May 13, 2012: Cadiz, Spain
	May 11, 2012: Lisbon, Portugal (Day 1)
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From the Ship's Log:   Saturday, May 12, 2012 Lisbon, Portugal 2:58pm      Vessel undocked and underway

The Noordam stayed moored in Lisbon last night, so today we can get off the ship fairly early. We want to see quite a bit, and since the ship is supposed to depart at 3:00pm, we'll have to get an early start if we want to do it all.

Praca do Comercio (Palace Square)

We are going to walk through Lisbon at our own pace today, and see as much as we can. We were off the ship at eight-thirty and headed to our starting point at the Praca do Comercio (Plaza of Commerce).

When we got off the ship, we stopped out where the tour buses were leaving from to see what kind of local transportation we would want to use. We finally decided that none of the tourist buses or the "hop on, hop off" buses would likely take us where we wanted to go. So we thought we would just find a taxi. The ones coming into the port were all wanting to be hired for the day, so we walked out of the port area, underneath the Avenue Brasilia and to a corner that seemed to have a lot of traffic.

Presently, an empty taxi came by and we hopped in. Even without Greg along we could have asked for "Praca do Comercio," but not only did Greg ask for it in decent Portuguese (I suspect he was using a mixture of Spanish and Italian), but he seemed to carry on a simple conversation with the driver as we drove along. Getting to the plaza turned out to be fairly easy, and five or ten minutes later we were paying the driver at Palace Square.

The Praça do Comércio (English: Commerce Square) is located on the Tagus River, right at the foot of the center city area. The square is still commonly known as Palace Square because it was the location of the Royal Ribeira Palace until it was destroyed by the great 1755 Lisbon Earthquake. From the riverside, there were good views back towards the April 25th bridge.

Development in this area began in the early 1500s when King Manuel I built the Ribeira Palace here– outside the city walls. Later, a port, shipbuilding facilities and administrative buildings that regulated the commerce between Portugal and other parts of Europe and its colonies in Africa, Asia and America were also constructed.

On 1 November 1755, a great earthquake followed by a tsunami and fire destroyed most of Lisbon, including the Ribeira Palace and other buildings by the river. Parts of the old quay were about all that was left. After the earthquake, the square was completely remodelled as part of the rebuilding of the city by the Marquis of Pombal- Minister of the Kingdom of Portugal during the reign of King Dom Jose I (1750-1777). Architects designed a large, rectangular square in the shape of an "U", open towards the Tagus. The buildings have galleries on their ground floors, and the arms of the "U" end in two large towers, reminiscent of the monumental tower of the destroyed Ribeira Palace, still vivid in the architectural memory of the city. The plan was realised almost completely.

The square was named the Square of Commerce, to indicate its new function in the economy of Lisbon. The symmetrical buildings of the square were filled with government bureaus that regulated customs and port activities.

The main piece of the ensemble was the equestrian statue of King José I, inaugurated in 1775 in the centre of the square. This bronze statue, the first monumental statue dedicated to a King in Lisbon, was designed by Portugal's foremost sculptor of the time. In the work, the King on his horse is symbolically crushing snakes on his path.

The architect planned a triumphal arch, only completed in 1875. This arch, usually called the Arco da Rua Augusta, has a clock and statues of Glory, Ingenuity and Valour (by the French sculptor Camels) and others- notably Vasco da Gama and, of course, the Marquis of Pombal.

On 1 February 1908, the square was the scene of the assassination of Carlos I, the penultimate King of Portugal. On their way back from the palace of Vila Viçosa to the royal palace in Lisbon, the carriage with Carlos I and his family passed through the square, and shots were fired from the crowd by at least two men. The king died immediately, his heir Luís Filipe was mortally wounded, and Prince Manuel was hit in the arm. The assassins were shot on the spot by members of the bodyguard and later recognized as members of the Republican Party– which two years later overthrew the Portuguese monarchy.

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I made a movie here in Palace Square, and you can have a look at it with the player at right. I also got a picture of Fred, looking back towards the ship at one of the arms of the "U" shape, and you can see that picture here. Fred also got some other good pictures in and around the square, and you can click on the thumbnail images below to have a look at them:

As you can see from the earlier aerial view, there is quite a bit of construction going on in the square, although most of what you see in that view near the river is finished. They were working on the street in front of the arch, so to cross it and go through the arch we had to go to the northwest corner of the square, cross Rua do Arsenal and work our way back to go under it. We walked north towards Rua de Sao Juliao, and I turned around to get a view back through the arch.

Two Churches and a Cathedral

We wanted to get to the Castelo Sao Jorge eventually, and we knew it was off to the east somewhere, so we went a bit further north to find a main street leading that way. We turned east on Rua da Conceicao.

