Lisbon – first encounter

Storyline: Portugal by trains

It was time to take a train to Lisbon. Two actually, since there is no direct train from Lagos. We left Lagos fairly early, taking an Uber to the train station.

It was still dark. But best to leave early and arrive in Lisbon before dusk. The regional train carried us to Tunes where we took the connecting high-speed intercity train to Lisbon.

More about the trains in a separate post.

Our new accommodation was a short walking distance from Santa Apolónia train station. I selected it based on the trains we’d take for day trips.

There are quite a few train stations in Lisbon that can be somewhat confusing to the beginner, until one gets used to the geography and topography of this incoherent yet aesthetic city.

When booking we decided to stay in the authentic old town. Old houses, thin walls (we found that the walls were thin most of the places regardless the age of the buildings), steep stairs (inside the houses and between residential streets), cars speeding up steep hills and narrow sidewalks.

Just don’t exit your residence too fast or you can collide with a speeding car or bus.

We walked up the streets, rolling the small suitcases, to our new home for the next 11 days. Lucia, the host, was waiting for us.

Had no idea what was lurking behind this narrow green door until we opened it. Lucia had a photo in her ad; however, it did not represent the reality. It is hard to photograph sharp inclinations.

The steep stair also had high risers – up to my knees.  Alex had to turn sideways to get through the door.

At that point we were glad we had only 2 carry-on suitcases. Nothing bigger would have gone up the stairs. Not only because of weight (try to lift something heavier than 10kg over these steps) but plainly the bigger size would have been wider than the stairs.

And Alex had to take ours up one at a time. I was glad I’d selected a place on a street accessible by car, although we didn’t end up needing that access. But that meant there were streets to roll our suitcases on.

Many of the apartments, as we’d notice later and as they were advertised, were accessible only through steep-staired outside alleys, followed by similarly inclined inside stairs.

Will touch on this later again. But for now, we were checked-in long before the check-in hour (thanks Lucia) and had the time to unpack and organize our lives, walk around the neighbourhood, buy some groceries and then have dinner at a tapas place (Tapas 129) around the corner.

It was a chilly evening so we decided to sit inside.

Chilly for us Canadians, but apparently not so for the locals who sat outside under the propane heater.

We decided on sea bass with veggies mainly because of the vegetables that seem to be cheaper in the restaurants than at the grocery store.

And to Alex’s delight, a fantastic home-made chocolate mousse that came with a shot of ginjia (sour-cherry liqueur) for me. The owner of the restaurant told us that in Portugal there are close to 300 grape varietals from which they produce an innumerable selection of wines. Most of them a family-produced not for export. Vintners here value their quality of life and don’t work long hours (Well, they obviously need time to enjoy the ‘fruits’ of their labours – A).

Time to call it a night.

Next day was a day of exploration. If you remember I had bought walking shoes in Tavira thinking the soles were sturdy enough to take me up and down wet slippery slopes with tiny uneven pavers. Soon I’d conclude that it wasn’t the case.

Walking up and down many stairs and conquering slopes where cars and pedestrians were in constant competition for street space, my Tavira shoes (that’s all they had there) were not keeping me stable enough.

But somehow wandering the streets we had reached the main shopping area of central Lisbon. We walked into a Sketchers store. My Tavira shoes were the same brand. Yes, I know it’s American and we have them all over here, but the selection we have is for our flat but cold and showy streets. The selection in Portugal, was designed for their conditions – light, with a grip for the hills.

A very helpful sales lady brought a few models and helped me select what was the best for me. The process has never been so easy. Back home it takes many trials and errors to find the shoe that fits my arthritic feet. Here I jut showed them my problem and they came with the right suggestion. The shoes had thick, but soft soles. I used them for the rest of our trip and was happy to have found them. It’ll take another trip to the store though to pick them up because we needed a passport for the VAT (tax) rebate document.

There is so much to see and do in this city and we, being curious about local life and scenery, walked through the streets, stopped at cafés when needed, had a snack or two and continued exploring.

The shopping area is near the famous Rossio (pronounced ho´sio) train station, at the centre of the Baixa district. An interesting building and access to it.

It looks sooner as a theater with two horseshoe intertwining doorways. Approaching it, it’s hard to imagine that such a beautiful building houses a rail terminal.

But it was built in 1888, a time when the train stations were seen as temples. It is located in central Lisbon and although it was the main connection to Europe in the past, nowadays is mainly serving the Sintra area. Inside there are two steep flights of escalators leading to the train platforms.

Outside a steep zig-zag road, bordered by even steeper stairs for pedestrians, takes the cars up and down to the platforms’ level. And as anywhere else it’s also lined with small cafés, restaurants and pubs. We’ll be back in a few days to take the train to Sintra.

By the time we had reached the shopping area and the Rossio train station we had already walked by the famed Elevador de Santa Justa that transports people from one street up to another. It is also a major tourist attraction that we decided not to patronise, but rather walked around on Rua do Carmo that brings you to the same level as the top of the elevator. There are so many places (miradouros) one can have the perfect views of the city that we decided not to fall after tourist traps. Eh, we’d do if for some restaurants strategically located for the vistas, but for this in another post.

The rest of our walk took us randomly on Rua Augusta to

Arco da Rua Augusta and Praça do Comércio.

We’d be up to a wonderful sunset view at Cais das Colunas facing Ponte 25 de Abril.

Our day would finish with a walk on or near the bank of River Tagus (Tajo), passing by another train station (Terreiro do Paço) and walking on the promenade to what we’d call our train station, Sanata Apolónia.

Although the clouds were gathering and threatening all afternoon it didn’t really rain over us. But a beautiful rainbow told us it must have rained somewhere.

How often can one clearly see all the colours of a rainbow? It was a stunning end to our day.

Lisbon 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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