Lisbon

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As the dreary mid October weather in London hits us, we fight back by taking off for a weekend trip to sunny Lisbon, and it didn't disappoint. A couple of perfect 25 degree days were great for sightseeing around the capital of Portugal, a city with a rich history and whilst small in numbers, quite a sparse and spread out city with many windy, hilly streets to tire us out. In the 16th Century, Lisbon was the centre of the world, the Portugese empire the largest and the conquerers of the sea thought they were invincible. 400 years later and it seems they are now famous for not much more than Peri Piri chicken and Christiano Ronaldo - somewhere things went horribly wrong for the Portugese. Unbelievably though, we did not see a single Nandos in Lisbon.

First thing we did in Lisbon was hit the Castelo de São Jorge, an 11th century castle (albeit re-built - as most of the city was - following the 1755 earthquake that destroyed 85%!o(MISSING)f Lisbon). The castle was, to me, just another castle, but it did have 2 great aspects to it. Firstly, it was on a steep hill in the middle of the city - so the views were fantastic - and secondly, one of the towers contained a periscope. I'd never seen a periscope before and was fascinated as we received a full demonstration of 360 degree zoomed in views of the city. It was so clear we could even see into peoples houses and cars. We got a full tour of the city without moving.

After the steep walk down the castle, we stopped in one of the many pastry shops for a custard tart, which is a Portugese specialty apparently. It was quite good. Apparently the ones in the Belem neighbourhood are the best though. We saw the queues in the shops there though and decided it wasn't worth the wait.

We took a trip up the Elevador de Santa Justa which took you from the Baixa or town centre up to the Bairro Alto or upper quarter. The view from the top of the elevator was great looking back towards the castle. Lisbon reminded us of Salvador, Brazil, with its pastel coloured houses and even the elevator, as Salvador has the same thing in its town centre.

Bairro Alto is where the nightlife of Lisbon and we didn't hang around too late to see just how crazy the nighlife was, but judging by the amount of broken glass being swept up from the narrow cobblestone streets from the night before, we could guess that it gets rather large.

The second day we headed to the east side neighbourhood of Belem, home of not one, but two UNESCO world heritage sights - the tower Torre de Belém, built as a fortified lighthouse late in the reign of Dom Manuel (1515-1520) to guard the entrance to the port at Belém and the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, which the Torre de Belém was built partly to defend. The building of the monastary began in 1502 and took 50 years to complete. They are nice buildings but we didn't go inside either because of time restrictions. We also checked out a small market in Belem and the Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries). This is a 52 m (170.60 ft) high slab of concrete, erected in 1960 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of Henry the Navigator. The monument is carved into the shape of the prow of a ship in which stand statues of various explorers, as well as a statue of Henry himself. The Portugese are very proud to have conquered the seas, that's for sure.

We ended the day in Rossio, where there are many cafes in plazas and it reminded me a little of a smaller version of Barcelona being out on narrow cobblestone streets with little balconies in the buildings above. Lisbon is a very pretty city and whilst it doesn't have many tourist attractions, it was well worth a weekend getaway - if for nothing else, for the fantastic weather!

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Photos

Padrao dos Descobrimentos
A contemporary monument dedicated to the Portuguese Age of Discovery

Comments

[Anabela]

A contemporary vision of the Portuguese Discoveries
A contemporary vision of the Portuguese Discoveries may be seen in a unique location by the Tagus River, near the most important museums and monuments with the very new Altis Belém Hotel & Spa, in Belém.