Lisbon

Some weeks ago I had the chance to spend a few hours in Lisbon, in my way to a conference in Coimbra. I arrived at Sta. Apolonia station with the night train from Madrid. The train could be modernized to make it more comfortable but, on the other hand, this way of travelling still gives you the chance to share time and conversations with other travellers.

With the time difference between Portugal and Spain, we arrived at the train station about 7:30 am of a Sunday morning, so there was almost nobody on the streets and I had the opportunity to walk through the meandering streets of Alfama (the fishermen's quarter) without crossing anyone. This is a nice experience, walking on your own in a new city, having nothing but your own senses to fully experience it.

In this walking around, I could see the many building with tiled façades that Lisbon has. This gives it a very distinctive image, which I had not seen before. You can also find some noble building, like the "Casa dos Bicos" (House of Beaks), built in 1523, and that soon will be the home of the José Saramago foundation. It is remarkable the contrast of this very nice house with its neighbour. Indeed, Lisbon is full of contrasts between buildings, with some of them apparently about to fall down, which just gives to it a special air.

Casa dos Bicos in Rua dos Bacalhoeiros

Another colourful image of Alfama

But walking around makes you hungry! So it was time to find some nice breakfast, and following a suggestion of my guidebook, I headed towards to central quarter of "Chiado" and in particular to the Café A Brasileira. This is a very nice café with an art nouveau interior and a sculpture of Fernando Pessoa outside that captures the attention of all passerby. I had a simple caffè latte ("meia de leite") and a pastry and the price was quite ok even been in the very heart of the city.

Café A Brasileira, 120 Rua Garrett

Lisbon is well known for its tough orography, which led to the construction of several elevators and cable cars to join different quarters of the city. Nowadays most of them are no longer working, but you can still catch the Ascensor da Gloria ("Glory cable car"), which is a National Monument, from Praça dos Restauradores to the nice viewpoint of Sao Pedro de Alcántara. The only elevator still in service is the impressive Elevador de Santa Justa.

Ascensor da Gloria at its bottom station,
ready to climb the Calçada da Glória

After visiting Praça dos Restauradores and the nearby Praça do Rossío --the heart of Lisbon--, I walked through the streets of the Baixa quarter. These streets link the center of Lisbon with the Praça do Comercio ("Commerce square"), so named because it's just next to the Tagus river, so it was the natural entry point of goods into the city. Not a surprise then that these streets are named Rua Ouro (Gold st.), Rua Prata (Silver st.), and so on.

You shouldn't visit Lisbon and not go to the Castelo Sao Jorge. There is in fact not much left of the castle, but the views from the hill are said to be impressive. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to make the queue, so all I could do was go to the nearby "Largo das Portas do Sol", which has this nice view of the Tagus river and Barreiro, the town opposite Lisbon over the Tagus. Tagus is so broad here, that sometimes you have the feeling you're already seeing the Atlantic ocean rather than a river!

The Tagus in Lisbon