I’ve started these tales with the postcard of Lisbon, it is logical to finish at the same place, having completed full circle journey around one small part of a wonderful country. And of course, Lisbon’s wonders wouldn’t fit all in one brief postcard. We’ve spent in Lisbon one full day and didn’t see a lot of it, for it is not a small city with about 3 mln people who call it home. Being a capital means to attract wanderers from all over the World. And this puts certain demands on the city. Apart from trivial provision of infrastructure, it also supposed to “have a face”. To be different from other capitals and representative for the country. And Lisbon was all of this.
We went to Lisbon by bus. Seemed practical at that time. Knowing better now, I would take a train and spend more time in Lisbon. Ideally you’d need at least 3 days to explore all the wonders of the city. We had only 3 hours. The bus was a tour-bus. We had a guide. I have to say few words about this guide, as he was somewhat a colourful character in the book of my Portuguese Adventures. His name was Antonio and he looked as if he was a ploughman, a distant relative of a real tour guide who was asked to “cover the shift”. He had plenty of practical knowledge of survival guide for Lisbon and Portugal in general and guide-book limited information on sights and history. He treated us as a class of primary school kids on a “field trip” – considered his main responsibility was the safety, ours and our wallets – every five minutes we were reminded again and again to “watch out for thieves” and “watch out for gypsies” on Lisbon’s streets. By the end of our 3 hours-journey to the capital it became our obsessive objective – not to get ripped off by various criminal elements that seemed to be waiting for us on every street, in every shop there. So when we finally arrived to the destination, we were totally convinced that we have to be on our highest alert when in Lisbon.
Lisbon met us with a charming smile and a graceful elegance. It was perfectly safe and very relaxed. But of course, as our bus made his way through the suburbs to the centre, we have seen some different faces of the Portuguese capital. I am sure every city on the face of earth has his own “seedy areas” Such is life, it divides people by a wealth-factor. I suppose life is not exactly fruity in such places, but then if some live there, they might have a reason for it. To the credit of Antonio, on arrival to the Lisbon he magically produced a bunch of tourist maps of city centre, which we later find available for free at every point of interest, but still he enhanced each of the maps with his own unique handwritten marks – directions for us to follow if we want to see the most of the best in the shortest of time given to us. This was actually very helpful, if only to identify where exactly we didn’t want to go. Apart from being overprotective, Antonio also had this idea of the tourist trip has to be a shopping tour as well. So he circled a big area on the map and wrote “shopping streets” on it. So now we knew where not to turn our curious eyes of a traveller. Due to this helpful tip from our tour guide we manage to see a little bit more then everyone else on our bus as well as actually enjoy the city much more too. I’ve already mentioned in the beginning that Lisbon creates this impression of charming elegance. It is truly a unique combination of the modern style and history, all in immaculate condition.
We entered Lisbon through a beautiful bridge, almost a replica of a Golden Gate Bridge and next to it there is a replica of the Brazilian statue of Jesus (Cristo Redentor) in Rio. I’m not sure why, but to me personally this statue brought a smile – a somewhat childish wish to “have what’s the other kids have”. However, I suspect the inspiration was totally different, as Portugal is a roman catholic country, surprisingly rather religious too. As we crossed the Salazar bridge (that’s what it used to be called before being renamed into 25th of April Bridge, truly meaningless for a visitor name), we found ourselves in the beautiful part of Lisbon – Belem.
Belem is the glorious historical place. From here great Portuguese explorers embarked on their voyages of discovery. Here in Belem there are also a number of Number One attractions of Lisbon. Our tour was planned so that we would visit most of them during short en route bus stops and then the bus will drop us off in the city centre for 3 hours of self-exploring adventures with a help of Antonio’s helpful maps.
Being A Very Experienced Tourist I knew that with each sight visited you have to follow two simple rules: if it has stairs, climb it. And take as many pictures as you can, so that when you’ll sort them later, you might notice something your camera captured that your eyes missed out. I have to say that entrance into the monuments wasn’t in itinerary of Antonio, all the stops we did in Belem have been brief, no more then 15-20 minutes. But we challenged ourselves to the limits and managed to climb every tower, sneak into every museum on our way, all the while the fellow travellers just wandered around, obedient to the instructions of our tour guide.
