Sept 8 2017 Lisbon

Today was a whirlwind tour of Lisbon.   We were up early and on the road by 8:00 am.  It is just over an hour’s drive to Lisbon from Liam and Suibhan’s home to Lisbon.   Lisbon is a city of just over 800,000 but parking and driving is very difficult.  So we parked at a large shopping mall on the outskirts of Lisbon and took the metro down to the city center.   There we transferred to a Hop on – Hop off tour bus.   This bus took us around the city and gave us an over view of the city.   The Hop on –Hop off tour buses always have the open upper seating and it gives you such a great view.  The bus tour took us out along the river front.  We jumped off to get a close up look at the Torre de Belem which is a small castle built right on the edge of the river bank.  From there we walked along the river bank and had a coffee beside the Padrao dos Descobrimentos.  This is a large monument to the great explorers of Portugal.  Vasco De Gammon is the on the front of the monument looking out to sea.   You can climb the stairs inside the monument to get a  view of the harbour however there was a huge cue and it was too hot to stand in line.  From there we jumped back on the bus and were taken down town.   We wandered around the inner city marvelling at all the shops and found ourselves in the an old market which is now a collection of fancy restaurants.  So we couldn’t pass this up and had lunch in a very nice curb side restaurant. 

After lunch we found a Tutuk which took us on a city tour.  The Tutuks are all over and drive though the tiny streets which the large tour buses cannot go.  This took us up the hillside to a number of the different cathedrals and to several city out looks.  The view from the lookouts was just tremendous.  We had a beautiful day for doing this as it was so clear you could see for miles.   The Tutuk dropped us at the Lisbon Castle but we were too tired to take the tour as we had been on our feet since 9:00 am and it was now 5:00 pm so it was decided it was time to head back to the car.  It was still a 20 minute walk back to the metro and there was a lot of discussion about which of the narrow winding streets was the best way.  Fortunately it was all downhill and it was pretty interesting seeing the old city. 

After taking the metro out to where we had the car parked we found an Indian Restaurant which was absolutely great.  Liam drove us home and I think everyone was pretty happy to be home as it was a long day. 

Terry