Lisbon — Day Three
To avoid the worst of the carnage at breakfast it was breakfast first then get ready to head out this morning to get more touring done. It had been raining when we got up but was bright sunshine by the time we were leaving the hotel, only for the moment we sat on the tour minibus it to want to start to rain. And we were on a minibus whose roof was broken and stuck in the open position. But we stayed in our seats and toughed it out as it went from rain to bright sunshine, back to rain and back to sun again as we went round.
We were on the green route and done the stretch from Liberatores to the Castle the previous afternoon, but this time we did almost the full route, only getting off when we got back to the second Liberatores stop and hour and a half after the first one.
And I don’t give a shit if I am repeating myself, I would not want to be driving on most of the roads the minibus travelled on. In fact I would go so far as to say that driving in Lisbon is not for me full stop, but it does lend some insight to the story of the Portuguese taxi driver we had in Leicester back in the late eighties.
There is plenty to see on the way around and it is a struggle to get anything remotely related to good photos. Between dodging raindrops, the vibrations of the cobbled streets, there are angles to consider, bus frame to avoid, and when you think you’ve got it all lined up ready to go the lights change to green or traffic clears and the bus lurches forward with some sudden acceleration.
What the results look like will be interesting viewing once back home and they have all been loaded onto the laptop.
When we got off the bus, we chose a different road to wander down to get to the river, picking one which isn’t festooned with cafes and restaurants and full of desperate men trying to strong arm you into eating at their particular offering. The number of times you can run that gauntlet without just wanting to scream at them to fuck off is limited. The one we pick has a gentle incline to it, which is somewhat of a concern seeing as we are supposed to be heading down to the river. We reach the crest of the road and find it must have been more than a gentle climb. Either that or we are getting used to the hilly nature of the city, as the road down the other side is seriously steep, and we really didn’t think we’d come up so high.
At the top there was a mall, which we took advantage of to use the facilities (that is one thing about Lisbon which isn’t great, there aren’t very many public toilets at all, and so when there are, there are always queues). I’m queuing for a cubicle only for a little brat to queue jump and run in when the old man in there leaves. I take the next available one, and whilst in there I can hear the impatient brat shout to his dad, ‘I’m finished.’ His dad tells him to wait while he himself finishes. Only for the kid to yell ‘for fucks sake, hurry up, the Lego shop is closing.’ (It wasn’t it was half twelve and they don’t shut for lunch.) Hopefully, the Lego shop became the Lego-without shop for the little shit.
The road down takes us back to the Commerce Square and across to the river. It’s time for the next tour, only this time there is no bus, it is on the river. There’s a big river and tours on the river, so of course we are there, we’re well-known suckers for a water level view of a city.
We get some refreshments, sort out the correct token for the tour (part of the HOHO ticket), and find the correct queue (not as easy as it sounds) and get on the little boat. And when I say little boat, I mean it. We had seen the larger boats for other tour companies on the river, but this is tiny, like a minibus compared to the double deckers the others are using. But even so it isn’t full.
Again the weather thinks it is funny. It was bright sunshine as we sit having a bit of lunch, the rain only appears when we set off on the boat. It does have most of its plastic splash protectors down which helps. But not with taking photos.
But the rain does fuck off to be replaced by the sun before too long.
The original route is for the little boat to go down the south side of the river on the westbound leg of the journey, but with the rain, and the threatening clouds, it stays to the north and concentrates on the Lisbon side of the river.
Being out in the vast expanse of the river gives you an unobstructed view of how the city rises away from the river and the layers of buildings of all types rising into the hills.
The cargo terminal is fascinating (to me anyway). Just how huge the container ships are, and how the containers slot together to stack up and stay in place like a giant Lego set. (perhaps drop some on this on that kid from earlier).
And there is the bridge. You can see it is large from a long way away. But the sheer scale really hits home when you are going under it.
It had looked as if our little tour boar was going to ram the yacht, but we only passed close by to it just as we were both going under the bridge, which made a decent photo.
By the time we had made our way past the MAAT buildings we had been on the day before, and out to Belem, the sun was shining.
And there were plenty of opportunities to take decent photographs of the Monument to the Discoveries.
The Belem Tower is a much better photograph from the water than from the top of the tour bus as attempted yesterday.
This is where we turn around to head back and there is a terminal for people to get on and off as even the boat tour is a HOHO. Every other passenger got off, and were replaced by a new set, and off we went back to central Lisbon.
We crossed over to the southside of the river to do so. And besides the obvious tourist photographs of the Christ the King statue, there was much that interested me.
A bit further out to the west from Belem was this, which I am assuming is some kind of refinery type building.
