Santos-o-Velho

We are travelling from Odeceixe to Lisbon this morning via the Rede Bus. We enjoyed an amazing breakfast of scrambled eggs, ham & cheese, bread, fresh melon, homemade berry jam, orange juice and coffee. We said our goodbye's to our lovely Sol Mar hosts and walked.tothe bus stop. We had a 3 hour ride to Lisbon with one close call where our driver had to hit the brakes hard as he came down around a corner to a broken down car😬. Once in Lisbon we took the Metro then walked the rest of the way to our Airbnb to meet Andrew. We were in a spacious Airbnb with a washer so we did a bit of laundry. We had a snack of custard tarts before walking to meet the Windt's for our Lisbon City Highlights & History Tuk Tuk (electric)Tour. We had a chance to catch up and celebrate Tom and Priya's birthdays before heading out to tour the city.

Stops included:

Lisbon Cathedral-The Cathedral of Saint Mary Major, is a Roman Catholic cathedral. The oldest church in the city, it is the seat of the Patriarchate of Lisbon.

Church of Saint Anthony ( Where St Anthony was born)

Viewpoint of Portas do Sol and Santa luzia- this area had the old painted tiles of Queen Maria, what the Commerce Square originally looked like as well as the battle scene of the Portuguese taking power over the Moors. We also saw the "courting seats" which were used historically to maintain a respectful distance from a suitor.

Castle district- this district takes you back to the middle ages with very narrow, winding and labyrinth-type streets. It resisted the earthquake of 1755.

Miradouro da Senhora do Monte (The highest viewpoint of the city). This location has a stone heart on the wall: the heart ❤️ of Lisbon. It also has the stone obelisk that historically, women would touch in hopes of getting pregnant.

Monastery of Saint Vincent-The Church and Monastery of São Vicente de Fora, meaning "Monastery of St. Vincent Outside the Walls", is a 17th-century church and monastery. It is one of the most important monasteries and mannerist buildings in the country. The monastery also contains the royal pantheon of the Braganza monarchs of Portugal.

The National Pantheon took 285 years to complete from the 15th century to the 17th century. It was the first built outside the castle walls.

Flea market in Alfama which is the site of the longest graffiti wall in Lisbon

Alfama is the oldest and most characterful district in Lisbon. Historically is situated outside the castle walls and housed the poorest citizens. The monarchy inside the castle walls.looked down upon this district literally. Being a seafaring city, this area also housed sailors and dock workers. Now it is fashionable and trendy. Many of its restaurants have fados that are free). Fado is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal. We saw the original map of Alfama painted on Portugese tiles.

Commerce square ( One of the biggest squares in Europe) is the location of the original home of the zmo architecture and where the King and his son were murdered. It is now the new entrance to the city ( It was destroyed by the earthquake, tsunami and fires of 1755.

Pink Street - this was on Rua Nova do Carvalho and had multicolor umbrellas for a photo op. This used to be their Red Light District.

Time Out Market (Famous Food Market of Lisbon)

After the tour, our drivers dropped us off in Alfama to have dinner. We said our goodbyes to Priya here.
We found a restaurant with a free Fado and the Windts, Snows and us had a really nice meal and visit together. I tried the seabass and Anthony had veal and water chestnuts. The Fado singers and musicians were quite good.
We said our goodbye to the Windts and ubered back to our Airbnb.Read more