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Published: October 4th 2017
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Well, we didn't get our hoped for sleep last night...
At 2:30 am, a young man named Chris came home to the apartment above us and his wife proceeded to yell at him for the next four hours! What we learned from the shouting: They are Americans and about 32 years old, and use the F word frequently. Apparently Chris had contact with an girl from high school (whom his wife has never heard about until last night), and is his "best friend"...she may be in Lisbon; hard to tell from the accusations...We do know that Chris loves his wife (or least that he yelled that about 20 times over the four hours) and that his wife is having none of it. He finally told her to go to bed around 5:00 am and things quieted down...
We sincerely hope they have resolved their problems by tonight.... We were hoping to catch sight of them today as we feel we now know them quite well, but no luck..
We decided to follow one of Rick Steves' walking tours today instead of the bus tour which looked tiresome and was expensive...
We started out by wandering
downhill to the Church of
São Roque, then up to an overlook (being renovated and too noisy to stay for long), and back down hill to the former Convent of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, now an archaeological museum. We discovered a great public seating area behind the convent with views of the Santa Justa elevator. There was even a bar there, with fancy drinks and beer on tap...
"
The Igreja de São Roque is a Roman Catholic church in Lisbon, Portugal. It was the earliest Jesuit church in the Portuguese world, and one of the first Jesuit churches anywhere. It was one of the few buildings in Lisbon to survive the earthquake relatively unscathed. When built in the 16th century it was the first Jesuit church designed in the “auditorium-church” style specifically for preaching. It contains a number of chapels, most in the Baroque style of the early 17th century. The most notable chapel is the 18th-century Chapel of St. John the Baptist, a project by Nicola Salvi and Luigi Vanvitelli constructed in Rome of many precious stones and disassembled, shipped and reconstructed in São Roque; at the time it was reportedly the most expensive chapel in Europe." Wikipedia
The The Igreja de São Roque: Chapel of St. John the Baptist
"This chapel is considered one of the great attractions of the São Roque church due to how clearly it represents the influence of European art on Portugal in the 18th century. It combines aspects of the rocaille style into a structure notable for its austere neo-classical lines. It was ordered from Italy in 1740 by king João V, and had its official Lisbon inauguration in 1750. Italian architects Luigi Vanvitelli and Nicola Salvi oversaw a project which involved over 130 craftsman.
Before being dispatched to Lisbon, it was blessed by Pope Benedict XIV, in the Church of Saint Anthony the Portuguese. Three ships were used in its transport. The inlays and precious stones covering the entire chapel, on the specific request of the Portuguese court, are impressive. Among others, close attention reveals lapis lazuli, agate, alabaster, Carrara marble, amethyst, purple porphyry, French white black, ancient-green and ancient fault marble and stone types, diaspore and jade."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dD3wllOZEA Convento da Ordem do Carmo) is a former-Roman Catholic convent. The medieval convent was ruined during the sequence of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, and the destroyed Gothic Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Portuguese: Igreja do Carmo) on the southern facade of the convent is the main trace of the great earthquake still visible in the old city.
The nearby elegant Santa Justa Neo-Gothic iron tower was designed by Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard, an engineer from Porto who was a student of Gustave Eiffel. Originally powered by a steam engine, the elevator motor was converted to cleaner electric operation in 1907. Lisbon still has some older funiculars (i.e., inclined tramways) still in operation, but Santa Justa is the only remaining vertical urban lift. For some beautiful photos, since the line was too long today, and we did not go in the lift:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/santa-justa-lift-elevador-de-santa-justa_us_55d73457e4b08cd3359bb0ee
Next we wandered down to the upscale shopping district where I bought some body lotion from a Brazilian owned shop, and we had our first pastel de nata, basically an egg custard tart, but so much more!!
https://www.facebook.com/manteigariacamoes
We also stopped by the oldest brewery and the oldest
The Igreja de São Roque
The ceiling is wood and completely flat, but painted to give the illusion of an arch coffee shop. By the time we got home, we were more than ready for a nap, and slept like babies til dinner time.
Tomorrow the beach? It's unseasonably hot here still...
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Catherine DeLorey
non-member comment
say hello to Chris and wife
I also feel like I know them pretty well too just from reading your blog. The best part is that I got all the fun of reading about it and none of the sleep loss! Thanks for sharing. :)