Our route, as it turned out, took us by three different churches- one of them the Lisbon Cathedral. On this trip, I learned from Greg that a town or city will only have one Cathedral, that being the home church of the highest-ranking prelate in the town or city. In small towns, the buildings are not very large or ornate, and are usually called "churches," particularly if the highest-ranking prelate is just a priest. But in large cities, there is usually a bishop, and the church he heads is the Cathedral- the rest of them being called churches.

In the larger cities, the Cathedral tends to be large and/or ornate, but that all depends on the history of the building, I guess. Here in Lisbon, we didn't think the Cathedral was particularly large or particularly ornate, and we found out later that there are larger churches in the city. Of course, all of this only applies to Catholic churches, but then I don't recall seeing any other kind until we got to Greece.

Lisbon seems to have an extensive trolley and streetcar system. Yesterday, our bus passed a number of smaller trolleys, and one of the guys we'd met on board had told us that a good way to see the city was to ride a certain trolley along its entire route. I thought we might be able to do that today, but as it turned out we saw quite enough to fill our day here anyway. We just walked along the city streets, generally uphill, looking in the store windows and taking pictures of whatever seemed interesting- like this odd display.

Igreja da Madalena

Fred took some interesting pictures along our route to the first church we stopped at, and if you will click on the thumbnails below you can see them:

After a few blocks, we came to the Igreja da Madalena. The Magdalene Church that currently exists is the result of several reconstructions of the church that was built in c. 1150. In 1363, a fire destroyed the church; it was rebuilt by King Ferdinand I. In 1600, was partially destroyed by a cyclone and in 1755 it was destroyed in the earthquake. In 1783, Queen Maria I rebuilt the church again from its foundations.

The Magdalene Church belongs to the Brotherhood of Jesus of Pardons, Santa Catarina and Our Lady of Bethlehem and has within it an image of Christ's forgiveness, as well as paintings by Pedro de Carvalho Alexandrian and a sculpture sculpture by José de Almeida. The portal of the church is considered an excellent example of the Manueline style It is thought that he came from another church also destroyed by the earthquake. The Portal of the Church was classified as a National Monument in 1910. Although I didn't go inside, Fred did, and got one picture of the nave.

We continued along our route, looking up and down the narrow streets, and since we were following one of the trolley routes, we had to listen for the bell and move out of the way when one of the trolley cars came by.

San Antonio Church

It was just a few blocks to the San Antonio Church. Santo Antonio (better known as Saint Anthony of Padua), revered as a matchmaker, protector of young brides, and patron of the lost and found, was actually born in Lisbon, on the site of this church.

Work began on the church in 1757, and the façade blends the Baroque style with Neoclassical Ionic columns. Inside, the altar features an image of the saint with Christ in his arms, the sacristy is faced with 18th century tiles, and there is a modern tile panel commemorating the visit of Pope John Paul II to the church in 1982.

Next door is a small museum with images and manuscripts relating to the life of the saint, as well as gold and silverware used to decorate the church. Mass marriages known as "St. Anthony's Weddings" are held here during the mid-June St. Anthony's Day celebrations. I don't know if today's crowd was coming out of a regular Mass or whether there was an off-peak wedding going on, but we milled around in the small plaza for a while- where I took a picture of Greg and Fred at the statue of St. Anthony.

As it turned out, the third church we went by was immediately behind the Church of St. Anthony- the Cathedral of St. Mary. This church, the oldest in the city, is the see of the Archdiocese of Lisbon. Lisbon has had a bishop since the 4th century AD; although the city was under Moorish control for almost 400 years. In 1147, the city was reconquered by Portuguese soldiers led by King Afonso Henriques and North European crusaders taking part on the Second Crusade. An English crusader named Gilbert of Hastings was placed as bishop, and a new cathedral was built on the site of the main mosque of Lisbon.

St. Mary's Cathedral

This first building was built between 1147 and 1200, and kings and queens added to or renovated the cathedral continually. During the 14th and 16th centuries several earthquakes damaged the cathedral, and the 1755 earthquake and fire destroyed most of it. The cathedral was rebuilt and, in the beginning of the 20th century, was given the appearance that it has today. In recent years the central courtyard of the cloister has been excavated and shows signs of the Roman, Arab and mediaeval periods. The church is a Latin cross building with three aisles, a transept and a main chapel surrounded by an ambulatory.

