Wandering Lisbon on the tram--FUN
11/29/15 • Written by Nancy
Our first day in Lisbon, Portugal. We arrived yesterday in the dark after a glorious day in a marshy estuary in the Algarve, way south. Beautiful birds, sunny then a longish drive north to Lisbon. We Google-mapped our way in to our apartment but in the dark and tired we had no idea of anything but bed. But hey--morning sun revealed the beautiful city below us. We look out on the old city with the bridge across the estuary and the Atlantic in the background. Coffee, too. Life looks pretty good.
What we learn about getting around is to take Tram #28 which wanders the old city area. We find it and hop on. Well--finding the ticket store, figuring it all out. A great thing about Portugal is that many people speak English and they do not speak Spanish. The ticket guy and I did fine in his excellent English after I stopped with the Spanish pronunciation of what I thought were Portuguese words. Our apartment is a couple of blocks from the tram stop. Yay!
Off we went to our destination--the end of the line.
Lisbon turns out to be as hilly as Naples and much of it was similarly built in the 1800's, so I already loved it since I love Naples. Our trip of about 3 miles went up and down several sets of very steep hills on narrow streets. Yikes! But what views. Several places which will require us to get out and wander on another day.
Scenes along the way
End of the line
Finally we reached the turn-around on the opposite hill from our house. The large basilica which we see from our deck is set on one side of a glorious square and garden. We could not enter as a funeral was going on but poked around outside. The church and steps are made from the local marble with seashells showing.
Finally, we also found a patisserie. We had passed so many on the tram but not near the stops. This was obviously the place for the locals--lots of chat and banter. Also delicious. One of our pastries is a custard tart and one is a cake with cardamom. The counterman spoke good English too.
A wander across from the church was the entrance to a large garden--several blocks wide and long. Beautiful big trees, odd mixed ducks, something blooming dropping purple flowers on the path. And then--something I have never seen--a street-side food cart for wine and cheese. What a great country.
Also some chatty women selling chestnuts. All, speaking English too. What is up with that?
Among other things, Portugal has the oldest treaty in the world with Britain. Centuries of interaction, intermarriage of the royal houses predispose the population towards English usage vs. Spanish, not always but frequently an enemy. Then there is the abundance of American television. Anyway, it is easy for us here.
School is out, kids congregate. Older men and women are out chatting.
City squares
On the return trip we passed yet another lovely square. This one is dedicated to a poet whose name I did not catch. The city workers are getting the Christmas decorations up.
A hilltop square dedicated to St. Vincent.
Another public square, this time with a chicken. We see chicken statues or knickknacks everywhere, so there must be some meaning.
Back up steep hills to our neighborhood. So glad we don't have to walk. More pastry shops. We must have seen a hundred withing our three-mile journey. Also some places selling fruit/veg, a couple of meat markets. But pastry shops are everywhere. Eat in or take home. Lime green and orange are favored colors both here and in Spain.
Lisbon's Housing
Much of the old city is made up of these tile fronted houses with wrought iron balconies. Color and tile give the city a pastel charm. At the same time, most of the areas we visited is distinctly shabby with ruined, empty buildings next to nice apartments. We do not know enough to know if some of the shabbiness has to do with the austerity resulting from the recent recession and how much with these older buildings not being valued. In many other European cities , these historic areas are highly prized and very trim and prosperous-appearing; not so here. There are fenced building sites where construction has obviously long stopped; some other areas much building going on now.
Home
We got back to our street. Our house is the blue tile building next to the bright green tile building.
As we walked in and poured our wine, the sun set over the city.
Text by Julianne.
Photos by both of us.
Pretty good grafitti stencils and posters for the International Day of Eliminating Violence Against Women (UN declaration for November 25).