White Plains’ 4th Best Personal Blog

One of the truly unfortunate outcomes of our breakneck itinerary was that we barely had any time to spend in Portugal, a country in which I was fortunate to spend several days a few years ago and really, really enjoyed. Brianne had never been there, so I felt especially badly for her that we had essentially one afternoon to explore Lisbon before we were on the road again. Sometimes, I guess, such is the price of rock ‘n’ roll tourism.

Part of the reason we had such scant time in Portugal was that we had an epic journey from Seville to Braga, Portugal, where the next show was. Braga is a smallish city about 45 minutes drive northeast of Porto, which is about three hours’ drive north of Lisbon — I think you can see where this is going — which is about an hour-long flight from Madrid, which is about a two-and-a-half hour train ride from Seville. So it was literally planes, trains and automobiles; I think it was the trip both of us were simultaneously dreading and morbidly interested in seeing if we could actually pull off. Sure, we could have probably spent a boatload of money and found some sort of direct flight there, but what fun would that have been?

Recall that we hadn’t even gotten back to our hotel in Seville until nearly 4 a.m. because of the crazy late festival. Our train from Seville to Madrid — as it turned out, a very nice and highly recommended AVE — left at 8:45 a.m. So we were both a bit zonked by the time we finally pulled into Braga little more than an hour before that night’s show was to start. (Don’t even ask how we managed to find our hotel in Braga. We were armed with some generally unhelpful Google Maps directions and a tiny inset map that was part of the bigger map of Portugal we got from the rental car place. I recall a good amount of circling around and some silent prayer.)

Wilco certainly couldn’t have picked a more beautiful venue to make their debut in Portugal. The newly restored Theatro Circo was really nice, maybe the nicest venue we saw on the whole trip. I probably remember admiring the theater and wondering exactly who was going to come to this show more than the show itself, but it was a solid enough performance until the very end when Nels had either an amp or pedal malfunction and the show, which was probably about to end anyway, simply did.

Somehow we found a good restaurant still serving food after the show and, after being brushed off once, managed to get seated and actually eat a decent meal. (In the interim, we actually considered going to McDonald’s, which occupied a prime spot in Braga’s city center…but it was closing just as we walked up.) The next morning, we resisted the urge to sleep in and hustled out of Braga to maximize our time in Lisbon. Sorry, Braga.

That time turned out to be an afternoon, which is hardly enough time to spend in one of Lisbon’s three main sections much less get a feel for the city. Not to mention it was a warm Sunday, so the capitol was definitely in weekend mode. But we did our best, heading first to the Belém neighborhood about three miles west of downtown to visit sites like the Torre de Belém (Tower of Belém) and the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (Monastery of the Hieronymites), two of the best examples of Portugal’s Manueline style of architecture. One place I definitely wanted to get back to on this trip was the Pastéis de Belém café, where they have been serving the most delicious little custard tart — its namesake, pictured at the bottom of this post — since 1837. It’s sort of like the Café du Monde of Lisbon, and I can’t think of too many things in the world I would rather eat than a plateful of those things sprinkled with a little cinnamon and powdered sugar.

After Belém, we headed took a cab up the narrow, winding streets of the Alfama district to the sprawling Castelo de São Jorge. I think you can see the castle from just about anywhere in the city — we certainly could from our hotel window (see below) — and it was a good starting point for a short walk down through the Alfama. The neighborhood, which is Lisbon’s oldest and mostly survived the 1755 earthquake that rocked the city, features some stunning views and charming old-world streets that make up sort of a small village within a city.

There was so much else to see and do in Lisbon, but alas not nearly enough time. We settled for a quick dinner on Lisbon’s notorious “eating lane” (Rua das Portas de Santo Antão), where you can’t walk more than a few steps without being approached by a menu-bearing waiter. Normally I wouldn’t have gone there to eat, but the venue for that night’s show was, by coincidence, on the same street. And what a fun show it turned out to be! Jeff had mentioned on several occasions in Braga about how there were “plenty of good seats” available for Lisbon and we again worried about how many empty seats there would be.

Our seats were some of the best that we had on the entire run, which probably had something to do with our enjoyment of the show. But for whatever reason, the band was especially loose and fed off the small, but spirited crowd. I think the moment I will remember most was two kids, a girl and a boy, coming down to the foot of the stage for the encore. During “Spiders,” Jeff leaned down to them with his guitar, handed the girl his pick and proceeded to have her strum for about 20 or 30 seconds while he changed chords with his left hand. Maybe you had to be there, but it was very cool.

Afterward, we went out for an unexpected, but fun, drink with some people we met in the lobby and called it a night. Our hastily booked, rather pricey flight to Santiago de Compostela — via Madrid, of course — beckoned early in the morning…

Wilco//5-30-09//Theatro Circo, Braga, PORTUGAL//support: none

You Are My Face/Company In My Back/One Wing/Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard/IATTBYH/Pot Kettle Black/Radio Cure/Bull Black Nova/A Shot in the Arm/At Least That’s What You Said/Via Chicago/Impossible Germany/Jesus, etc./Handshake Drugs/You Never Know/Hummingbird//e: Poor Places>/Reservations>/Spiders (Kidsmoke)/The Late Greats/Heavy Metal Drummer/Hate It Here/Walken/I’m The Man Who Loves You

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Wilco//5-31-09//Coliseu, Lisbon, PORTUGAL//support: none

Wilco (the song)/IATTBYH/Company In My Back/Kamera/Handshake Drugs/Bull Black Nova/Radio Cure/You Are My Face/Pot Kettle Black/War On War/Jesus, etc./Impossible Germany/Sky Blue Sky/Hesitating Beauty/Say You Miss Me/Heavy Metal Drummer/Hummingbird//e: Ashes of American Flags>/Spiders (Kidsmoke)/You Never Know/The Late Greats/Hate It Here/Walken/I’m The Man Who Loves You