From the beginning, the Lisbon cathedral has preserved the West façade and rose window (rebuilt from fragments in the 20th century), the main portal and the nave. The portals have interesting sculptured capitals with Romanesque motifs. The nave is covered by barrel vaulting and has an upper, arched gallery. Light gets in through the rose windows of the West façade and transept. The ambulatory has survived and is an important work in the history of Portuguese Gothic. It consists of a circular aisle - not connected to the main chapel - with a series of radiating chapels. The second storey of the ambulatory is covered by ribbed vaulting and has a series of windows (clerestory) that bathe the interior with abundant light. At the beginning of the 20th century, much of the neoclassical decoration from outside and inside of the cathedral was removed to give the cathedral a more "mediaeval" appearance. You can see many of these features in the pictures I took inside; click on the thumbnails below to have a look:

Getting to Castelo Sao Jorge

From the Cathedral, we continued uphill along Rua do Limoeiro, continuing to head in the direction of the fortress. We couldn't actually see it, but we knew that if we just headed in the general direction and continued uphill, we'd get there.

About four blocks uphill from the Cathedral, we came to some sort of plaza; there was a shallow pool and a trellis-covered line of benches with an overlook down to the Tagus River. You can see it in the upper right corner of the aerial view, and in the picture I took in the plaza here.

When Fred had me sit down by the pool so he could take my picture he noticed that on the wall of the building adjacent to the little plaza there was a mural done with individual tiles- apparently a view of Lisbon from the river. We were not sure how old it actually was, but Fred wanted to get an up-close picture of it, a picture that you can see here.

I got a picture of Fred and Greg near the overlook, which was also decorated with blue tile. When we went over to see what the view was, we could see two other smaller cruise ships docked at the other cruise ship port:

On the other side of the building that was the north end of this little plaza, there was another building that had a small garden, and on the side of that building was another decorative blue‑tile mural. This tile mural was also very intricate; each tile had to be hand-painted I assume.

Just on the other side of the building where the mural was, we found another plaza with another overlook. Between the building and the plaza there were some narrow steps leading down toward the cruise port, but they probably just went to the next street down. There are lots of stairs like that in Lisbon (and we were to see lots of them all throughout our trip).

I walked out onto the overlook to see what I could see, and the view was pretty good- better, I think, than back by the pool and balcony we'd come from.

Back on the little plaza itself, there was a statue, but of whom I am not sure. I stepped back a ways to get a picture of Fred at the plaza.

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From where he was standing in my photograph, Fred made a movie looking all around the plaza, and you can watch it with the player at right.

And I walked back out onto the overlook to make my own movie; watch it with the player below:

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We took a circuitous route to get to the Castelo, following some narrow streets that led up and to our left. Along the way, I happened to look into the courtyard of a building we passed (which may have been a museum) and saw what I can only assume was a work of modern art. It looked like a giant sponge or something just hanging in the courtyard, and I couldn't quite tell from the street what it was made of. So I went into the courtyard to get a closer look. I was pretty surprised to find that it was made of an agglomeration of pieces of steel mesh- some of them painted- to give the appearance of a huge rock hanging in midair. Very interesting. We walked past the ticket office for the Castelo, and we got our entrance tickets. The actual Castelo was still a block or so away. There were a couple of souvenir shops near the ticket office, and I thought them colorful enough to take a picture of Fred there.

Then the road went up alongside the fortress walls (actually, it turned out that the fortress had multiple levels, and these were just the lowest of three levels of walls), turned, and went through an archway that was originally and entrance through that lower set of walls. Just inside the arch we found a kind of exhibit built into the Castelo wall. It represented one of the soldiers that would have manned the fortress. You can have a look at it here. The actual entrance to the Castelo was a little further on; apparently, private homes and commercial buildings have been constructed in what was once part of the Castelo, and we had to walk past them to get to the actual entrance where we presented our tickets and went in.

Inside Castelo Sao Jorge

The Castle of São Jorge (Portuguese: Castelo de São Jorge; is a Moorish castle that occupies a commanding position overlooking the city of Lisbon and the broad Tagus River beyond. The strongly fortified citadel, which, in its present configuration, dates from medieval times, is located atop the highest hill in the historic center of the city. The castle is one of the main historical and touristic sites of Lisbon. Although the first fortifications on this Lisbon hilltop are known to be no older than the 2nd century BC, archaeological research has shown that humans have occupied the site since the 6th century BC, and possibly earlier. The hill was employed in early times by indigenous Celtic tribes; many others (probably Phoenicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians) have also left their cultural footprints here. Since then, Roman, Visigothic, Moorish and modern settlers lived where the castle now stands.

