Lisboa, (Lisbon) is the capital city of Portugal. Over 500, 000 people live here and 2 ½ people in you count the satellite towns. Most are Roman Catholics. It is on the Rio Tejo, (Tagus River), and that means it is cold in the winter and humid in the summer. The best time to visit here is in the spring or fall. The city is built on seven hills, (when you’re walking up one you’ll think it’s a mountain).
Other that the tourist spots not to many people who live here speak English. I suggest you bring along a book that translates Portugese into English, so you can say the basic things like, please, thank you, where is the bathroom and to be able to translate the menu’s in restaurants.
If you speak Spanish or Italian, you might be able to figure out what is being said to you.
To me every thing sounds like it has an ’ish’ sound and the end of the word. For example tomato is tomatoish.
Unless you are part of the European Union, you will need a passport.
.:The History:.
Lisbon dates back to pre-Roman times and Ulysses may have built the city. Portugal was ruled by the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthagains, Moors, Romans and France, (during Napoleon’s time).
In the early part of the 20th century it became a country that was ruled by a dictator, Antonio de Oliveira Salazar. In 1986 it became a democracy.
During WW II Portugal was a neutral country, and I would call it the city of spies. There were so many spies, (from every country that fought with the Allies or Axis), that they must have been tripping over one another.
.:Our Hotel:.
We Stayed a the Marriott Hotel. It is 7 km. from the airport. The hotel is on Dos Combantes Avenue. It has 18 floors and we stayed on the 6th floor.
The best Thing To Buy Are:
Leather, (shoes, sandals and jackets), port, wine, pottery and china.
.:We Ate At:.
The first Restaurant we tried was Cafe Alcantara. It served French and Belgian food. It was very expensive and you were expected to dress up.
Antonio’s Restaurant that serves both Portuguese and Spanish Food. Portugese food is mostly meat, poultry, fish or seafood. They don’t serve a lot of vegetables on the plate. The bread is a course bread, light yellow in colour and delicious. The best dessert is a flan.
Casa Nostra serves wonderful home made Italian food.
There was a cafe, in a basement that served fried chicken. I’m sorry I forgot the name.
The Cervejaria Brilanda that serves fish and seafood.
The Big Apple, servers Deli food.
.:The Tours:.
We took a one day tour. A small coach picked us up at out hotel and took us to a central meeting area. Then we were sorted into groups that were taking the same tours. There were 40 people taking the same tour as we were, so we had a large air-conditioned coach to tour in.
The Baixa district has a large avenue that runs through the centre of this area. It is charming because each café has a stripped umbrella on above it. We saw the Raul Mesnier du Ponsard, that was designed by Gustave Eiffel, in the early 1900’s. We took an elevator to the top to get a fabulous view of the city.
I liked the Belem district the best. We saw a huge monument called the Age Of Discoveries. It is made of limestone, and is quite impressive. We stopped at the Centro Cultural de Belem to see the Museum of Design. They had a wonderful collection of the 20th century Portugese artists.
We drove through the Alfama district. It has narrow streets and a lot of shops, cafes and homes. We had lunch at the Café a Brazileria. After lunch we were given an hour to shop in the Chiado area.
We crossed the Tagus River to visit the Cristo Rei district. There is a small Jesus statue, (designed like the huge one in Rio, Brazil). We stoped at the Ali Baba Cave, (a gift shop), to pick up a few gifts. The china and pottery, seem to have the same designs as you find in Holland. I bought a sugar and cream, china set, (it is white with royal blue on top).
Our last stop was at Cascais. This is town is on the Atlantic Ocean. We went to see the Grutas de Alapraia, (caves), that has a collection of ancient items. Museu do Mar has a display of the history of this fishing village.
Before we went back we walked through the Parque Palmela, (a park), and along the Marina.
.:What We Did On Our Own:.
We went to the Bairro Alto district late one night to listen to a musician playing Fado Music. This music is unique to Portugal, and is folk music. The melancholic music sounds so sad to me. Another night we went back to see a Flamingo show. The Portugese Flamingo is different than the Spanish one.
We hired a taxi with our friends, to visit Estoril. We saw the Monte Estoril Museum, that has a collection of musical instilments. We walked along the white sandy beach and had lunch at Hotel Palacio. After that we took an hour off to try our luck in the Casino. Then we went to see Sinatra. It is on the side of a mountain made of granite. We went to see the of the Palacio Nacional da Vila, (the summer home of the Royal Family), that was built in the 15th century. The Fort is called the Castelo dos Mouros, that was built by the Moors. The Convento dos Capuchos, is a Hermitage that is made from wee dwarf cells cut from the rock. Before we drove back we had dinner at the Xentra, that serves traditional Portuguese food.
.:My Conclusion:.
We loved Lisbon and if you haven’t visit it yet I highly recommend it to you.
Thank you for reading my review.
©LL2004