Four days in LISBOA

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What an incredibly fantastic city! Five days here is not enough, but that’s all we had, so we were really 'on the go' all the time, walking a lot, took the tram sometimes up and down the hills and visiting the most important places in and outside town. We had splendid weather all the time - life was wonderful!

NOTES:

Labelled "The City of Emotions" Lisbon is a fascinating and comprehensive capital city with a population of about a million people. It also has many interesting museums and you most definitely need more than the 4 days we had there to see it all.

Baixa, Lisbon's old business hub, is the centre of town with neatly laid streets and big praqas. The praqas (square) work well as decorative bookends to new Lisbon, completely rebuilt after the earthquake of 1755 decimated it.

Alfama, Lisbon's most emblematic quarter with its medieval streets and great views. Its dense bedrock foundation helped it survive the quake and a walk through the district is a step back in time. Alfama has influenced many poets and novelists.

Bairro Alto is the only place in Lisbon that never sleeps, where the streets are crowded until well past midnight with pretentious intellectuals, teens and idealistic university students. This area is known for its celebrated casas de fado.

Fado. Lisbon's tademark entertainment is the heart-wringing fado, an expressive art combining elements of singing and narrative poetry. The origins of this melancholic style of song are still mysterious, but are believed to lie in the 19th century ballads. These ballads evolved from ancient times when Arabs and Greeks passed through Portugal bringing their music and song. Another theory of origins are African slave songs. Yet another, the Portuguese brought their music to Brazil and back to Portugal including the influence of Brazilian music. Fado music is accompanied by 12-string Guitarra Portuguesa (pear-formed, medieval lute like) and Viola(s) (classic guitar).

Thursday 28 July 2005

Left a cold, windy, grey and rainy London airport at 0900 (the flight was one hour late because of the fog) and landed in a warm and sunny Lisbon by midday. As we couldn't check in until 1500 at the VIP Eden apartment at Praqa dos Restauradores (we had booked this in advance), we left our luggage there and wandered down the main boulevard in Baixa, taking lots of photos already. What an amazing and beautiful city this is! Buildings clad in hand-painted tiles, huge squares with magnificent statues. A photographer's paradise.

Soon we saw a little restaurant perched up some stairs on the hill side and stoppped there for a light lunch. I had grilled sardines, being a very Portuguese dish, and a jug of sangria (which has always been my favourite drink). Kerry had another kind of fish dish and a couple of local draft beer. Then we continued up the hill on narrow, cobble-stoned streets to Bairro Alto, where we found a green oasis (park) to enjoy the view and some more groovy places to sample local delicatessen and drink more sangria.

Friday 29 July 2005

More walking, waking, walking because we didn't find the right bus station. (There are so many of them!) We wanted to visit the Maritime Museum and a few other attractions in Belem district.

The museum was founded in 1863 in order to promote the Portuguese maritime history. The collection began during the 18th century with the gathering of several ships of the Royal Navy. After spending some time in the museum we continued our walk to Padrao dos Descobrimentos, (Monument to the Discoveries) built 1960 as a memorial to the Portuguese maritime discoveries. Then another long walk to Torre de Belem, built as a fortress in 1515. It has Moorish-style watchtowers and battlements in the shape of shields and was a key element of the defensive complex at the mouth of the Tagus river. (The monument is classified by UNESCO as part of World's Heritage site.)

That night we had booked a dinner table at one of the best restaurants in Bairro Alto to enjoy the famous fado music. It was a great show and wonderful food. (We bought a CD from the guitar player.)

Saturday 30 July 2005

Took the train to Sintra, a cute little historic town (also awarded World Heritage status by UNESCO) about one hour away. Here we visited Palacio Nacional da Pena (the Pena Palace), a consummate specimen of Portuguese romantic architecture dating back to 1840, built 500 m above sea level. The style of the palace is a blend of Gothic, Manueline and Romantic influences which makes for a very explosive combination. To me it really looked like a true fairy tale castle. Many tile painting artists live and work in Sintra, so we had a good look around their studios and finally bought a little one with the wine God Bacchus painted in blue on it. We also paid a visit to the Museu do Brinquedo (toy museum) which has about 40,000 items on display. Finished our visit to Sintra with a lovely meal at the busy square, watching the horse-pulled carriages picking up and dropping off tourists.

Sunday 31 July 2005

A very late bacon and egg brekkie (about 12 noon) was suddenly interrupted by a very hefty break; a fight between the waiter and a Brazilian drunk customer. This resulted in a free bottle of wine for us as they overturned our table and the crockery was flying all over the place (but i managed to save my sangria glass!).

Our mission today was to take a closer look at Castelo de Sao Jorge (St George's Castle) on top of the highest hill of old Lisbon, Alfama. This castle is the first known fortification to be built and dates back to 138 BC. It was a real challenge to try to find the right way to the castle among the narrow, maze-like streets up the hillside. People would hang out their windows and point you in the right direction.

When we were finished with the castle we took the underground to the eastern end station to visit the Ocenario, Lisbon's Oceanarium opened to the public for Expo '98. Comprehending 8,000 animals, the Oceanarium integrates five main habitats; a huge central tank with about 5,000m3 of salt water representing the Open Sea, and four costal habitats which reproduce the rocky coast of the North Atlantic, the costal rims of the Antarctic, the kelp forest of the temperate Pacific and the coral reefs of the tropical Indian Ocean. VERY impressive! Finished off the day with watching the parade of 1,000 musicians that just happened to be there just that day! Lucky us!

Back home at the apartment, feet swollen and throbbing of all the walking. Kerry run a bath and stayed in the tub till I had finished the packing.

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