Lisbon - the economic, political and cultural center of Portugal since 1255

Leaving the Algarve region was hard. The almost perfect temperatures, the beauty of the coastline and the sandy beaches. We poured our relaxed bodies onto the train in Faro and away we went. As we started getting into Lisbon, we realized we were back in a big city. As we roll across a bridge coming into Lisbon, we see a large statue mounted on pedestals. The Portuguese, almost as much as the Spaniards, love their historical heroes. It’s all part of what makes up the Iberian peninsula personae. The history is colorful, the heroes are plentiful, and there’s a story behind each which makes up the myth of history. But Portugal is not Spain. It's culture and people are very different. And we found ourselves falling in love with Portugal.

This is a picture of Christ the King statue on the river and above the bridge we crossed over as we entered Lisbon. (Note: we borrowed this picture off the internet and would give credit if we knew the photographer.)

The word of the day is season. For everything there is a season. 

One thing we have learned through the years is that there is no such thing as a large city. Cities are made up of neighborhoods and communities that when taken collectively add up to the city. But, individually, these neighborhoods are small and just like Mr Rogers’ neighborhood, they all have a personality of their own.

In Lisbon, we set out to explore some neighborhoods. On our first day there we stopped by the Time-Out Market. This is an old farmer's market converted into restaurants and eating establishments. For those of you from Albuquerque, think of Sawmill Market on steroids. The place was huge and known for seafood. So we settled in for lunch. 

A shrimp stew with rice, beans and shrimp.

We have to confess to eating a lot of desserts on this trip.

Everyone just sits down a large tables wherever seats are available and become culinary friends.

After a full lunch, we decided to do some exploration and we hopped on historic tram 28 that runs through Alfama. During the Moor’s rule, Alfama was the entire city or the medina. Tram 28 is an old electric powered streetcar that struggled to get up the steep hills and made us nervous as it came down the other side of the hill. We rode it to the end of the line expecting to be able to continue the ride back, but we were told to get off and find a way back. That was very frustrating. We took a few buses to get closer and finally, lacking success, we stopped at Mama’s Rooftop Bar for directions. Isn’t that where you go for directions? We were pretty proud of ourselves for figuring out how to get back via a bus and the subway.

This is tram 25 which is identical to tram 28 except it runs a different route.

On our second day, we decided to take a more in-depth visit to the Alfama. Shades of the medinas in Marrakech, Chefchaouen, and Tangier. The narrow alleys winding through to unknown places. We forgot to mention that the day before, our trip on historical Tram 28 had a 2 hour wait in the queue to get on for the ride. This time, we took tram 12 that went over the most interesting part of the same route as tram 28, but without waiting and we managed to get off of the tram at one of the higher elevations within the medina. Also, for clarity, we don't think that they call it a medina in Portugal, but that's the closest word we can find to help you draw a mental picture of the neighborhood.

Susanne had decided that she wanted to get some grilled sardines. We know, sardines are a fish of little repute in the US. Like Rodney Dangerfield, they get no respect. But in Portugal, sardines are probably the most common fish. The summer sardines here are pretty big. Around 6 to 8 inches long, and more than just a bite. This is one of the best places in the world to get grilled sardines. Susanne researched and found the best restaurant for grilled sardines, Patio 13. It sounded great. A patio, in the Alfama, with a view. We walked down narrow alleys, driveways, paths, and down steps and more steps until finally, we arrived. Only problem, they stopped serving 10 minutes before we arrived. As Susanne sat down, we thought she was going to cry. But we pulled ourselves back up and went on about our business. 

What we would give for Mama’s rooftop bar right now. Susanne has a knack for finding some of these unusual places. She found a wine bar, Lisbon by the Glass that had a spectacular view. So, we took a bus as close as we could get and then walked. Did we ever tell you the Alfama and Lisbon are not flat. If it wasn’t stairs up or down, it was a path up or down. Everything is up or down.

Sardines being grilled on the pit at Patio 13. This made it very difficult to appreciate since we were only 10 minutes late.

We got to the top of a hill and found Lisbon by the Glass. Looking at the building, surrounded all around by other buildings, we said to ourselves "no way could they have a view." But as we entered, the waitress said, just go upstairs and we’ll be with you. The transformation from downstairs to upstairs was unbelievable. The views through an open picture window were awesome. Oh, the friends we made at this place. We met a woman from Albuquerque with her best friend of 40 years. A single woman in her 20s traveling from Quebec City whose first language was French and who we communicated with through Google Translate and her broken English, since neither of us know French. I know, we told you before that life doesn’t get any better than this, but sometimes it does. The peace that comes over you as you’re in another person’s presence is impossible to define, but unbelievable to experience.

View of Saint Jorge's Castle from the wine bar in Lisbon.

We decided to do a wine tasting. No, those are not empties in front of us. We each did a wine tasting of two different types of wines, or four different sample each. Portugal makes some great wines. To our left, your right, there is a large window opening with a rail and we are looking right at St Jorge's Castle as seen in the pictures above.

Part of the fun of Lisbon was learning about their metro, and we did it well. Took a few subways, several buses and always managed to find our way home. We discovered the Moovit app that tells how to get from one point to another by public transportation.. It's probably not much use in Rio Rancho.

