Lisbon
Lisbon Camping is a huge site with loads of motorhome/ caravan spaces and loads of bungalows, they were very safety conscious and it’s the only place where we were given wrist bands to wear to prove we were staying there. The shop wasn’t that well stocked and the restaurant seemed to serve everything with chips (well that’s what the photos led me to believe). However the toilet block was clean and tidy (with toilet rolls too, woo hoo!)
We’d picked this site for it’s location and proximity to Lisbon centre, the bus stop was just a couple of minutes up the road, was very cheap and took about 30 mins to the centre.
It was very, very hot in fact most days we were there it was in the high 30’s and walking around a city in that kind of heat is killing. So on reflection we didn’t see as much as we could have.
As Lisbon is quite sizable we decided to take a hop-on-hop-off bus tour to familiarise ourselves with the historic centre. The trip started in Baixa, a relatively new area which was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1755 and took us west along the Barirro Alto water front.
We got off at the busy Praca do Comercio, which had previously been the site of the royal palace until the earthquake.
It is dominated in the centre by a huge statue of King Jose I
Here seemed like a good place to stop for lunch and do some people watching. It was so hot I just had to have the biggest glass of beer ever!
We tried to visit the Elevador de Santa Justa twice but the queues were just too long.
We wanted to see the Alfama district, the oldest part of Lisbon where the Castle and Cathedral can be found. Typically for areas dating back to Moorish times the houses are tall with overhanging balconies and packed together tightly making you wonder how the trams actually get through? Only ours didn’t, it broke down. The driver blamed the heat! So we had a choice of waiting for it to be fixed or walking up a steep hill. We waited!
We got off at the Castle district and stopped for another drink, as you do! This time we tried white sangria which was really nice (and of course had to sample another Portuguese Tart!!)
The following day we went back to Belem. The monastery is stunning and there is a really interesting museum inside, we were particularly interested by a huge circular board which filled a whole room with a timeline on it comparing what was happening to the building of the monastery compared to what was going on in the world over a 300 year period.
This is also the church where Vasco da Gama is buried.
The one thing that does stick out in my memory is the Jacaranda trees which were in flower everywhere all over the city. They are absolutely gorgeous.
We move back into Spain next, off to see the sights of Cordoba.