Belem Tower.
A ceremonial gateway to Lisbon and truly its symbol. Built in 15th century, very elegant tower in gothic style, seems as if grown from the waters. To my mind obsessed with fairy tales the tower looked very enchanting. I can imagine this as a perfect set for a princess waiting for her prince sailing towards her from far far aways. However, the purpose of Belem Tower was much more practical. In 15th century it was a fortress to guard the entrance to Lisbon's harbour. We managed to get inside, race around a small museum in the basement (not worth time spent, actually, but you never know until it’s too late to know, don’t you?) and we also got up to the two levels of viewing terraces – these were absolutely must see! Stunning views of the harbour, the Salazar bridge and the belem area, all framed in elegant white stone lace.
Jeronimos Monastery.
A fine example of the Manueline style in architecture – a very Portuguese late-gothic. Google helpfully describes this style as
“…The Manueline, or Portuguese late Gothic is the sumptuous, composite Portuguese style of architectural ornamentation of the first decades of the 16th century, incorporating maritime elements and representations of the discoveries brought from the voyages of Vasco da Gama and Pedro Álvares Cabral…”
My own definition: elegance and light in perfect harmony. Here our strict guide even took us inside of the chapel, which was well worth a visit. Beautiful place.
Monument of Discoveries.
This was yet another stop in Belem. Impressive 50 meters high in a shape of a caravel with a set of figures of various people who in one way or another took part in the great Portuguese voyages. Again, our tour guide allocated just 15 minutes for this monument, but he couldn’t fool the Learned Skilful Tourists and as soon as the bus doors opened letting us out into “the wild”, we immediately made our own discovery about the Monument of Discoveries: it has an elevator! Which took us straight up to the viewing terrace with the views of the city similar to those from the Belem Tower, but the true reward was – the full view of the Wind Rose depicted in a pavement at the foot of the Monument. There is no way to get the full scale of it from any other place around the Monument. The Wind Rose marks all the places discovered by the Portuguese all over the world. Very impressive.
I found that I need more time and space to tell about Lisbon…guess, I have to say: to be continued…
We went to Lisbon by bus. Seemed practical at that time. Knowing better now, I would take a train and spend more time in Lisbon. Ideally you’d need at least 3 days to explore all the wonders of the city. We had only 3 hours. The bus was a tour-bus. We had a guide. I have to say few words about this guide, as he was somewhat a colourful character in the book of my Portuguese Adventures. His name was Antonio and he looked as if he was a ploughman, a distant relative of a real tour guide who was asked to “cover the shift”. He had plenty of practical knowledge of survival guide for Lisbon and Portugal in general and guide-book limited information on sights and history. He treated us as a class of primary school kids on a “field trip” – considered his main responsibility was the safety, ours and our wallets – every five minutes we were reminded again and again to “watch out for thieves” and “watch out for gypsies” on Lisbon’s streets. By the end of our 3 hours-journey to the capital it became our obsessive objective – not to get ripped off by various criminal elements that seemed to be waiting for us on every street, in every shop there. So when we finally arrived to the destination, we were totally convinced that we have to be on our highest alert when in Lisbon.
Lisbon met us with a charming smile and a graceful elegance. It was perfectly safe and very relaxed. But of course, as our bus made his way through the suburbs to the centre, we have seen some different faces of the Portuguese capital. I am sure every city on the face of earth has his own “seedy areas” Such is life, it divides people by a wealth-factor. I suppose life is not exactly fruity in such places, but then if some live there, they might have a reason for it. To the credit of Antonio, on arrival to the Lisbon he magically produced a bunch of tourist maps of city centre, which we later find available for free at every point of interest, but still he enhanced each of the maps with his own unique handwritten marks – directions for us to follow if we want to see the most of the best in the shortest of time given to us. This was actually very helpful, if only to identify where exactly we didn’t want to go. Apart from being overprotective, Antonio also had this idea of the tourist trip has to be a shopping tour as well. So he circled a big area on the map and wrote “shopping streets” on it. So now we knew where not to turn our curious eyes of a traveller. Due to this helpful tip from our tour guide we manage to see a little bit more then everyone else on our bus as well as actually enjoy the city much more too. I’ve already mentioned in the beginning that Lisbon creates this impression of charming elegance. It is truly a unique combination of the modern style and history, all in immaculate condition.
