Loving Life In Lisbon!

After a GREAT night's sleep, we woke up early and were the first people to enjoy the breakfast downstairs in "The House" and.....what a wonderful breakfast it was! Besides having an amazing array of, breads, pastries, cheese, jams, cereals, fruit, freshly squeezed orange juice (from locally grown oranges) and the best yogurt we have ever tasted, we were offered freshly prepared eggs and bacon! It was all soooo good!!!

 

 

After breakfast we headed out to explore Lisbon and see all we could see in one day! We bought a 24 hr tram pass and we used the famous Lisboa Tram 28 to get around the fascinating older part of the city. We hopped off whenever we saw something that caught our eye and interested us in exploring further! Wow! What a city!

 

The streets and walking sidewalks are all in cobblestone ....but, not just any old plain cobblestone, this was tiling cobblestone! Have a look at some of the designs we walked on....

 

 

 

 

AMAZING artistry.....I would have hated being on the working crew of this job, way back when! The streets are very narrow and there are serious hills to go up and down as you navigate this beautiful city! Have a look ( noting that the pictures don't really do this justice)....

 

 

 

 

 

 

It blew my mind how many women (locals) wore high healed shoes on these streets! The tourists all had good walking shoes on, but the beautiful local women seemed to have figured out a way to walk these streets with their pretty shoes on!

Speaking of shoes, I couldn't help but notice that the local women either wear, heels (seriously high heels), Flats or very stylish boots! They also wear very brightly coloured and patterned leggings! Obesity does not seem to be as big an issue here, as it is at home, so the women, particularly, look very stylish and slim.

This is a very economically depressed city and it is apparent in the residential and business districts......with lots of businesses boarded up, with graffiti and looking very desolate, while other businesses , which remain open look like they are struggling.....in many ways the streets looked like Havanna, Cuba......quite impoverished, but not slummy. Of course, there is a higher end tourist area, that thrives with tourist dollars! We have been told by locals that Portugal has not quite recovered from past economic crisis and that there are a lot of poor people here.

The architecture is amazing with many grand churches, museums, and statues. There is also a castle, here in Lisbon. We did not tour any of these places, instead we let ourselves wander where the wind, Tram 28 and our feet/curiosity took us! We did a lot of people watching and Lawrence did a lot of map watching! (See below... :) ). We got lost a few times!!

We enjoyed a great bowl of soup, fresh buns and incredibly good pastries for lunch! We strolled around the downtown (chiado-Baixa area) this evening and enjoyed a heightened energy with music and performers in the streets. Supper was in a local restaurant that came recommended for it's good food and low prices. Lawrence had grilled bass and I had chicken. Once again (similar to the UK and Cuba) they do not feature fresh vegetables and salads in the local/traditional Portuguese cuisine. The bread and the pastries are to die for, though!!! We had SUCH a great custard tart, to day.....OMG!!!....was it good!

Here are a few more pictures of what we saw and did......

There are no big grocery stores here. There are lots of little 'mercados' similar to this one that have a little bit of lots of different things.

 

Lisbon is a beautiful city with sooooo much charm, warmth, friendly people and a very relaxed pace/energy within the streets! We understand how people want to come here and spend 2-3 week holidays....there is soooo much to see, experience and explore!! We walked alot....saw alot.....ate alot and now, we are tucked into our cozy B & B, ready to hit the hay because tomorrow we leave early in the morning to take a train to our little apartment in Tavira, where we will call home for the next month!

This is the area right outside our bedroom.

And this is our bedroom.....

Good Night Everyone! While it is only 5:00 PM at home, it is12 midnight here!! :)

 

Posted with Blogsy