Just before the suspension bridge is another very colourful refinery building.
There are egg shaped structures set into the slopes of the south bank.
And once past the bridge and all the way along the bank until the river opens out into its inland bay was a stretch of abandoned riverside buildings.
We swing back over to the north side of the river and with the sun shining on the city along the stretch of government / municipal eighteenth century buildings painted in assorted colours, and the domes and spires of churches behind them, it has a very Venice-esque look to it.
When the little boat docks at the third of its little stops we get off. The wind whilst on the water has been bitter and we have walked the short stretch back to where the loop would be complete before, so we head off to look for food and to warm up.
The pier is close to where we ate on the first night we were here, and therefore we know that the Time Out Market is only just behind the buildings we can see.
But it is chaotic in there and we want to be able to just sit and relax, order something from a menu and have it delivered to a table, not try and work out which of the forty odd options to order from and then fight to try and find two seats together somewhere in the heaving mass of humanity in the middle of the hall.
We do take the opportunity to use the facilities though. Whilst I am waiting for Helen (the queue for the ladies is unsurprisingly longer and slower moving), I see a bloke go and drag his (I assume) other half out of the queue and shove her into the unused baby change facilities toilet. Once she is in there he is pacing furiously back and forth but gradually further away, and then outside. People who actually have babies to change are now queuing to use it. I get the feeling she’s had more than enough of his shit and is deliberately taking as long as possible or just hiding. Helen comes back before she reappears, but he’s not in sight, and we go the other way. Hopefully, there was a backway out and he’s still pacing there now. Alone.
We use the guidebook to see if there are any recommended eateries near to where we are, and it does mention a place within a couple of minutes’ walk the Rio Grande. A lovely old traditional restaurant with decorative tiles on the walls and old wooden beams.
What we didn’t realise when we went in from the front door was that the side window where we were seated overlooks Pink Street.
And outside our window as we eat there is a drag act in a skintight purple jumpsuit with a long blonde wig (which keeps trying to escape) on roller skates, and armed with a wheelie bin, who is entertaining / terrorising the passing tourists.
We had found Pink Street as we had wanted, but without even trying.
The food, as all food so far has been, was lush, and after getting past the drag act unmolested, we headed back up another different street towards the hotel. Where it was a case of have a bit of a rest and then change to layer up for yet another tour. This time the night bus tour. And not a single Harry Potter in sight.
Three of the others who had been on the previous evening’s walking tour were on this tour as well, making the fullest use of their tickets as well then. But on the whole, it was a sparsely populated bus when the tour set off. Which did mean it was good for me as I could move around a bit in the hope of trying to get some decent photographs.
It starts out fine as there is still reasonable light at 8pm.
But night is falling, and it is doing so quickly.
And whereas the camera can cope with any difficulties thrown at it in daylight, at night it struggles. (or to be more precise, I struggle to be able to set it up, so it doesn’t struggle as much.)
It can cope OK when it is dead still, but as the night tour doesn’t have and pick up points around it the only stops are at traffic lights, so there is a fair bit of motion to deal with.
And as light fades the camera tries to extend the shutter speed to let more light in, which when moving means blurring.
So there I am hoping for traffic lights to be red, or for magical traffic jams to appear.
To be fair I did get some reasonable shots whilst the bus was stationary.
But the one I wanted was when the route went over the bridge above Pink Street. I knew when it was coming, I had the lens at the right length of focus, I had the timing right, but the bus was moving too quickly as there was no traffic and no traffic lights and so it ended up a bit blurry.
It is dark by the time the hour-long tour is up, and we head back to the hotel. We had seen the café on the roundabout was open as the bus came past. Two minutes later as we pass it walking back it is closed and in darkness, so it is back to the room and chill.
There are no planned tours tomorrow, just us mooching on our last full day.
For other Lisbon articles check out the list below
If you liked this post, follow me or get on my email list for future posts. Some may even be more enjoyable than this one.
You can find articles I have already published here.
After years of prevaricating, I have finally gotten around to self-publishing some books. I now have three books available. The first is the novel “Where The Lights Shine Brightest”, this is available on Amazon at
Next up is a collection of drabbles, three hundred and sixty six of the little hundred word stories, under the title of “A Drabble A Day Keeps The Psychoanalyst Away”, this is available on Amazon at
Finally, there is an autobiographical work, released under my alter ego of Kevin Rodriguez-Sanchez, which covers a two year period in the early noughties when I lived in Manchester — “Five Go Mad In Manchester”. Again, this is available on Amazon at
They are all available as paperback or eBook. And if you have Kindle Unlimited then they are available on there to read whenever. Please buy / read / leave reviews.
