Praça Dom Luís

Eve walk looking for dinner, after we had called the bank because we thought I had lost my wallet. Turns out luckily colin had my wallet in his back pocket. They look the same. Unfortunately they had already blocked my card so i won't be using my credit card......not too much of a problem in Colins' eyes !!

Because of the Festival of St Anthony our neighbourhood is very very festive and busy. So we just ha to walk out of our lane to the next lane and there was this barrbequ set up with tents and you just order. We had sardines, poached bata (potato), Choirso (Sausage, very salty), bread and Salade verge (green salad). it was all very good Sangeria and Cervosa to drink and you can wander the streets with your drinks. All very civilized, but all in plastic containers with plastic cutlery.....well I guess while in rome do as the romans.

after dinner we wandered, the lanes/streets are full of people, barbecue, food, booze, music. live music in some of the small squares. Because we are in the historical district there are squares everywhere and lanes everywhere. It goes every which way.

The Bica elevator was closed so you can walk up the tram line. There are houses and restaurants all along the line and it is so narrow. I can't imagine having my door open out to the tram. you probably only have 2 -3 feet of clearance.

at the top of the elevator we cam out to R loreta. Found a small grocery stores where we got breakfast supplies....except the bread as we think we will find a bakery close by. Even the cafe we had dinner at last night seemed to regularly sell bread stuffs. we got to this square Praca de cambes, where there was this large statue with at least 12 guys around it. Not sure who it was as so many people sitting around it. There was this lovely tiled mosaic around the square. Lots of portuguese boats. Caravel I think is the name for the old fashion boat. The older ones were triangular shaped sails good for going along the coastline down to Africa, and over to India when they started trading. Later the sails changed to Square shape for ocean going.

IN the square there were street musicians, flute, clarinet, small guitars, electric guitar and singer. It was beautiful. The young women's voice was soft, but they had amplifiers. Many people listening, another couple danced so we joined them. had to put the groceries down first! All the songs were in english.

Then we wandered down the Rue Garret. I think this is a main shopping district. The Bario Chiado metro stop was right there with a statue of a poet Ferando Pessoa out front.

the street lamps were lovely with tree like branches enveloping the metal.

we found a gellato shop, very busy, but the cones were cool. 4.8 euros for med. Almost like Ernest!! they did them in the shape of roses. We think we should pass that on on to Oliver and maybe he can let Ernest know.....it was all very cute. Amorino Chiado

We kept walking to the end of the street where there is a big sign over the building. Armazens do Chiando....a shopping mall. But out front they had had a stage set up and a band playing. They were taking the stage apart by the time we got there, around midnight.

we wandered down Rua Nova Almada, more shops and getting quieter, then turned onto Calcada Sao Francisco. It was a curvy street going uphill. Vey quite, at the end we heard mor music so we headed towards that. Ended up in the "pink street nightlife" area along Rue Nova do Carvalho.

Then we got a bit twisted around as I thought were were above Ruo S. Paulo. the street that would take us back, but we thought Carvelho was below this, and in fact it is above it so we went a block in the wrong direction, but stumbled upon some neat buildings and another sure. The buildings looked great at night all lit up. eventually we had to pu our google maps on to figure out where we were as we actually went beyond where we should have turned up to get back to the apartment. Only 1 block so not so bad, but because there is no grid system here you really need google maps to show you which lanes you need to wander up, which steps. You could get quite lost very easily without good maps. Some of the lanes are only lit when you go into them. the hotel last night was like that, motion sensors figuor out when you get out of the elevator and only then do the lights come on. Lots of good innovations here to conserve power. we could learn!

anyway we eventually made our way back to the apartment, probably around 1 am, Our lane was a bit smelly as I think it was the local pea hole with all those guys wandering around with their Cervosa :). Still lots of music happening!, but because it was getting late, although we were not particularly tired we headed to the apartment and to bed. all that noise was not a problem, once you shutter the window here, no light and very little sound come in. So we actually slept to 1130 this morning!

Now we have to do some reading, have breaky and head out for more explorations today!!

weather is sunny and warm, with a breeze, we are still under the flight path, same as the hotel last night, light music streaming through the windows its all very cool.Read more