Moscatel de Setubal

Tiles:

 

The trip to Lisbon has reinforced for me the good decision to use mosaic tiles on both the buildings and the platforms of my layout.

 

 

 

 

For, tiles abound in Lisbon. The buildings are covered with ceramic tiles, 'azulejos', in the way bathroom and kitchen walls are in the UK.

Why?

I haven't done much research on this but it seems that the purpose was originally aesthetic but that coincidentally they offer protection against the weather.

Apparently, Portugal is the place to find them. My photos of various buildings in Lisbon do not do these tiles justice so I have included below a couple of great photos from the web.

First my photos:

And now some spectacular ones from the web.

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Last night's meal:

This restaurant was meant to be superior to last night's. It wasn't. It was OK, the staff were nice but the modernistic décor and some of the presentational affectations just irritated me. It was poncy.

I was determined to try codfish as it is referred to all over Portugal. It was OK. Nowhere near as good as last night's octopus.

My new favourite aperitif: see below

Smoked sausage omelette for starter

Codfish

Price per head including wine and totally unnecessary extras: £25

By the way: diners were smoking in this restaurant. Not a problem.

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Moscatel de Setubal:

Bought a bottle of my new favourite aperitif, Moscatel de Setubal, at the duty free at Lisbon. Cost about £4 per bottle. And this one was a 2008 vintage. Only slightly more alcoholic than table wine.

Made primarily from the Muscat grape, served chilled and usually opened after 5 to 6 years.

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Currently listening to:

Spent the whole flight home listening to all the Alex Smoke I've got on my iPod. Hypnotic.