Quiet and Clean
The Ibis Lisboa Liberdade

I flew into Lisbon on Christmas Day.  While the tourist office at the airport was closed, the buses were still running.  For €3 [$4.40], I took AeroBus 91 from the airport to a couple blocks away from my hotel.  (The bus even lists the hotels on a screen and calls them out at every stop--very easy!  And the AeroBus ticket is good for the rest of the day, so I hopped on and off other buses while getting my bearings.)
	I stayed at the Hotel Ibis Liberdade.  It was easy to get to (just a few blocks of uphill walking from Avenida da Liberdade), entirely non-smoking, fairly cheap (€61 [$89] a night), within walking distance of the city center, and available (unlike many of the cheaper places I e-mailed).  I stayed in Room 401 my first night. Now that I know how easy it is to use the buses in Lisbon, I could have stayed elsewhere, but this was still a good choice. I had only stayed at an Ibis hotel once before: the one in Versailles, France, in 2001.  At the time, that one wasn't air-conditioned.  This one was, AND it had a window that opened!
My Christmas gift from the hotel was a bag of chocolates and a toiletry bag!  Pretty nice!
	Here I am in my room.  It was small but quiet (and private).  I slept very well!  The bed was good.
This picture shows the TV (which got 13 channels, including CNN, Franch 24, Eurosport, and other channels in Portuguese, Italian, and German), the mini-couch, the desk, chair, and working double window.  Yes, that was my only luggage!
The bathroom was small but functional.  The shower in my first room (401) was one of the best I've ever had: hot and with a wide, powerful showerhead.  The only negative was the tub filled up before I was done, so I had to stop and let the tub drain before finishing!
On my last day in Lisbon, I had an early morning flight (too early to take public transportation to the airport).  The hotel check-out was easy, and the desk clerk called a cab for me.  It arrived less than 5 minutes later and whisked me to the airport in less than 15 minutes.  The meter read €6.85 [$10], but I was so happy not to have been ripped off, I gave the cab driver €8 [$11.70] (a big tip for Portugal, I know, but I really dislike taking taxis and had been dreading this ride).
On to the next pictures!