Lisboa – Eu vou sempre me lembrar de você!
Lisbon – I will always remember you!
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| Sunset at the Tejo river |
When arriving at Lisbon from the south, there are 2 outstanding landmarks: the Christo Rei statue and the suspension bridge “Ponte 25 de Abril” over the Tejo river. The upper deck of the bridge carries six car lanes, while the lower deck has a double track railway line. The middle lanes and part of the outer lanes are made of metal grid, which lets the bridge sing when cars drive over. And if you have to stop due to a traffic jam, you can have a look at the train below you – very odd.
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| Ponte 25 de Abril |
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| Christo Rei statue |
We used a parking in Cacilhas, next to an historic ship which was a reconstructed frigate originally from 1843 and is now a museum worth a visit. (38.686425, -9.146945)
From the parking it was just a short walk to the restaurants of Cacilhas and to the ferry terminal. It took us 8 minutes to get to the other side and into the centre of Lisbon. I loved these ferry rides! We had bought a 24h pass for 9,50 Euros so we could use all the public transport including the ferry.
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| Arriving at Cais do Sodré |
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| Praça do Município with a pelourinho (pillory) |
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| Traditional sweets, which you can find everywhere – Pastel de Nata |
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| buying chestnuts with salt |
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| Characteristic trams of Lisbon |
Of course we had to take the tram Nr 12 up to the castle as probably every tourist does, and it was a great experience to ride on this old tram, going uphill through narrow roads and around sharp bends.
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| Tuk-Tuks are everywhere |
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| Elevador de Santa Justa and in the distance Castelo de São Jorge |
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| Praça do Rossio |
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| Exceptional street music on every corner |
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| Lunch break |
We had read about a lost place which we wanted to visit. After a long bus ride and a walk trough Monsanto park we reached the Panorámico, once a restaurant with stunning views. Nowadays it is crumbling and marked with decades of graffiti but somehow the glory of earlier times is palpable
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| Graffiti at Panorámico |
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| Once a restaurant, now a ruin |
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| Restaurante Panorámico |
We walked back to the bus stop and drove down to Belém where we reached the shore of the Tajo river again and the famous Torre de Belém.
This beautiful tower was built in the early 16th century from limestone and is a prominent example of the Portuguese Manueline style. Once built on a small island it now sits near the shore after the river was redirected because of the earthquake of 1755.
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| Torre de Belém |
Next we reached the monument of the first flight across the South Atlantic from Lisbon to Rio de Janiero. The Portuguese pilots flew in 1922 the distance of 8,383 kilometres with a Fairey III seaplane equipped with an artificial horizon for aeronautical use, a revolutionary invention at the time.
We finally took the tram back to the ferry terminal and across the river to Cacilhas, were we enjoyed the sunset after a long day.
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| Flower of the day |
