Lisboa

Well, what to say about Lisboa - a city of contrasts - wealth and poverty, beauty and decay, colourful and drab, very old and very new, very friendly and sometimes unsettling - we have twice been encountered by people who we are quite certain were pickpockets.

I have taken so many photos in two and a half days that I am having difficulty going through them and finding ones to post. Also, as we have been very active since we arrived there has not been a lot of time for sitting and writing or going through photos. Here are a few.

Since we arrived we have been to several high areas, the miradouros, including a ride on the funicular, Glória, up to the São Pedro de Alcantara miradouro,

and up the Santa Justa Elevator. This is the most unusual structure in the Baixa, the lower part of the city. It was designed by s French architect and is "neo-gothic" style - made of iron and decorated with "filigree". It is the easiest way to reach the upper part of the city in this area, the Bairro Alto. There is an excellent look out level at the top and I took several photos from here, which I will show in a later post.(for those who have been to Lisboa many of these structures and buildings will be familiar)

We walked from the top of the Santa Justa elevator to the Igreja do Carmo (right - more about this church later).

We walked to the National Azulejos Museum (more on this later) - 3.5 Km each way - (azulejos are decorated ceramic tiles), strolled across the Praça Figueira and the Praça Rossi

and down Rua Augusta to the Praça Comércio which is beyond the triumphal arch in the distance. I have probably missed some which I will include later.

On one of our morning walks near the hotel we found our way into an area of extremely narrow winding streets and stairways climbing up one of the many hills so characteristic of Lisboa - built on 7 major hills - with seemingly endless smaller ones.

This photo of part of the old city, including the towers of the famous Se Cathedral, with the Rio Tejo in the distance, was taken from the São Pedro do Alcantara miradouo.

Along the way to the miradouro of São Pedro de Alcantara and during a couple of our walks we found some of the extensive and beautiful graffiti, the Urban Street art, which has become prevalent and accepted in Lisboa. More on this later but here is a small sample.

Today we are off to Belém to see the Carriage Museum and the the Monastery of St. Mary of Belém, better known as Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, a monastary for Hieronymite monks of Belém which is near the spot where da Gama set sail for India in 1497. The building of the Monastery was initiated by Manuel I as a gesture of gratitude for the good fortune he envisaged for Portugal. The first stone was laid in 1502. It is apparently referred to as the "pepper catheral" as it was allegedly built with money from spice trading, I presume following Vasco da Gama's successful voyage to the east.