduct. Sadly, one can only enter from the side opposite the one we were on (we still plan to do so another time), so we had to descend into the valley and climb back up the hill before grabbing the metro in Praça Marquês de Pombal and dropping down for dinner at our favorite from last year’s visit, Antiga Wine Bar. The dinner was almost as good as we remembered. All in all we walked over 12km, with over 330 meters of climb.
For those who want to see our trek on RideWithGPS, the first part is here, second is here.
Sunday was a quieter day and Ben spent much of it updating the travel blog with Claude’s help.
We feel so fortunate to have found the apartment we have. We have a view of the river so we can watch the boats and the winds all the time. With just a short walk we’re right on the water.
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