lisbon

We started our exploration of Lisbon with our guide, Paula, taking us by taxi to a small park on top of one of the many hills of Lisbon. Lisbon has a LOT of hills and some are quite steep. In some places if reminds one of San Francisco. The park offered us a nice panoramic view of the city. On the way to the park, we passed through one of the main squares where we saw the Monument to the restorers. A couple of sights we only saw from a distance were the statue of Christ and the Sai Jorge Castle. The statue was inspired by the similar statue in Rio. It also reminds us that Brazil was once a Portugese colony. Unfortunately, we didn't get to the castle. Maybe next time.

From our hilltop park we made our way to the National Pantheon. At one time this was a church. Now it is used for concerts and other public functions.

We went down to the square next to the river. On the side of the squae opposite the river, is the "Gate to the CIty". Lisbon is a port city and is a stop for many cruise boats. Later in the afternoon, we did see one of the large cruise ships and got caught up in the crowd of "cruissers" that had come ashore for a "shore visit". I can't believe we came all the way to Lisbon to find a "Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

It was lunch time and we were in for a treat. Paula took us to this restaurant where she had them bring 4 different bottles of wine. We were going to see how each wine paired with the four dishes we were going to have for lunch. Pictured below are the labels of the four wines.

The four dishes, starting lower left and working clockwise are salmon, prawns, octopus and a meat dish.

I tried each of the wines with each of the dishes. It was tough work but I felt I was up to the task.

I was surprised that even I found that each of the four dishes paired best with a different wine.

We had a free day and the original plan was that we would visit the tile factory. Lisbon is well known for its tiles and we thought it would be an interesting tour. Unfortunately the factor wasn't open for visiting. This may have been a lucky break for us because I then found the Ricardo do Espirito Santo Silva Foundation. The foundation has a museum and better yet, it has workshops where it does restoration and recreations in various crafts. We had a wonderful guide - Margarida Serra (I hope I have the name spelled correctly.). She showed us around the various workshops and we were able to see the craftspeople at work.

Another reproduction project. This time we are seeing some ornate legs being made for a table. The drawing is on the left. Next the starting pieces of wood. Carving the foot and finally a the foot taking shape.

Below we have a craftsman doing some fine metalwork. Also embossing some leather. We made a short video of some of the craftsmen at work. Click HERE to view the video.

When we came out of the craft workshops, we were at the square where cruise tourists seem to congregate. And there were no shortage of them. My guess is they came from the cruise ship in the picture below. Also, I spotted this church on the hill and thought it deserved a couple of pictures.

I had mentioned to our guide, Paula, that we sometimes use the web site Eat With and arrange to have a meal with a local family. She said she knew someone that did this and arranged for us to have dinner with Jose Estevez for our last Lisbon dinner. Jose's place wasn't too far from our hotel. However the taxi driver had a hard time finding the numbers on the buildings. They were very hard to see if they were there at all. It took perserverance on the part of the driver but we made it. Jose set our a nice spread and we were able to sample a number of local dishes.