When we entered the Castelo, we found ourselves on a broad plaza with commanding views of the city and river, but we discovered that we were only at the southern end of the Castelo area- and the actual fortified citadel was north of us. So we wandered around the plaza for a while, taking pictures and movies, and then went to the northern end of the comples to tour the actual citadel. I have stitched together a detailed aerial view of the complex, and I have marked our approximate route, and some of the stops we made, on it. It is in the scrollable window below, and you can use it to follow our progress if you wish. To see the entry point and plaza, begin by scrolling all the way to the bottom of the image.

The castle complex consists of the castle itself, some ancillary buildings (including the ruins of the royal palace), gardens, and a large terraced square from which an impressive panorama of Lisbon is visible. The main square is decorated with old cannons and a bronze statue of Afonso Henriques, the Portuguese monarch who took the castle from the Moors.

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After we'd been inside for just a few minutes, I walked out to the center of the square to make my first movie. You can watch it with the player at left.

The remnants of the royal palace are located near the main square, but all that is left are some walls and a few rebuilt rooms like the Casa Ogival. It now hosts the Olissipónia, a multimedia show about the history of Lisbon.

The castle and the city of Lisbon were won from the Moors by King Afonso Henriques with the help of northern-European crusaders associated with the Second Crusade. (The Siege of Lisbon, which took place in 1147, was the only notable success of that failed crusade.) According to an oft-repeated legend, the knight, Martim Moniz, noticed that one of the doors to the castle was open, and he prevented the Moors from closing the door again by throwing his own body into the breach. He sacrificed his life but, in doing so, allowed Christian soldiers to enter.

Ownership of the castle helped the Christians to protect Lisbon against the Moors during the last years of the 12th century. When Lisbon became the capital of the kingdom, in 1255, the castle became the royal palace, the Alcáçova. It was extensively renovated around 1300 by King Denis I.

We took quite a few pictures from the walls overlooking Lisbon, and the best of them are below. Many of Fred's display his zoom as he zeroes in on places we've already been or will be later on today:

Click on the thumbnails below to see some additional pictures we took from the square:

From the square, we walked along the west side of the castle compound. The castle had gone through a period of neglect since the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 severely damaged the castle. But this neglect ended in the 1940s, when an extensive renovation was undertaken. Most of the incongruous structures added to the castle compound in earlier centuries were demolished. The castle then became a big tourist attraction, known especially for the wonderful views of Lisbon that it offers. As we walked along, we found old walls that had been repaired, and a number of modern structures that had been added. When we could see the actual castle ahead of us, we followed the signs through a passageway to get to its entrance- the bridge over the old moat (now dry). The entrance faces south.

We came around to the foot of the bridge and crossed into the castle. You can see, from the images of the castle walls below, that there was at one time a moat here; where the water came from for it I have no idea. Just inside the first archway, we found ourselves between two sets of walls, with the inner set having the parapets and towers on it. Click on the thumbnails below to see some pictures we took on the bridge and as we entered the castle:

We made some twists and turns as we came into the castle; we saw one interesting doorway that had been blocked off. But following the marked path, we came through a final doorway into the east courtyard. (There were two sides to the courtyard; a wall with two arched doorways ran between them, and there was a parapet on top of that wall. I assume that this was done so that if soldiers had to get from the south wall to the north wall quickly, they would not have to go all the way around the perimeter of the castle.) I might mention that at the entrance to the courtyard, there was a musician playing his pipe instrument for tips, and with him he had two cats- a calico and a tuxedo cat.

Off to the right side of the courtyard, against the east wall of the castle there was a set of steep stairs, and while Fred took a picture, Greg and I went over to go up them. You may notice in that picture that Fred took of the stairs I am taking a picture as well; you can see that picture here.

When I finished my picture, I climbed up the stairs, and I thought Greg and Fred were right behind me, but it turned out that they weren't. I went immediately to the first tower I came to- the Barbican Tower- to take some pictures. When I came down from it, they were nowhere to be seen. As it turned out, I lost them for the better part of half an hour; we met up again on top of the middle north-south wall that divides the courtyards.

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Right at the top of the stairs I found another short set of stairs that led up to the top of Barbican Tower, so I went up there to take in the view to the southeast, and I stepped back to get a picture of the top of the tower wall. I also looked south to get a picture of the next tower I'd go over to- Tower of the Keep at the southeast corner of the castle.

When I came back down onto the walkway that ran from tower to tower on top of the east wall, I stopped to make a movie. I was standing between Barbican Tower and Tower of the Keep. You can watch that movie with the player at right.

I walked down to the Tower of the Keep, and climbed the narrow stairs to the top, where there were some great views, including one of the bridge we crossed to enter the castle.

