I am definitely getting too old to be doing this racing through airports business. Yes, I jogged, back pack and carry-on in tow, from literally one end of the PET Airport to the other and was the 3rd last person on the plane. But I made it!
To give credit where credit is due, upon our arrival this morning in Lisbon, the agents for WindBuddy were very organized and had the bus load of us on our way in an hour or so from my arrival.
Several other people on my flight got caught up in the new Entry/Exit System. There is an App that Air Canada indicated was imperative for entering Portugal. Never did anyone ask for the QR Code the App generates after you put the information in the system. I asked the border agent why I had been told to fill it in and he did a very deliberate eye roll. The process may get efficient at some point but it’s sure not there yet. And you walk miles after arriving before finally exiting after baggage claim.
Our hotel is lovely, with good amenities, and in a relatively good neighbourhood for touring, right on Av. De Liberdade near Parque Eduardo VII. It’s at the higher end away from the waterfront, and older neighbourhoods, but still lots going on. We couldn’t get into our rooms for a couple of hours since we were relatively early so I found the nearest Hop On Hop Off bus as I usually do in a new city. This one wasn’t particularly good at describing what we saw, but I can actually empathize with them since there is so much to see! And as I usually do, I hopped on and stayed on for the whole 2 hour route to get a lay of the land without expending too much energy.
My first impressions of Lisbon – I love it – as I’m sure those of you who have been here already won’t be surprised to hear. I feel a bit like it’s a little bit of each of Madrid, Cartagena (Colombia), and Buenos Aires. Yet it’s unique still the same.
It’s clean, feels relatively safe (except for the usual big tourist city warnings of pick pockets), has interesting architecture, lots of green boulevards (except they are a little brown right now as they have had really hot weather), and has amazing landscape views set as it is on seven hills surrounding the Tagus River as it comes out to join the North Atlantic. Food seems to be important here, and looking forward to trying some of it.
Its prominent feature architecturally is the use of tiles on the fronts and inside buildings – not only the ancient buildings but there is a resurgence of the use of marble in new buildings. But the mixture of old style and modern buildings, and the prominent use of wrought iron makes it feel like a very cosmopolitan city.
One of the interesting things is that unlike many ancient cities, the streets in most areas of the city were placed in more of a grid pattern after the big fire of 1755 when an earthquake on November 1st caused candles in celebration of All Saint’s Day to start fires everywhere. There is a huge statue of the Marquis of Pombal who worked on the reconstruction in one of the man squares throughout the city. This particular square is also where Lisbon celebrates in the thousands when their football club wins the championship.
Fado music is new to me, and I’m just beginning to explore it. We have an optional extra opportunity to do a dinner/fado music evening in Porto which I’m looking forward to.
One infrastructure characteristic that is unmistakable is the 25th of April Bridge which opened on August 6, 1966 and previously called Ponte Salazar after a dictator who ruled previous to 1974. On April 25, 1974, there was a peaceful military-led coup (called the Carnation Revolution after that symbol of peace during the uprising) that overthrew his dictatorship and restored democracy to Portugal. The suspension bridge is similar to the one linking San Francisco and Oakland and it’s painted orange like the Golden Gate Bridge.
I saw so much today my head is spinning, and I’m tired. So going to hit the hay to try and get on to this time zone and rest up for another action packed day tomorrow. Haha, one of the things I saw today was the Lisbon School of Equestrian Art! That’s quite the niche.
Tomorrow we have a half-day guided tour scheduled and it will no doubt cover some of the same ground, but I’m looking forward to putting more context around some of the things I saw today, like the Tower of Belem.
