Boa tarde familia e amigos,
Up and down in Lisboa, and I do mean that quite literally! When transiting about Lisboa, at least in the historical center, 90% of the time, one is either going uphill or downhill, not a lot of flat unless one is down by the Rio Tejo. The roads are solidly in competition with San Francisco as to gradient and definitely the winner when it comes to being narrower. In short, I have been getting my exercise!
Lisboa
Hard-working Tram
Of course, there are alternatives to walking. The hard-working, old-time trams tackle the toughest of routes as they are still perfectly suited to navigating the narrow streets and the resulting extremely sharp turns. And us tourists seem to like them a lot also! Regular buses are also referred to as trams but the charm of being on one that is packed to the gills did not resonate with me. 😉
The ultimate climb in Lisboa is that to the Castelo de Sao Jorge. Supposedly there is some type of escalator to assist with part of the ascent but I couldn’t locate it. After visiting the castle and its fortifications, I cannot understand how anyone, back in the day, would ever contemplate trying to assault the place – expect that desertions alone would have decimated any approaching force.
Castelo de Sao Jorge
Mosteiro dos Jeronimos
If one is willing to tolerate the aforementioned tram aka bus ride to the Belem district, there is the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos. It is huge and now houses not only the chuch and the monastery cloisters but also the Museu Nacional Arqueologia and most of the Museu da Marinha. I opted to see the church and cloisters as well as the Maritime Museum. As many of you are familiar, if there is a maritime museum in town – I’m there. The many photos of the expansive ship model collection in the museum can be seen below in the picture gallery.
And lastly, something courtesy of my friend Sally. She emailed me in response to the first post from Portugal regarding the oldest bookstore in the world being in Portugal, And sure enough it is – Bertrand Chiado. The ironic part is that while in Lisboa, I have been staying in the Chiado district and had already passed by this bookstore previously. So here is a photo of the longest continually running bookstore in the world according to Guinness. A snapshot looking inside the store is in the picture gallery. And yes it is a lovely and well stocked bookstore!
Bertrand Chiado
That’s it for now. Please have a look at the gallery below for full-size versions of the photos above as well as additional photos on the Castelo de Sao Jorge, the Mosterio dos Jeronimos, and the Museu da Marinha. Plus there are photos of and from the Elevador de Santa Justa as well as photos of the damaged Convento do Carmo from the great 1755 earthquake. The rest of the photos are from around town at various points.
One final note – the “submit a comment” feature is not appearing for these new posts. Still working on a solution.
Ate tarde,
Papi