In 1755, there was an enormous earthquake in Portugal. It destroyed most of Lisbon. At the time there were around 200,000 people in Lisbon and it is estimated that over 60,000 died in the quake or in the tsunami that occurred from the aftershocks a few days later. Over 70% of the buildings in Lisbon were destroyed. When it was over, the Marquis of Pombal, who was the prime minister at the time, took the lead in rebuilding Lisbon. Next to the medina-like Alfama, with narrow-winding streets and alleyways, the city is now laid out in a squared grid. The grid provided for parks, for views, for wide streets, for monuments to the heroes of the past. In fact, as you travel across Europe and Africa, you realize how much of the rebuilding that has happened has been on the pillars of what was there before. The Christian churches built on top of Pagan churches. The Mosques built on Christian churches and then, after the re-conquistadors, converted back to Christian churches. Much of history is built on top of what came before it and it's no different now.  

If you look at this map, you'll see the squared-off grid in the center vs. the meandering old town on the right. This was part of the reconstruction of Lisbon after the earthquake.

The next day found us seeking out the shore and history again. We joined a small group tour and went to Cascais, Sintra, and the Cabo do Roca. One of the neat things about this tour was that there were about 30 people in the square where we all met, but then we started separating into smaller groups and our group was 6 people. One guide and 5 tour members, all in a small van. We hit it off with Dion, a single woman from the Salt Lake City area. We spoke of kids and family. We started in Cabo do Roca. This is the farthest western point of continental Europe. Remarkable beauty in the shoreline similar to the cliffs in Ireland and Norway. 

Westernmost point in Continental Europe.

The surfing in this section of Portugal is purportedly fantastic. About 100 kilometers north of Cabo do Roca is a spot where the record was set for the highest wave ever surfed. Nazaré, Portugal is known for its high waves. We’re going to digress and tell you why.  At this particular place on the earth, there is an underwater canyon. Imagine the Grand Canyon. But the difference in this underwater canyon and our US Grand Canyon is unbelievable. Our Grand Canyon is about 6,100 feet deep. Nazaré Canyon is an underwater canyon reaching depths up to 16,000 feet and it reaches this depth as it approaches the shore. You have waves and ocean currents coming on shore at the surface of the water but also a surge of water at 16,000 feet deep that climbs to the top as it meets the shore. In winter, you have the North Atlantic currents setting up waves on the top of the water and when these two currents meet, the waves climb to 60 to 80 feet high. This is not only during freaky weather, but it is a normal winter thing to see. We missed it being here in summer, but understanding why this phenomenal wave occurs is enlightening. It is hard to imagine that right offshore from a typical looking beach, these waves occur with regularity. Fun facts. We keep learning!

As we got back in the van, we went to a small fishing village Cascais. We’ve seen small fishing villages transformed into tourist meccas. But the conversion of this small village was over the top. They have redefined what it means to be commercial. Five-star hotels and Michelin rated dining. This place was totally about the tourism. We didn't see a lot of preserved history. To us, it's another South Beach or Times Square. Mix them all and here you are. This is not why we were here. Nice to see, nice to be gone.

This street exemplifies the nature and use of cobblestones. They are beautiful designs..

We then rode up into the mountains to the town of Sintra or more specifically, to the Palacio da Pena. Note that this is not a castle, it is a palace. A palace is a place of residence for royalty vs a castle where a ruler might have lived. The residence may be permanent, or it may be a summer residence. But the palace we saw was remarkable.  High atop a tall hill we had to climb to reach it. Our bad-kneed trouper was pulling through. It was all worth it. The architecture was a eclectic mixture of neo-Gothic, neo-Manueline, neo-Islamic, and neo-Renaissance. The result is an almost-whimsical palace. King Ferdinand had built this for the Queen, but she never saw it. It was completed in about 10 years which was very speedy. Part of this fast completion is because it was built upon an existing 16th century monastery so a lot of the basics were already done.

Walking up to the palace, there was a garden with trees from all over the world. Giant redwoods, sequoias, pine trees, and others. There was even one tree that is carnivorous. It turns out that the tree is a giant version of a Venus flytrap. Here's a picture of some of the trees.

Here are some pictures of the palace.

This is a closeup of the entry. There is a coral relief affect here.

Another cool relief design in the exterior wall of an entry.

The intricacy of the work is amazing.

As we were talking with our guide, we told him the story about the closed restaurant where Susanne had tried to get her grilled sardines. He said, that it is early in the season for the best grilled sardines. July and August are the best. Just maybe the season was too early for ripe sardines.  Ah! Wait for the right season!

Football season is here too. While we were in Lisbon we discovered that there were UEFA Nations League football playoffs going on at the same time. The matches were being played in Munich, but on Thursday night we happened to catch the semi-final game between Portugal and France. We watched it. We have to admit our understanding of everything is based on what we learned from watching our son play soccer 30 years ago, but watching Portugal beat France while we were in Portugal made us proud, almost like a citizen. On Friday, Spain beat Germany setting up a finals match on Sunday between Spain and Portugal. Talking this up with everyone we met on Saturday, we could tell everyone would be watching the game. Our old friend, the GOAT, Ronaldo would be playing. 

The final would be on Sunday and we had just moved to Porto. Apparently, in some cities, the game would be played on a jumbotron, setup on some large square in the city. We were never able to find the location and we watched it in our hotel room. What a game. Spain scored, then Portugal. Spain scored again and then Portugal. At the end of regulation, it was tied 2 to 2. We were so stoked and yet, we didn't understand the way overtime is played. We just watch as the extra-time was played with no scores. Finally it comes down to the penalty kicks. Each team get's 5 kicks, one each from five players, facing head-to-head against the goalie of the other team. The tension was high, but Portugal came through and won 5-2 on penalty kicks. Super great game and for us, we were cheering on like we were Portuguese. Sorry we missed the celebration outside but it was a fun time for a few hours.

We left Lisbon on the train. This covering, in the train boarding area, caught our eyes. What a piece of architectural work.