retiredmartin

March 2024. Setubal. Portugal.

Day 4 of our Portugal trip, and I bravely took a bus the 3 hours  down the coast to Lisbon, fortified by 3 espressos and a huge pastry at Porto’s impressive coach station.

Flix buses are reliable, comfortable and cheap (£28 for 2), in stark contrast to Vectis buses on the Isle of Wight.

Unfortunately the local Sunday buses from Lisbon to Setubal aren’t quite as reliable, and hour late and then a huge fuss on boarding as a couple of fellow Brits fell foul of “cash only, exact change only” and gamely tried to split a 50 euro note

Luckily I had a tenner, so I only lost a euro but that loss still hurts.

Portuguese roads are impressive, and the bus to Setubal takes you over the Tagus on the EU’s longest bridge.

Setubal is stunning, as we’ll see shortly, but your reason to visit is Choco Frito, which sounds like those Cadbury frog bars but is actually fried cuttlefish.

We had a huge lunch in the first Choco cafe in town,

where a huge portion of yummy soft squid like tubes, chips, salad, wine, “craft beer” (Sagres), coffees and a liqueur cost less than £30.

Choco is everywhere in one of Portugal’s top seaside towns,

including this takeaway where the Super Bock is served in porcelain mugs (Google reviews say “warm beer”).

But the best place to see (dead) fish is the indoor market,

not for the squeamish, but I didn’t sense there were many squeamish folk here

But is there craft beer in Setubal ?

Er.