Our 8th floor Lisbon airbnb has a fabulous view of the Parque Eduardo VII. But along with the great view comes a price -- on our second day here, the lone elevator in the building was out of service all day. We had to hike up nine flights not once, but twice. At least it is working again -- for now!
Lisbon is about ten degrees warmer than Porto was, so this week while it's been sunny we have been taking full advantage of the nice weather to walk around and get our bearings. Just on the other side of the park from us is the Gulbenkian museum and gardens. The museum's benefactor was one of the original oil tycoons and he amassed a huge treasure trove of ancient and modern art and furniture.
We had a nice lunch on the terrace at the museum café with views of the park. We've really been impressed by all the green space in this bustling city. There are so many parks and tree-lined streets here.
This is one of my favorite small parks in the city, the Jardim de Amoreiras. It's just a ten-minute walk from our apartment.
Our apartment is near the Praça Marquês de Pombal, which is a huge roundabout with a statue of the Marquis in the center. In 1755, Lisbon had a devastating earthquake (estimated 9.0), followed by a tsunami and fire that destroyed most of the city center. Although Portugal had a king at the time, the Marquis was the chief minister and de facto ruler of the country. He was responsible for rebuilding the city using a grid pattern instead of twisty narrow medieval streets.
We walked down the tree-lined Avenida da Liberdade which took us to the heart of town, near the Rossio Train Station. Built in the 1890's it has a very recognizable façade owing to the two enormous horseshoe arches at the entrance.
From Rossio square, we continued walking down straight streets in the Baixa neighborhood to get to the wide open Praça do Comércio. It houses various government buildings and several cafés. The 100 foot tall arch (Arco da Rua Augusta) was built to commemorate the rebuilding of the city after the 1755 earthquake.
Getting around Lisbon on foot is pretty easy when you are going downhill. But getting back up to higher ground can be a challenge. In addition to the Metro and city busses, Lisbon has six tram lines that have been in operation since the 1870's. The signature yellow tram cars can be seen and heard throughout various neighborhoods.
For the really challenging hills, there are several tram-funicular pairs that run up and down the same stretch of hill all day long. This is the "Ascensor da Bica" -- one of its cars is covered in grafitti because it is stored outside at the top of the hill when it shuts down for the night. The other car has pristine yellow paint because it is kept inside the locked station at the base of the hill overnight.
And for the steepest parts of the city, there are several "Elevadors" that will take you straight up (or down, of course -- that's how elevators work). One of the city's best known lifts is the 45-meter high Elevador de Santa Justa that has been in operation since 1902 and was designed by a student of Gustav Eiffel. It can carry more than 25 people at a time - here is Kevin at the end of the walkway at the top.
One of the benefits of having so many hills is that there are awesome viewpoints all around the city (called Miradouros) that give you a perspective of just how high up you are. This is the Miradouro at the Jardim de São Pedro de Alcântara. You can see all the way across the city to the castle on the distant hill.
So we have mostly been getting around on foot, averaging about 6 or 7 miles a day since we arrived in Lisbon. We have discovered that good shoes with grippy soles are a must -- the cobblestones are hard on the feet. And, although very beautiful, the mosaic stone pavement (called calçada portuguesa) is extremely slippery when it rains!
Towards the end of the week, our legs were getting tired. So we decided to spring for a two-day pass on the Hop-on Hop-off bus. This gave us a whirlwind tour of some of the peripheral neighborhoods of the city. We saw modern street art ("Poseidon Facing the Tagus River" by PichiAvo), modern buildings (Torre Vasco da Gama), and modern statues ("Lisboa" by José de Guimarães) on the way to the Parque das Nações (Park of Nations). This was the site of the 1998 World Expo, which is why the area is so much more modern than the rest of the city.
Another interesting area of Lisbon is near the Campo Pequeno, the city's bullring built in the 1890's. Unlike in Spain, in Portugal they don't kill the bull in front of the spectators at the end of the bullfight. (It's still cruel and sometimes the bull dies from its injuries or is put down after the fight. There have been many attempts to end bullfighting in Portugal, but none have succeeded so far.). Bullfights are still held in the arena but it is also used now for concerts and live events and there is a big shopping center beneath it.
Our final stop on the Hop-on Hop-off bus tour took us out to the neighborhood of Belém. Belém has some very popular tourist attractions -- the first is the Belém Tower, a military outpost overlooking the Tejo River. It was built in the early 1500's. During the Age of Discovery, Portuguese sailors left from and returned to this spot (if they returned -- seafaring exploration was a dangerous profession).
Just a short walk away is the Monument of the Discoveries (Padrão dos Descobrimentos). This was built during the Salazar regime to celebrate the naval heroes of Portugal. The figure at the front is Prince Henry the Navigator who lived in the 1400s. His name is a bit misleading, since he didn't actually navigate in any of the exploration voyages. Rather, he encouraged and supported the expeditions and helped Portugal grow into a maritime power. During his lifetime, Portuguese explorers discovered Madeira and the Azores, and were the first to round Cape Verde, the westernmost point of Africa. Shortly after Henry's death, Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and before the century was over the Portuguese had found a sea route to India.
If you paid attention in school, you might remember that Vasco da Gama was the Portuguese sailor who was the first European to get to India by ship -- and he is also buried in Belém, at the Jerónimos Monastery.
After all of our "exploring" we decided to have a nice sunset dinner by the river. In this photo you can make out the outline of the statue of Christo Rei on the left, and the 25th of April Bridge spanning the Tejo. The bridge used to be called the Salazar Bridge but was renamed after Portugal peacefully overthrew his successor during the "Carnation Revolution".
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