Alfama, Lisbon, Portugal
- Not only are we in Europe’s most western country we are also in Europe’s most western capital
- And as all good things are 3: Lisbon was not always the capital of Portugal: 1st it was Guimaraes – then it became Coimbra and finally in 1255 Lisbon became the capital
- To make it more interesting: for 13 years during the Naploeonic war Rio de Janeiro was Portugals capital
- Today in the core live around 550.000 people
- It was orginally named Alli Ubba = calm harbour by the Phoenicians, then got the name Olispo when the Romans came in 210 BC, the Moors in 700 called it Lushbuna
- did I mention that Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world, it was founded in 1200 BC as a trading station
- This is where we stay and it is Lisbon’s oldest quarter – they say a labyrinthine maze of narrow streets and alleys on the lower slopes of the Moorish Castle: Gine thinks it is amazing that some “Street” are stairways
- During the Moorish times this was a bustling district and became the home of Lisbons firsherman and mariners
- This is also one of the few areas which survived the 1755 earthquake
- They say it is one of Europes most photogenic neighborhood
We started out to go to the
Santa Apolina Station in the hope to get a Lisbon card: guess reno’s or COVID
closed the info here – so we went off by food: and what do you do in the
Alfalma you walk up stairs, then narrow streets??? Really a car can drive here –
you are amazed about the narrow alleys, find always some cute house with lots
of tiles: and then wonder most of the time if you are lost or not: but there is
always another walk going uphill (by the way all is copperstones) or stairs
going up or down. Amazingly we didn’t get lost!! Oh and we did see the first
trams going by.
Miradouro #1 at Estevao
I’m not quite sure if we really
followed our “map” but we did arrive here after only one wrong steps ups, and
had our first glimpses behind this church over the red roofs of the Alfalma. Then
it gets again a bit confusing on what is a road or not – but we continued on
and found:
Miradouro Portas do Sol
Here was the “sun gate” and you
have an amazing view towards the river: only the beautiful blue sky we had
earlier gave way to some raindrops – no the question is: do we need an umbrella
or is it only drizzling: as they didn’t had Lisbon Umbrellas we decided no and
enjoyed the view for a bit. Here we also saw the first time the tuktuks – but soon
discovered everywhere where there are tourists, there are tuktuks – but no we
didn’t took one we actually walked nearly the whole day!!!
How important is the famous
Castelo to us?
After some more narrow alleys
and more steps up we arrive at the outside of the castle: long line up and it’s
20 E, and we decide there will be so many more castle we see – to have this one
is really not so important. (I guess the line up is as it is Lisbons most
popular attraction)
But we did went through the
beautiful gate and admired the old walls from the Moors:
- Here the city started and it towers over Lisbon: from a lot of points later we always saw the towers and the walls
Miradouro #3 at the Baixa
elevator
Ok, we know the general
direction: it is downhill!! We did have to be a bit careful as it was a bit
slippery on the cobble stones. As we walked down we saw another viewpoint and
right near it was an elevator: perfect – that means we enjoy the view with the
red roofs and then go to the bottom. Except afterwards we still walked further
down. Here they also have those beautiful sidewalks: white and black cobble
stones: we later discovered that they are everywhere.
Lisbons Cathedral Se
After coming by a wall with some
pottery and a the St. Augustine Church: as it was for free we poked our heads
in, but there was a service going on, so we left. In front of the Cathedral was
a lineup of Tuctucs. Gine said: we have to see it and so we go inside:
- They say it looks like a fortress of god with twin towers
- It was the 1st church the Christians built after reclaiming Lisbon from the Moors: they made it a statement building to where a Moorish mosque was: it by the way it only took them 3 years to built from 1148-50
- Balcony: after going up we could go out on a tiny balcony: above the main doorway and underneath the big window – inside we were right under the window perfect to admire it and had also an amazing view on the Cathedral
- Treasury: that was the next part we visited – ok one thing is for sure, the church was not poor in the old days, we saw some amazing adored clothes from the priests, some amazing old handwritten books, silver and gold vessels, as well as a beautiful ceiling, pictures in the typical Portuguese tiles and a chair – more made for a king.
- D. Jose Monstrance: made of gold with and 4120 precious stones like diamonds, rubies, saphires, emeralds - it weights over 17 kg, it sparkles and is absolute amazing,
- The Chapels: We then went towards the front: where you can see an amazing old organ – and around the main church are a lot of side chapels: one is dedicated to Saint Vincent, where it is said that his remains came here by ship in the 12th century, some big stone sarcophages
- Patriarch Dressing Chamber: talk about fancy – here they change they cloth – a big tunic was displayed it is so large and long that you need the help of two acolytes to move. In here they even have an altar.
A tiny chapel with blue tile
paintings and we left this very unique cathedral.
Baixa: Time for a coffee and Portuguese
Pastry
- This is the lower town: it is in the valley between the 2 hills
- After the earthquake in 1755 the streest fell into the river and it got then redsigned and rebuilt in a grid pattern – and good for us most is pedestrian streets
Ok, it is now after noon – I think
we deserve a cup of coffee: they looked a bit weird when we asked to get milk
in our espresso, we also picked out two of the typical Portuguese treats: the Pastel
the Belem – it is a custard and it is super yummy. We had a typical one and one
with chocolate cream on top. We then discovered they are everywhere and we are
at the moment in Baixa where you have one restaurant or padaria after the next.
