Lisbon — Day Two
Going down for breakfast we were able to get what looked to be the last two free seats in the restaurant. I’m looking down the room thinking it is rammed and being surprised as it wouldn’t appear the hotel is that big. But there is a mirror across the back of the room, so it looks twice the size with twice the people in it, and it was only my third wander around the room before I nearly walked into myself coming the other way and realised what was going on. (Have I said I’m not a morning person?)
I suppose it could be said I’m the weather jinx. The previous afternoon had been warm, so this morning I leave the hotel in shorts, t-shirt, and wearing sunglasses. So of course by the time we got on the first of the tour buses it was overcast and threatening to rain. If I said it was a little changeable during the day it might just about cover the number of times we changed seats, got undercover, back into the open, back undercover, in the open, downstairs, upstairs, downstairs, on and off.
When the sun did break through it was lovely and warm, but on the second of the three bus tour routes the spit spots turned into a torrential downpour, which coincided with exactly where we had planned to get off the bus and explore on foot.
As with many larger cities there are more than one route of HOHO buses in Lisbon. There are lots of places of interest to see, but they are spread out over a wide area, putting them all on one route would mean an exceedingly long bus tour.
We had decided on the blue route first which was more to the east and north of the city. Besides the grand municipal buildings and old churches it is interesting as to what catches the eye when on the tours. Such as the sex shop in a building with an Art Deco female fresco on the wall.
Or the Lisbon Business Centre being in a low rent run down block with ideas above its station.
The name of an ice cream store.
Or even the former gas storage frames.
The route goes through the part of the city which had regeneration for when Lisbon hosted Expo 1998. And there are some very interesting structures to see.
There is always too much to try and take in and with the speed of travel, or the angle you are at on the bus means that I spend a lot of time when back at home wondering what the hell I was trying to take a photo of.
What is not in any doubt is just how steeply undulating the city is. There are a lot of roads the buses go up which I’d not want to attempt driving a car, especially the angle of some of the red light induced hill starts which would be needed.
After a lap of the blue route, we change to the red route, getting part of the way around before the rain forced us downstairs for cover, fortunately picking seats which weren’t still getting leaked on down there. The viewpoint behind raindrop splattered windows is totally different and the opportunity to take photographs is limited. To zero.
We got off where we had planned to at the Jeronimos Monastery, supposedly where the first Pastel de Natas were ever made. It is in a traffic free zone (apart from the tour buses), and it is surrounded by museums. (And parts of the monastery buildings have been converted into museums.)
It is properly tipping it down and so we head into a packed Maritime Museum café for lunch. There are map related items to buy in the gift shop, without having to go into the museum, so always good. And whilst we had been lunching the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to escape the cloud cover.
Only for the rain to come back the moment we step outside. But we are used to rain, and we carry on and have a mooch about, through gardens, under the road and railway and to the riverbank and the immense Monument to the Discoveries on it.
In front of it in the square is a map of the world and on it are places highlighted with dates of when the Portuguese empire arrived there during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries following the footsteps of its famed explorers Vasco de Gama and Ferdinand Magellan.
We are heading back under the road and rail when Helen feels someone close up behind her. There is a woman pawing at her backpack and saying, ‘sorry it was open.’ It most definitely wasn’t the woman was blatantly trying to rob Helen. Fortunately, the front pocket was only full of tissues, and her phone and purse were at the bottom of the main compartment buried under lots of other stuff like a jumper and scarf. But whilst checking there was nothing missing the woman and her sidekick had scuttled off as fast as they could and were nowhere to be seen when we were back up at street level. The would-be thief may have got fuck all, but it did shake Helen up and meant she was reluctant to use the backpack as a backpack for the rest of the day and was ultra wary about anyone being close behind her at all.
It began to brighten as we continued to wander around Belem, but we didn’t stop and pick the bus back up at the same point, instead we ended up walking back towards the large suspension bridge.
This meant a detour over a footbridge spanning the road and railway and out onto the roof of one of the MAAT buildings, giving a good view of the other older one.
And of the suspension bridge, built to look like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, it is painted in the same plum colour paint (which is the best colour to be seen in the fog), but is a bit shorter.
Behind it on the hill on the south of the river is the statue Christ the King, like a smaller version of Christ the Redeemer in Rio, more like Christ the Reduced. They do like a copy.
The bridge is called the April 25th Bridge, a nod to the 1974 revolution. It had been shrouded in mist when we had come past it on the bus earlier.
We walked back to under the bridge before reacquainting ourselves with the HOHO bus tours, retracing part of the route we had done before (downstairs in the dry at the time), and past the Belem tower.
Another shower forced us back undercover, and moving back out from the cover just happened to coincide with passing the Basilica, one of the more spectacular churches of the city, and I missed the chance to get a photo of it completely.
Before the loop was complete, we jumped off to change to the green route for a couple of stops to get us up the steep narrow winding streets to the castle. It is easy to see why this route uses a minibus. The route certainly makes me want to reiterate my reluctance to ever want to drive on these streets in a car.
The plan is to get to the castle so that we can catch the 5pm walking tour included with the HOHO tickets. Which we just about manage.
The tour guide in Guilherme, and he is from Brazil, and is doing the tour in English and Spanish, which just blows my mind as I can only just about manage the one language, and even that needs to be carried around in a bucket most of the time.
From the high point next to the castle entrance we have a slow meander down to the river stopping at key points to have things pointed out and for little pieces of the history of the city imparted to us.
One is at the statue of St Vincent (patron saint of the city),
And the viewpoint down from the plaza there, over the terracotta roofs to the river, and across to the church of St Vincent on another hill,
And the dome of the National Pantheon housed in a former church.
We pass a tree which looks like it roots have escaped from the soil and are on an acid trip induced adventure.
There is a quick poke inside the cathedral (which we are likely to return to later in the week).
And then it is down to the river side, stopping at the spiky house.
And finally into the Commerce Square in front of the grand arch, which we had passed through on our little stroll the evening before.
It was a good tour, lasting a lot longer than the advertised hour, and there was even a recommendation of a post tour restaurant for dinner. Which had massive portions of lovely food at reasonable prices. Such sized portions it was probably a good idea there was a walk back up to the hotel involved afterwards.
Those twelve hours had flown by. Time for rest and to get ready to do it all again tomorrow. More buses and a boat tour to come.
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