Around Lisboa
Exploring a World City
Images of Lisbon:
Around the
CapitalAfter
settling into my hotel, I figured out how to get to Restaurades, to get to the
tourism bureau to buy my Lisboa card. The first thing of consequence that I saw
was the Castelo São Jorge. Lisboa is hilly like San Francisco. I saw the
Castelo from the other side of an urban valley, from a pedestrian
stair-sidewalk. An interesting feature of the Portuguese capital is that
despite the construction that seems to be in every street, the place looks much
like it did in 1938. Parts probably even look much as they did in
1638.The
Eden Theatre (below) is the site of a glamourous art deco building that used to
be a movie theatre. When I was there, it was the final days of a Virgin
Megastore. I read that there is a beautiful rooftop pool; there are some condo
units above that big glass wall you see there. Up the block was the tourism
bureau; across the street, the architecturally interesting post office, with
the world's most morose postal workers. Too morose to be postal. Also up the
block was the Elevador da Gloria, a funicular cable car that has been operating
since 1885. I took it daily to get to the
Metro.Lisbon is at the mouth of the Tejo
River (in English it has a less-romantic-sounding name: Tagus). Lisbon's (now
faded) glory dates back to the 16th Century's "Discoveries." The Tejo saw many
ships set forth and return with spices and other things from parts unknown.
These azulejos (tile) panels show some traditional sea-going vessels. Lisbon has
a maritime museum as well as a museum for azulejos. There are blue-and-white
tiles everywhere in Lisboa, in museums, stores, homes, restaurants. Inside and
out. The bridge show here is the former Salazar Bridge, which was renamed the
Ponte 25 de Abril when the Carnation Revolution bloodlessly ended the
40-plus-year dictatorship that kept the entire Portuguese people uneducated and
isolated from the world. This bridge helped alleviate the problem of people
needing to cross the Tejo to get into Lisboa. It is a lot like the Golden Gate
Bridge in San
Francisco.There
are still ferries, though. The transtejo service still runs, though, and is
crowded with folks who work everyday in Lisboa. It's a nice ride. Seeing
Lisbon's hills rising from riverbanks, especially as the sun sets, is quite
beautiful. For me, it almost became more beautiful when some nice-looking
middle-aged man stared a hole through me. Turns out he's a fundamentalist. I
thought I was being cruised, not
saved.
Posted: Mon - December
11, 2000 at 01:14 AM