Bit of a quieter day in Lisbon today as Di made a slow and steady tour around the city assisted by her personal guide Fraser who was trying to remember and pass onto her information learnt in previous days and not get lost at the same time.
We did a quick circuit around the eastern hill on the tram and ran into this chap delivering what looked like half a cow.
Couldn’t quite work out this shop but in the end, we think it was selling sewing supplies. Di’s looming group would love this, they had antique Arabic nail scissors in the windows. There are quite a few of theses older style stores around which remain oblivious to our modern retail practices.
Then we headed over to the Chiado area. Yet another hilly area! Actually, we have learnt that Lisbon is built on seven hills in total. In a modern context it seems like a silly place to build a city, but historically the hills provided both protection (from your enemies) and a way of collecting, storing and transporting water.
To demonstrate how steep some of the streets are we checked out this street and it’s funicular.
Also found this one. These funiculars were all established and built in the late 1800’s. It’s a testament to their design and construction that they are still operating today.
On our travels we visited the church with no roof. It houses an archeological museum but also serves as a reminder to people to remember the damage that was done in the 1755 earthquake that flattened the whole city. The earthquake in 1755 set off quite the chain of events. Firstly, the quake itself that had people running away from the hills down to the low land which was down near the waters edge. On their arrival there, they found the “seas had parted” and many went down onto the exposed estuary which very quickly then filled up with a tsunami as the epicentre was 200km southwest of Lisbon. To add final insult to injury, the city burned because the people that ran from their homes left their candles burning.
Finally moved on and found a lovely park and viewpoint.
Sat for a while drinking and had a chat to this well-dressed gentleman. He wasn’t much of a conversationalist!
Oh dear, another miserable step count day coming in at 3756👎
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