I got some other nice pictures from the top of the Tower of the Keep, and if you'll click on the thumbnails below you can have a look at some of them:

When I was about to leave the Tower of the Keep, I located Fred and Greg; I could see them on the north side of the castle, walking along the ramparts. So I came down from the tower, crossed over by the Tower of Ulysses (you can see a picture of the Tower of the Keep and the Tower of Ulysses at the right here) and got on the rampart atop the middle wall, and went over to the north side of the citadel to meet up with them. While I had been in my two towers, they had been walking along the north ramparts and through the towers there; click on the thumbnails below to see some of the pictures Fred took on the north side of the castle:

We spent a bit of time on the north ramparts, and then the three of us headed back towards the south side of the castle on the top of the middle wall. About halfway back, there was a picturesque archway and a set of stairs down into the west courtyard. We continued down to the end of that rampart and the Tower of Ulysses.

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From this end of the middle rampart, Fred could look down into the courtyard through which we'd entered, and he made a movie of that and the area surrounding the Tower of Ulysses. In his movie, which you can watch with the player at left, you will be able to hear the musician that I referred to earlier.

As it turned out, there were special presentations in the Tower of Ulysses, and the next one in English wasn't for another hour or so, so we had to content ourselves with hanging out hanging out near the Tower of Ulysses and also wandering over to the Palace Tower where we got some pictures looking down at the entry and around at the tops of the ramparts of the castle.

If you'd like to see some of the pictures that we took from our vantage point near the Tower of Ulysses, just click on the thumbnails below:

We descended the stairs that took us from the middle rampart down into the west courtyard, then went through one of the archways and back out of the castle the way we had come in. We walked back across the bridge and then continued south through a shaded area where we could see some of the remains of the old palace and other features. I do not remember why, but just outside the castle was the sculpture of a partially nude female; I have done a lot of searching for information about the sculpture, but short of going back to see if there is an inscription, it will remain a mystery.

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As we were walking back towards the plaza and the entrance, we could hear the screeching of peacocks in the trees; we learned later that they are something of a nuisance because they make so much noise. Click on the thumbnails below to see some of the last pictures we took before leaving the Castelo:

The Castelo was really very interesting, but since we only had a few more hours before we had to be back at the ship, we thought it best to head on back through downtown Lisbon in that direction.

Praca Dom Pedro IV

We went out the same entrance to the Castelo that we'd come in, and back through the archway in the street outside. Then we followed our noses, generally downhill, heading to the center of Lisbon.

On the aerial view of the part of Lisbon just to the west of the Castelo, I've marked our approximate route towards centery city. Lisbon is eminently walkable; in fact, I think having a car here would be a liability, given the few parking spaces we saw. At one point, when we had to go down a ways, we took an elevator attached to a parking structure that dropped us three or four stories quickly.

Once at the bottom, we continued generally west and northwest. The topography was still sloping down from the Castelo, and there were small streets that were basically stairways. But we eventually got down to level ground again. It was approaching noon, and in some of the smaller side streets, little cafes were being set up. At this point, we were some blocks north of Palace Square where we'd started out this morning, and just before we turned north we could see the Santa Justa Lift way down at the end of the street ahead of us. We would be circling around to go past that structure a bit later on our way back to the ship.

As we walked along, Fred was using his keen eye for interesting detail to snap some pictures of buildings and people along our way. He was particularly interested in the extensive tilework he saw. If you would like to see some of his pictures, just click on the thumbnails below:

We wound northwest through the city streets, stopping at one point so Greg and I could check our map, finally coming out in the Praca da Figueira.

This plaza was interesting for a couple of reasons. First, there is the bronze equestrian statue, made by sculptor Leopoldo de Almeida, representing Dom João I (1357-1433) or King John I of Portugal. The statue is actually 75 years old, although in 1999-2000, during the last renovation of the square, it statue was relocated from the middle to the south-west corner- where the trolleys pass very close to it. Dom João I not only helped defend Portugal's independence from Castille but also started Portugal on its exploration path, something his son Henry the Navigator would continue by sending Portuguese explorers on expeditions around the world.

The other interesting thing about this square was the pattern of the stone and concrete blocks with which it was surfaced. Although it's apparent from the air (as shown in the aerial view at right), it wasn't apparent on the ground that the pattern was an 11x11 grid of outlined squares, with each square being five or six feet on a side. Very unusual.

This square is also the central Lisbon market on market days (of which today was not one), and it is built on a site formerly occupied by All Saints Hospital, by the Convent of St. Camillo and by other buildings.

This square was separated from our next destination by a single row of buildings, so we went around the south end of that row to get there. On the way, I happened to look back and get a nice view of the Castelo Sao Jorge sitting way up on top of the hill that we have just descended.