We entered Lisbon through a beautiful bridge, almost a replica of a Golden Gate Bridge and next to it there is a replica of the Brazilian statue of Jesus (Cristo Redentor) in Rio. I’m not sure why, but to me personally this statue brought a smile – a somewhat childish wish to “have what’s the other kids have”. However, I suspect the inspiration was totally different, as Portugal is a roman catholic country, surprisingly rather religious too. As we crossed the Salazar bridge (that’s what it used to be called before being renamed into 25th of April Bridge, truly meaningless for a visitor name), we found ourselves in the beautiful part of Lisbon – Belem.
Belem is the glorious historical place. From here great Portuguese explorers embarked on their voyages of discovery. Here in Belem there are also a number of Number One attractions of Lisbon. Our tour was planned so that we would visit most of them during short en route bus stops and then the bus will drop us off in the city centre for 3 hours of self-exploring adventures with a help of Antonio’s helpful maps.
Being A Very Experienced Tourist I knew that with each sight visited you have to follow two simple rules: if it has stairs, climb it. And take as many pictures as you can, so that when you’ll sort them later, you might notice something your camera captured that your eyes missed out. I have to say that entrance into the monuments wasn’t in itinerary of Antonio, all the stops we did in Belem have been brief, no more then 15-20 minutes. But we challenged ourselves to the limits and managed to climb every tower, sneak into every museum on our way, all the while the fellow travellers just wandered around, obedient to the instructions of our tour guide.
Belem Tower.
A ceremonial gateway to Lisbon and truly its symbol. Built in 15th century, very elegant tower in gothic style, seems as if grown from the waters. To my mind obsessed with fairy tales the tower looked very enchanting. I can imagine this as a perfect set for a princess waiting for her prince sailing towards her from far far aways. However, the purpose of Belem Tower was much more practical. In 15th century it was a fortress to guard the entrance to Lisbon's harbour. We managed to get inside, race around a small museum in the basement (not worth time spent, actually, but you never know until it’s too late to know, don’t you?) and we also got up to the two levels of viewing terraces – these were absolutely must see! Stunning views of the harbour, the Salazar bridge and the belem area, all framed in elegant white stone lace.
Jeronimos Monastery.
A fine example of the Manueline style in architecture – a very Portuguese late-gothic. Google helpfully describes this style as
“…The Manueline, or Portuguese late Gothic is the sumptuous, composite Portuguese style of architectural ornamentation of the first decades of the 16th century, incorporating maritime elements and representations of the discoveries brought from the voyages of Vasco da Gama and Pedro Álvares Cabral…”
My own definition: elegance and light in perfect harmony. Here our strict guide even took us inside of the chapel, which was well worth a visit. Beautiful place.
Monument of Discoveries.
This was yet another stop in Belem. Impressive 50 meters high in a shape of a caravel with a set of figures of various people who in one way or another took part in the great Portuguese voyages. Again, our tour guide allocated just 15 minutes for this monument, but he couldn’t fool the Learned Skilful Tourists and as soon as the bus doors opened letting us out into “the wild”, we immediately made our own discovery about the Monument of Discoveries: it has an elevator! Which took us straight up to the viewing terrace with the views of the city similar to those from the Belem Tower, but the true reward was – the full view of the Wind Rose depicted in a pavement at the foot of the Monument. There is no way to get the full scale of it from any other place around the Monument. The Wind Rose marks all the places discovered by the Portuguese all over the world. Very impressive.
I found that I need more time and space to tell about Lisbon…guess, I have to say: to be continued…