Lisbon adventures

Lisbon, Tuesday 31 May 

Lisbon is a fascinating city with heaps to see and do. Our 2 days has only been enough to scratch the surface and it would be great to come back again for a week or so to look around properly.

It's been interesting to get an "Iberian" view of European history from travelling in Spain and Portugal. For example Portugal in its golden period had a world wide empire including Brazil, parts of Africa, Macau, and various islands, making it very rich and powerful. Navigators such as Vasco de Gama (actually learnt about him at school) headed off from Portugal to discover  the world and bring back riches. Impressive for a small nation that even today has only about 10 million people, and provides for a refreshingly non continental or British perspective.

We cruised around Lisbon to get an idea of the city. Visited the river waterfront area where there are various war memorials and historical forts built to defend the city from a seaborne attack. (These were never used as all of the numerous invasions came over land routes).

Lisbon is a river port on the Tagus river. The river mouth is enormous - the downtown bridge ("25 April" bridge named after the date of the bloodless coup that unseated the dictator Salazar in 1974) is 2.7km long, and the Vasco de Gama bridge is an enormous 17km.

25 April bridge

Portugal has its own style of architecture - "Manueline" after King Manuel I. We visited the St Jerome (San Jeronimus) monastery which is in the Manueline style. The style was around briefly from the early 16th century and incorporates maritime elements and representations of the discoveries brought from the voyages of the great Portugese navigators.

The monastery is in the Belem (Bethlehem) area so we took the chance to try the famous Belem pastries. They were pretty good! The recipe is secret and apparently known only to 3 living people. The 3 are forbidden to all be in the same place at once or to eat the same food etc - just in case the worst happens and the secret is lost!

As Lisbon is built on 7 hills, there are plenty of view points, and plenty of exercise to be had walking to them in the heat. It was over 30 degrees in the afternoons and seemed even hotter. The hills also lend themselves to funiculars and elevators so we sampled a couple of them. The Gloria funicular (opened in 1885 and a national monument) took us to a great view point.

A view from the top.

Heavily tagged Gloria funicular. Graffiti is rife in Lisbon and seemingly little effort to control it.

Gloria funicular again. It goes up a residential street and pedestrins need to flatten themselves against the walls when the funicular car passes.

At the view point - a creative busker putting his miniature dog to work to pull in tips for being cute.

We rode the famous tram #28.This has to be one of the most fun things to do that we have come across so far. Trams seem to go everywhere in Lisbon, and this one goes up and down impossibly steep and narrow streets, stops to squeeze past parked trucks with only millimetres to spare, rattles past trams on the next track that you could easily reach out and touch through the open windows. You also get a fresh perpective on some of the creative driving tactics used in Lisbon! All this for a modest 2.85 euros, with Portugese swearing and gesticulating thrown in at no extra charge.

Being under time pressure for our next appointment we took a taxi from the end of the #28 tram back to base. So cheap compared to NZ! And much more exciting. Our cab had two speeds - "stop" and "go fast". "Stop" was only used when really necessary, such as to avoid hitting a motorcyclist that cut in front of us. So we ended the journey with the smell of burning rubber through the car. Just like being at the races - and again, no surcharge, you just pay what's on the meter!

Please let the tram go first (but only if convenient).

Corner a bit tight? Just sneak acoss the opposing track.