12-Feb-2020
February is not a bad time to visit Lisbon. It's less rainy than the months from October to January, and the average temperatures are well up into the teens.
The downside is that there are really very perceptible numbers of FTs (Fellow Tourists -- I reject the conceit that "others" are "tourists" whereas "we" are "travellers").
Heaven knows what Lisbon is like in the spring or summer...
Anyway, to start from the very beginning... We travelled yesterday from Porto to Lisbon on the train, a journey that takes just over three hours.
Pulling out of Porto
At various points along the way, you pass Atlantic rollers, green hills, copious vineyards, olive groves, pretty churches, nesting storks...
...and the River Tagus
Lisbon's Santa Apolonia station
We're lodged in the Alfama district, in a bijou but characterful and lovingly decorated little apartment on the ground floor of an old house.
Looking down our street
Our little red apartment
Another suitcase in another hall...
Alfama is a maze of alleys and staircases that sprawls up the hill to the Castelo de Sao Jorge.
"Historically, Alfama was situated outside of the city walls and was associated with poverty and squalor, where only the poor and disadvantaged lived. As Lisbon grew into a major seafaring city, the district retained its lowly status as the tough and deprived district where sailors and dock workers lived. Today, Alfama has shrugged off this grim reputation, and has transformed into a fashionable and artisan district, but still retains its unique character and rich heritage."
It really does...
A brisk morning walk takes you to the Baixa district. Constructed after the 1755 earthquake, this is a much more grand and monumental part of town:
No statue without its birds...
If you carry on uphill, along the Avenida da Liberdade, you get to the Praca do Marques de Pombal and the Parque Eduardo.
Bolivar
Looking down the Avenida da Liberdade
View from the Parque Eduardo. The sculpture commemorates Portugal's emergence from dictatorship in 1974
One of the most delightful aspects of Lisbon is its adorable trams:
Here they are negotiating the steep streets of Alfama
And this is the amazing funicular known as the Elevador da Gloria
Another thing I find incredibly impressive is the quality of the food we're buying. Zucchini, capsicums, tomatoes, and strawberries that taste as though they've not travelled very far at all. Linguica. Ever-so-slightly-bubbly vinho verde. Amazing cheeses, from the softest goat to the firm and toothsome queijo Sao Jorge, all the way from the Azores (oops, we ate the supposedly inedible rind, so if this blog suddenly ceases, you'll know why...)
And bit by bit, we're working our way through Portugal's multiplicity of bacalhau (salted cod) options. We had lunch today at the Confeitaria Imperial, on the Avenida Antonio Augusto de Aguiar, where they do nice pasteis de bacalhau, or salt cod croquettes.
There's always plenty of bacalhau available at the supermarket, but I prefer not to have to fight with it...
All up, this is a fabulous city, and we're glad we have a few more days to soak it all in.