Coming around those buildings, we reached Praça Dom Pedro IV, commonly known as the Rossio. This is a vast quadrangular space lined on all sides except the North one by buildings of the Pombal type; it is the chief Lisbon centre; almost all lines of transport pass through it.

We walked from south to north through the square, admiring a number of features of it, working our way through the market kiosks that were scattered throughout the plaza. At the south end of the plaza was a very pretty fountain, although it was hard to get a good picture of it because of all the market activity going on around it. We had to wait for a few minutes while other tourists and residents who were hanging out there moved away before I could get a good picture of Fred and the fountain (note the birds coming in for a landing near the top).

In the middle of the square stands the statue of D. Pedro IV, which dates from 1870; it was designed by Davioud and sculptured by Elias Robert. This monument is one of the highest in Lisbon, being almost 100 feet high. It comprises a stone base, a marble pedestal, a column of white marble, and a bronze statue. The lower part contains four allegorical figures, representing Justice, Strength, Prudence and Temperance, as well as the shields of sixteen of the chief Portuguese towns. And there was another bronze fountain at the north end of the square as well, but it was so closely surrounded by market stalls that I couldn't get a decent picture of it.

On the North side of the square, and sitting almost on the very spot where the old Inquisition stood, now stands the Theatro Nacional Almeida Garrett, which dates from 1846. It was designed by the Italian architect Fortunato Lodi. The front of the building is remarkable; it includes six monumental columns which were formerly part of the Church of S. Francisco da Cidade. There are statues of Gil Vicente, Thalia and Melpomene, Apollo and the Muses. There are other figures representing famous dramatists, and reliefs representing the four phases of the day.

We passed in front of the theatre and came around its western side to turn north again. This brought us across the street from the front of the Lisbon Central Railway Station; the station building faces the western side of the theatre. The front of the station is in the "Manueline" style, with great windowed doors of horse-shoe shape. The clock at top is an electrical one, and connected with those inside the station. Oddly, the actual railway lines are not underground, but on the top floor- a perplexing circumstance for those who forget the hilly character of the city. On the other side of the building, which is considerably higher, is the motorcar entrance. The building was begun in 1887 and completed in 1890. The horseshoe-shaped doors facing the Avenida da Liberdade are flanked by beautiful sculpted figures.

Heading another block north, we were heading to the Praca dos Restauradores. On the way, though, we passed what I thought was an interesting store an accompanying sign.

Take a look at the store window, and then at the wording etched and painted into the stone. The store, apparently, sells shoes. Can you read the sign? It may not be what you think, even though some of the Portuguese words might seem familiar. When you are ready for the translation, click here.

Praca dos Restauradores

No, this is not the "Plaza of the Restauranteurs;" "restauradores" is actually Portuguese for "restorers."

The Praca dos Restauradores is the starting point for the great Avenida da Liberdade.

In the middle of this plaza is the monument which commemorates the Campaigns of Restoration, which date from 1640 onwards. The monument, with base, pedestal and obelisk, is 30 metres high and was designed by Antonio Thomaz da Fonseca. On its lower part are two figures symbolizing the geniuses of Victory and of Liberty, the former by Simões de Almeida and the latter by Alberto Nunes; the monument also bears the dates of the chief battles in the campaigns which followed the Revolution of 1640. This obelisk was erected in 1886.

From a position south of the obelisk, I made a movie of the plaza, and you can watch it with the player below:

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On the southwest side of the plaza sits the Eden Teatro. This building was at one time Lisbon’s major cinema, and its imposing facade still dominates the square. Designed by architects Cassiano Branco and Carlo Florencio Dias it opened in 1931. Across the top of the huge facade is a stone frieze depicting stylized actors performing before a film crew and cameras. The name Eden Teatro is centrally located in the stonework above. On the ground floor was an arcade of shops and the theatre was reached by a series of stairways which led onto the first floor where the actual theatre entrance was located. Seating in the large auditorium was located at orchestra level and two balconies above.

Sadly this magnificent cinema closed in 1989 and lay unused for many years. It was used as a location in the Wim Wenders movie “Until the End of the World” (1991). In 2001 it was converted into a 134-room apartment hotel known as the Orion Eden Hotel. The facade has been retained but slightly modified by removing the two huge film advertising film poster spaces and opening up the space by providing an atrium. The rooms are apparently pie-shaped to fit inside the former auditorium space.

It was on the southeast side of the plaza that we saw one of the few indications of the turmoil currently embroiling the European countries- what with their austerity measures, Euro problems, etc. It was this sign near the plaza. Now, it's not what you may think; that last word isn't an expletive. Loosely translated (thanks to Google) it says "and a time to say 'enough is enough'."