Lisbons Great earthquake
in 1755 that changed more the city:
- It was on All-Saints Day Nov1, 1744 at 9.30 in the morning and it was a series of underwater earthquakes in the mid Atlantic: it was the largest earthquake that ever hit Europe and they felt it as far away as Finnland
- It killed around 60.000 people in Lisbon
alone: during the time it happened a lot of people attended masses in churches
which collapsed and killed the worshippers
- Waves as high as 6 m hit Lisbon – in Cadiz in Spain the waves were 20 m high (even in the Carribean they had 10 hours later 4 m high waves crashing on land)
- The fires afterwards burnt for 5 days in Lisbon - 2/3 of the city was levelled
- The Earthquake shook Portugal morally and spiritually: it felt like an Apocalypse and they asked if God punished Lisbon for the inquisition killing on the PRaca do Comerio
- After the Quake Chief Minister Marques de Pomba rebuilt Lisbon with broad boulevards and generous squares: like here in the Baixa
Praca do Comercio
- Also called the palace square: because before the earthquake was here the royal palace
- In the middle a statue of King Joao I: who was the king when the city was redeveloped after the 1755 earthquake: he told his chief minister Pimbal to rebuilt it. The king is on horseback rdigin through snikes: the horse represent Portugals power
This praca is amazing: the arcaded
walks on the outside are amazing, then the huge square – you can look up at the
castle and you have that amazing gate behind you and the river Tejo in front of
you
After getting our Lisbon card
(for later) we went to the river: and went down to the 2 pillars – so is it
salt water? As it goes to the Atlantic or not?? There are 2 little beaches here
– and finally we got some sun peaking out, so it was beautiful to sit soak up
the sounds of the musician, watch the bubbles in the air, admire the towers, we
saw all the way to the bridge of the 25 April and the Cristo Rei.
Gate & Rua Augusta
- The Arco da Rua Augusta: it is the archway into the city and it was built to celebrate Lisbon’s reconstruction after the earthquake
- Also called the Arch of Triumph: when looking
up you can see 2 statues one of Vaso da Gama (left) and one Pimbal (right – who
rebuilt the city)
From here we walked up the Rua Augusta
with beautiful white-black cobble stones, Gine loves it and read that they are
unique to Portugal: by the way they were cut and laid in the 19th
century by prison labourers.
Lots of restaurants and yummy
looking paderias we go until come to the:
Praca Rossio
Before coming to it: we walked
over the Praca da Figueira (Fig tree square) – from here we could the the
Castelo and then on to the Praca Dom Pedro the IV or Rossio square:
- This is since medival times the city’s main square and Lisbons historic center with some nice fountains and again the beautiful cobble stones,
- In case you wonder why it is not square but oval: during the roman times over 2000 years ago this was a race track
- The column in the center honors king Pedro IV who was also the emperor of Brazil
On the way with the Metro
Right then and there – it is
easy by colors so we can learn some portugues like: verde – azul – amarela and
to make it easier its ship-birds-flower: a bit driving around to the parque and
back and later back home. Maybe you don’t see a lot but it is fun.
Parque Eduardo VII
As we go up and cross all the
street with the circles we are at the bottom of this funky park:
- We are in Portugal but this parque was named after the British King Edward VII when he visited the city in 1903
- Here was in 98 the Expo World fair
We walked all the side up with
cool views on the squary boxwoods and see some planes flying in, guess we are
not that far away from the airport? At the top was a weird kind of pool and some huge poles: Gine later read that this
is a spot to hang a flag. We had a cool view down the park all the way to the
river, on one side was a little pond with some statues, we also came by the Pavillion
Carlos Lopez which had some cool blue/white tile motives on the outside.Also we discovered some parrots
in the trees: they are wild, and are since 1970 in Portugal and came from
Africa, today there are around 650 of them in Lisbon and we saw 2: they escaped
and adapted to life here.
It’s rains: do they have
coffee here???
The plan was to go back by Metro
to the Rossio plaza: have a coffee and then use the Elevator: but it was
raining – so we thought we get a coffee and got only an espresso: I mean like 2
tbsp of strong coffee without milk – guess we have to learn on where we can get
a coffee. At it started to rain more and more – we decided to head back: have a
real coffee and relax and have supper I mean it is really only day 1 correct!!
Sitting in the Metro Station
Paul talked to a lady and she gave us some cool chicken filled pastry – after Paul
joked around with her – it was yummy!!
Supper in the Alfalma
After some relax downtime – we walked
up the stairs – yes we walk a lot of stairs here, that is when we discovered we
didn’t brought the wallet: as Paul thought it is in the backpack and Gine
thought Paul has it. So Gine did some more stair walking and then we decided on
some durum kebab: which was very good and also not that pricy.
Tonight we need to relax a bit
more and then tomorrow we will be ready to get up earlier and have another big
day.
Oh and did Gine mention: that we
have a weird lamp over our table with some plug ins: so Gine plugged in her
laptop and it literally discharged the laptop: guess this plug is not really
charging that well or rather it is discharging!!! That means Gine moves to the
working plug and that means sitting in the tiny little kitchen at the computer đŸ˜Š
2025-05-22