We had an early morning wake up, as our friends had arranged a half-day walking tour for us all (Thanks Frank and Desirae!). Our guide was a jovial woman named Paola who was a born and raised Lisbon-ite.
Our first stop was a quick visit to a nearby Bellavista (or lookout point) for a bird’s eye view of the city to help get oriented and a learn about the cable cars. Lisbon’s famous “sardine cans” (so named for how tight you must pack in!) have been running since the late 1800s and while they’ve since been electrified, they used to run up and down thanks to gravity and water tanks.
On the left you can see the fountain that they used to use to fill the tanks. Other than the graffiti, Paula tells us they’re basically the same car that started running in the early 1800s
Then we were off to the April 25th Square near the National Guard garrison. The square is famous as it’s where the transition from dictatorship to democracy happened in the late 70s. Apparently Portugal had been under dictator rule for ~40 years when the young leaders in the army decided to stage a coup. It ended up with a bloodless transition in which the Lisbonites will proudly tell you, not a single shot was fired.
This just goes to show that our National Guard need sassier uniforms and cooler outposts!
Right next to the National Guard garrison is an old church that was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1700s that completely leveled most of Lisbon. Though the back half has been semi-restored, the roof and supporting structutes are not, leaving only a few of the stone arches standing here and there. The effect was definitely dramatic!
But…where has the roof gone?!
Then we headed off to an elevator built by a disciple of Eiffel, which is used to easily transport folks from the “low town” of Chiado, to the “high town”, of Barrio Alto. It was only when we saw the elevator that we realized we had been in this area previously… The elevator is actually only a few blocks from where we had dinner or first night in Portugal!
The elevator as we saw it our first night
Designed to resemble the church behind it, the arches on the Elevator now gives us an idea of what the undamaged church looked like pre earthquake.
We had no time to considered the coincidence, however, as Paola was off again – this time herding us onto the tram to Alfama to see the old muslim quarter, complete with extra winding streets as it was unaffected by the aforementioned earthquake. As we walked the Fes-like streets, Paola was quick to point out the leftovers of the feast of the last of the three patron saints of Lisbon (St. Vincent).
Apparently the feast days for the three most important saints are all in June, so it becomes a month long street festival (which explains the epic parades we’d seen in Terceira!)
As we descended from the Alfama towards the river, we headed into the Baxio (downtown) – the true heart of the city and the area that had been completely decimated by the earthquake, the tsunami that it triggered and then, just for good measure, a huge fire. On the plus side, it completely did away with all the narrow/meandering streets that are the norm in a Medieval town and led to the construction of the nice grid patterns of today. However, Paulo was quick to point out that it was the least ornate part of the city as they had to build so fast that all the buildings were built for practicality and not for looks. However, the wide arcades with black and white mosaics and big piazzas definitely make up for the lack of snazzy stone work. We got enough of that at the Trader Square (originally home to the Royal palace until the earthquake) and Arch.
Paola says the black and while mosaic streets were built out of the rubble of the old city.
The other item that we learned all about was the Portuguese love affair with Cod. They are all quick to point out that they can’t actually catch the fish in their oceans. Instead, they’re the largest importers and consumers in the world. We tried a traditional cod-fish croquettes, with a unique twist – molten liquid cheese. It was tasty, if different!
Our last stop was Rossio square, back in the Chiado, where we saw the Moorish inspired Train station, and swung past the local Ginjinha hole-in-the-wall. Ginjinha is a local aperitif that tastes like cherries and you can have it with or without it’s booze-soaked fruit. We all had a try and while Grant liked it, I personally thought the “cherries” were a bit like rotten medicine…ew.
After saying goodbye to Paola, we swung through the local equivalent of “fast food” – a small sandwich shop and bar where we made a lunch out of Bifana and Prego (traditional roast pork, and steak sandwiches). While both were good, Grant’s Bifana was definitely the tastier choice!
We had planned on visiting the area of Belem after our tour, but as the temperature was hitting close to 100F, we decided to call an audible and change plans. We opted to ferry across the Tegus river to see Christ the King, a sister statue of sorts to Christ the Redeemer that stands in Rio. This statue in Lisbon is much smaller and was built to celebrate Portugal’s neutrality in WWII. Needless to say, a tower on a mountain has pretty spectacular views!
Once we were able to tear ourselves away from the scenery, we caught the ferry back into Lisbon proper and headed off to dinner in Alfama at Santo Antonio De Alfama, a restaurant recommended by a few of my colleagues. In yet another coincidence, we’d seen the restaurant during the tour and commented on how pretty it was! The food was also excellent: black sausage with apple sauce, a herb-stuffed sea bream for Grant, and wild fowl sausage and chutney for me. While we’d hoped to also be able to try their wine-poached pears in homemade cream, they had unfortunately run out, so we were forced to settle for the fresh apple strudel. The struggle is real, folks!
Unwilling to end the evening so soon, we headed back into the Barrio Alto for some live music and after dinner port, only to pick the one club that closes at midnight, leaving us only 30 minutes to accomplish both goals. While the music and beverages were great, it was over all too soon, so off again we went into the warm night. We ended up settling for the only bar that was still open – a Cuban themed club (again, we know!) that basically played only Latin music. In short, we did our best to salsa our way through before finally calling it a night.
Bed was more than welcome at this point – global jetsetting is a tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it!
– J & G