In and around the plaza we took some additional pictures of note, many of them concentrating on the detail of the buildings that line it. If you want to see some of these pictures, just click on the thumbnails below:

The Santa Justa Lift

Well, you've already seen some pictures of our next destination, the Santa Justa Lift, because we've been able to see it often as we have wandered around the city area east of it.

At left, as usual, I've put an aerial view of the small part of Lisbon involved in this next stretch of our walk; the Praca dos Restauradores is out of the view to the top; I needed to get the resolution down to where you could see the Santa Just Lift at the bottom. I also marked the auto entry for the Central Railway Station that I mentioned earlier.

But what I thought was amusing in this particular aerial view was one of the labels that Google Maps had included on the aerial view- and you can see it yourself on the Internet if you want. It made me wonder why the entire aerial view of Lisbon wasn't cluttered with similar, uninformative labels!

Anyway, we headed south along Praca Dom Pedro IV and Rua Aurea. Looking to our right, down one of the picturesque side streets (this one had a cafe set up in the middle), we could see how steep some of the hills in the city of Lisbon are- and why the trains leave from the top floor of the station. And just before we got to the lift itself, we heard a lot of unmufflered noise behind us on the street, and turned to find a row of little cars. I think they were like Segways or something.

Presently, we arrived at the Santa Justa Lift- so called because the transversal street in which it is built is called Rua de Santa Justa.

The Santa Justa Lift is one of the "sights" of Lisbon and always compels great admiration from tourists from everywhere. It was created by a French engineer, Raoul Mesnier. The elevator is all built in iron, but it is extremely distinctive, light and safe. There are two lifts, worked by electricity. It goes up to Largo do Carmo, where there are the ruins of Carmo Church, now the Archeological Museum (which we will see from the other side shortly). The elevator belongs to the Electric Tramway Company, and there is an observation platform at the top that people who ride the lift can visit.

When we got to the bottom of the Lift, we found that there was a $8 charge just to ride it to the top- about eight stories. That seemed a bit much, so we didn't. We the stairs to the next street up, where I paused to make a movie of the lift- one that you can watch with the player below:

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When we got to that street, we had to head southwest before we could continue along Rua Garrett back in the direction of the ship. Looking back down the street, though, we could see the skybridge from the Lift to the Museum.

Along Rua Garrett

From the Lift, we walked up the street towards Rua Garrett, a street which ran to the west and which we could take to get back to the ship. We were entering an area known as " Chiado," which is actually the name of a square and its surrounding area. The Chiado is a traditional shopping area that mixes old and modern commercial establishments, concentrated specially in the Carmo and Garrett Streets. Locals as well as tourists visit the Chiado to buy books, garments, pottery (and, apparently, flowers) as well as to have a cup of coffee. The most famous café of Chiado is "A Brasileira", famous for having had poet Fernando Pessoa among its customers. The Chiado is also an important cultural area, with several museums and theaters. Several buildings of the Chiado were destroyed in a terrible fire in 1988, an event that deeply shocked the country. Thanks to a renovation project that lasted more than 10 years, coordinated by celebrated architect Siza Vieira, the affected area is now recovered.

The street we took from the Lift, Rua do Carmo, is named for the Carmelite Monastery that used to be just west of where the elevator is now; you can see it in the aerial view at left. The mediaeval convent was ruined in the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake, and the ruins of its Gothic church (the Carmo Church or Igreja do Carmo) are the main trace of the great earthquake still visible in the city. Nowadays the ruined Carmo Church is used as an archaeological museum (the Museu Arqueológico do Carmo), and we thought we might have time to visit it, so just after turning west on Rua Garrett, we took the first street north to Carmo Square, just west of the museum.

As it turned out, there was a fairly hefty entry fee to the Museum, and our time was growing short for us to be able to go through it in any detailed way, so we just contented ourselves with hanging out in Carmo Square by the very pretty fountain in the middle of it. After that, we walked back down to Rua Garrett via a different street, just to see what we could see.

Rua Garrett leads west and ends in Camoes Square. This small square is the transition zone between Chiado and Bairro Alto, and at its center is a monumental statue of 16th century epic poet Luis de Camões standing on a pedestal with other smaller statues of classical Portuguese authors. Behind it is a historical kiosk serving traditional Portuguese refreshments, and behind that is one of Lisbon's largest and most famous hostels- the Royal Lisbon Hostel.

