Blogs from Lisbon & Tagus Valley, Portugal, Europe - page 8

We head for the Santa Justa lift, which from the distance looks like a very modern steel tower near the centre of city. On closer inspection it seems that it's a bit older than it looks. We read that it was opened in 1901, and was one of two similar structures built to make it easier for people to get up and down the steep hills on either side of the city; the other one's since been demolished. There's a long queue to board it, and we remember the man from the apartment rental company telling us that we could climb the streets behind it and get almost the same view, so we decide to run with that instead. We head up into the aptly named Barrio Alto - the High Neighbourhood. We reach a square ... read more

Lisbon is a lovely city. My plan was to taxi to the Saint George Castle and follow Rick Steeves guide. Instead there was a Hop on Hop off bus right outside the pier so I hopped on…….and never hopped off. Didn’t realize that it’s route was in the “modern” part of the city. Lisbon suffered a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami. The city was virtually destroyed and 30,000 people died. It was rebuilt in the baroque style and it is now a wonderful blend of old and new architecture. At every place the bus stopped there were large crowds waiting to get on and very few of us got off. The plan was to ride the circuit and then return to a great jumping off place. The traffic was awful, the crowds were awful and the bus ... read more

Today we decide to head to the town of Sintra, which is about a half hour train ride from Lisbon. We kill some time waiting for our transport wandering through the very large and attractive Rossio Square next to the station. We pass through Benfica station, which is also the name of Portugal's most famous and successful soccer team. We read that it has fourteen million supporters worldwide, which is more than the entire country's population. The taxi driver who drove us in from the airport told us that Portuguese people only go crazy when they're doing two things - driving and watching soccer. Benfica was particularly successful in the 1960s when Eusebio, who's generally regarded as one of the greatest soccer players of all time, played for them. Taximan told us that he's buried in ... read more

We decide to break up today’s drive back to Lisbon by taking a long detour off the main motorway to the town of Beja. As we get into the car a map suddenly flashes up on the dashboard. It seems that our chariot has a GPS. Hmmmm. It might have been handy to have discovered this a week ago rather than today when we have to take it back. The low hilly countryside around Beja looks like fertile agricultural land; most of it's covered in vineyards and olive trees. We park in one of the main squares in the historic town centre. It‘s Sunday and the whole place looks like it‘s still asleep; there's hardly anyone around and none of the shops are open. Even the church seems to be closed. We start to wonder whether ... read more

Lisbon has trams like Melbourne had a half century ago and so we have trammed up and down the hills of this beautiful city seeing all the sights. They provide a great way to get around the city and are very popular with the tourists. The screeching of the wheels and rattling around brought back memories of the old w class trams I used to catch each day to school. Though these ones are a lot smaller and less comfortable​. But a lot of fun. Mentioning tourists though, Lisbon is a seething mass of tourists from all over Portugal, the rest of Europe and the world generally. They fill the cafes and restaurants, the trams, streets and bars. If the tourists were all to suddenly go away this place would grind to a halt and unemployment ... read more