Lovely Lisbon
Trip Start
Jun 17, 2008
1
53
56
Trip End
Dec 17, 2008
Lisbon,
Estremadura,
Portugal
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Anyway, we arrived safely in Lisbon at a campsite that is only a short bus journey from the city centre - thank goodness for that! They also let you check out anytime up to 7pm in the evening, which I thought was excellent, but something I'm sure that is not provided during the peak season. This meant that we could leave a night earlier, as we (or Paul) have 1400 km to drive in under a week to get to Paul's Auntie's in Confolens - so the more time we can grab the better!
We were actually looking forward to seeing a big city again, as to be honest Spain was a bit of a disaster, apart from Barca & Gibraltar (even though that's not Spain, but you know what I mean!), mainly due to the freak weather we experienced pretty much most of the time! We were planning on having such a relaxing time in Spain & enjoying the last bits of sunshine, but I guess things don't always go to plan eh! Another disappointing thing about Spain was the lack of WIFI access there - they just don't seem to be very technologically advanced for such a developed country & the same goes with Portugal! It's amazing to think we could get considerably better WIFI in Estonia & Poland than in Spain & Portugal! Something that did amuse us though is that if you ask someone if they have WIFI they don't have a clue what you're on about. But, if you ask them if they have 'Wee Fee' in a high pitched voice, they know instantly (but probably won't have it!) - Very amusing & a handy tip for you guys & gals!!
So, after a relaxing evening to recover from the long journey, we ventured into Lisbon on the Sunday! We took the bus in, which was quite an experience - it seems that the bus drivers think they are in a Formula 1 race or something & if someone wants to get on or off they are simply disrupting their battle to get to get a podium finish - scary!! Anyway, we made it in one piece & got off in the main square, had a look around the market stalls & then went on search of some info to find out where to go & what to see! I must say we found one of the most informative tourist info women ever - she just wouldn't stop feeding us with places to see & the best areas to go to! It was quite nice not to have to draw blood from a stone for once! She also informed us that between 10am - 2pm every Sunday most of the Monuments & Museums are free of charge, as well as them being closed on Mondays. Well, after hearing this we made a dash for it to get as much crammed in before 2pm as we could!
We headed into Belem , just a short tram ride away & is where the Monastery is as well as many other places of interest - we'd gone past the Monastery on the bus & it looked extremely impressive so that was the first port of call. We queued to get into the actual church, where there was a service going on, & apart from all the annoying camera flashes going off it was very beautiful with amazing stained glass windows - obviously they wouldn't charge you to go in here at any time to visit! We then proceeded to go to the grounds of Monastery, which were equally exquisite with views of the church spires behind them! After the Monastery we headed towards the gardens across the road to get to the waterfront. We walked along here to get to the castle, but little did we know, till we reached the end of the walkway, that unless we were superhuman long jumpers we wouldn't be able to get to the castle this way - damn! Anyway, after finding the right way to go, we eventually made it to the castle. I braved it and went all the way to the top, which if anyone is in the slightest bit claustrophobic, I would not recommend it at all - not pleasant coming down with people lining the whole length of the spiral staircase, clinging on trying to concentrate to get your foot on the tiny bit of step you have available - I was very relieved to get to the bottom, as was everyone taking a big sigh of relief! I'm glad I went up though, as there were good views but was happy when I was back on the ground!
Anyway, we'd had enough for one day so all that was left was to get some cakes from a recommended patisserie & go back to see Winnie to check in for the night! Our plan was to go into Lisbon again for a couple of hours the following day & then head off in the afternoon towards Spain, getting closer to Paul's Auntie's in France, & this is exactly what we did. We went into Lisbon for a couple of hours, & went to look at the less than impressive Basilica - we've seen so many & this one just had nothing special about it (although we didn't see the inside!), just very bland & unimposing! After this, we decided to call it a day & bid our farewells to Lisbon & Portugal for that matter - a short but sweet visit but we were very impressed with the Capital - although an extremely large city, it doesn't have some of the nastiness that comes with Capitals & they have really tried to retain the natural beauty of the place with some amazing buildings, along with plenty of greenery & open space to enjoy the sun! Not too sure about the old men walking around trying to sell the 'Hashish' to anyone & everyone - very strange & quite amusing as you just don't expect these guys to be drug dealers! Look forward to visiting Portugal again, & maybe enjoying a little time with the sun in the Algarve!