The statue and square face Largo do Chiado, where there are two Baroque churches: Loreto (also known as "of the Italians") and Encarnação. Here is also Lisbon's best-known café, A Brasileira, a meeting place of several generations of intellectuals and artists. In front is a statue of poet Fernando Pessoa sitting in a chair, recalling the days when he used to write at this cafe. The area name "Chiado" has been in use since the middle 1500s. Initially the name referred to Garrett Street, and later to the whole surrounding area. The most widely cited possible origin for the name is related to António Ribeiro (c. 1520-1591), a popular poet from Évora who lived in the area and whose nickname was "chiado" ("squeak"). A bronze statue of the poet, by sculptor Costa Mota (tio), was placed in the Chiado Square in 1925.

Walking along Rua Garrett was immensely interesting; the fact that it was lunchtime and that there were lots of opportunities to people-watch made it even better. Other than the photos you've already seen, Fred and I both found other interesting objects and buildings to photograph, and you will click on the thumbnails at right, you can have a look at a few of them.

We continued along Rua Garrett and the south side of Camoes Square, looking for some streets that we could continue to follow to head generally west/southwest towards the ship.

Returning to the Noordam

From Camoes Square, we went along the south side of it, following Rua Garrett to the southeast. Past the square, we were out of the upscale shopping area, and the area was more residential. This street led uphill for a while, went over the crest of a hill, and then began descending towards Rua das Chagas.

On Rua das Chagas, we turned left to continue to head generally downhill. We seemed to be walking down the crest of a hill, for some of the other streets to our right led steeply downhill, although not quite in the direction we wanted to go. We could see the Tagus Estuary far ahead of us, so that's the direction we wanted to go.

Down the hill at the end of the street, we came to the Igreja das Chagas. From a bit further back up Rua das Chagas, Fred got a very good picture of its bell tower. It seemed as if the street ended at the church, and that we'd have to either backtrack or turn in a different direction, but then we noticed in front of the church there was an open gate that led to some stairs down to a street named Travessa do Cabral. This part stairway, part street led in the direction we wanted to go, so we began to walk down it.

At the bottom of the stair portion, we needed to continue to our left, down to the river, and we came to a passageway called Calcada da Bica Grande ("Great Sidewalk Bica"). As you can see, this was much less a street than a long, long stairway leading down. As we descended, we passed residents decorating the street for, presumably, some upcoming festival. The doorways to building opened right out on the stairway, and at one place on our way down, some folks were grilling food. This kind of street was pretty amazing- and new to me. But we would, as it turned out, see many streets like this one that were actually stairways. I stopped at the bottom to take one more picture looking back up the stairway.

We were on level ground now, and on one of the streets that yesterday's bus had followed on its way from the ship, so we knew if we just headed west now we would be on the right track.

The walk back to the harbor area along Boavista and then along the waterfront roadway was pleasant, but there wasn't a great deal to see. Even so, Fred and I took the occasional picture of note, and if you would like to look at some of them, you can click on the thumbnails below:

When we got near the dock, we left the city street and got onto a walking/cycling path that led right along the shore. There were some people out trying skateboards and bicycles, but we just walked along in the pleasant afternoon. The path we were on was nice bicycle path, with those "bicycle symbols" every so often, and a dotted line down the middle to divide the directions.

Someone certainly had a sense of humor though; I suppose that is the painter's name on the border of the bike path who painted Pac-Man gobbling up the dots in the middle of the walkway. When we got back to the area right in front of the ship it was about thirty minutes before the time we had to be back aboard, so we stopped briefly to take a picture of the sculpture we'd noticed early this morning when we left. Greg went ahead back to the ship, and when we got there, we were among the last to get aboard. It was only a short while later that the Noordam pulled away from the dock, made a slow turn in the middle of the estuary, and then headed back out to the open ocean, passing again under the spectacular 26th of April bridge. When we once again passed the lighthouse, our visit to Lisbon was officially over.

Evening Activities

Our late afternoon and evening on the Noordam was "routine"- a snack, the gym, the LGBT Meeting, dinner and some walking around the ship. The one new event, held a couple of times during the extended cruise, was a dessert extravaganza. The Atrium was taken over by the dessert chefs who set up amazing displays for the passengers first to look at and photograph, and then, of course, to eat. I got down there a bit early so I could take some pictures, and then Fred and I came back a bit later to get a dessert or two (the white and dark chocolate fountains were amazing). Click on the thumbnails below to survey the dessert treats tonight on the Noordam:

This Evening's Towel Animal  

What's Up, Doc?

This evening's "towel animal" looked something like a rabbit, but you will have to be the judge.

You can use the links below to continue to the album page for different day.

	May 13, 2012: Cadiz, Spain
	May 11, 2012: Lisbon, Portugal (Day 1)
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