Lisbon

It's the day after Easter Monday 2015. Some people might ask is it worth leaving the UK this week as the temperature is rising in South East England. Blue sky has burst though a rather grey early spring and daffodils are exploding all over the place. However, we have winged out of Gatwick, passed Southampton and the Isle of Wight to our left, and swept down over the Bay of Biscay to England's oldest ally, Portugal, to be charmed by Lisbon for a few days. At least the weather promises to be as warm as in Blighty.

Lisbon has a pretty cool setting like many popular European destinations. It lies on the north bank of the estuary of the river Tagus which stretches out to the sea to the west. The city centre is bang on the waterfront, a great flat area including the main square in the middle, with the main drags arrowing straight down from there to the sea. On either side the coastal hills rise up quite steeply providing some interesting furrows for the trams.

First day we caught the metro downtown, 1.40 euro per journey to Rossio Square, or Pedro IV Square, a massive square which seems like the spiritual heart of the metropolis. We just caught the opening of a tourist information kiosk and bought tickets for the red tram tour of the city (19 euro each), which does a very rough figure of eight type route out to the east and west of the centre. Best place to start this tour is the waterfront where you are more guaranteed a seat. Earlier we waited where the kiosk lady said in the city centre and could not get on the tram because it was full up. So we set off down to the Praca do Comercio, a huge plaza opening out onto the waterfront, bounded on three sides by elegant buildings and with a statue set plum in the middle like a bright cherry stuck in the middle of a cake. I think I must have attracted the local riffraff because it wasn't long before a young fellow came up offering me drugs for sale. Was it the bright yellow cycling jacket and grey trilby I was wearing that made him think I was some sort of louche bohemian! I was also accosted right on the waterfront by a rather persistent seller. You'll be glad to know I declined!

Anyway, back to the tram. So off you go from here up the winding streets to the Castelo de S Jorge, a Moorish stronghold overlooking the city centre to the east. Here you can wander the ramparts and admire the pastel and terracotta sea of buildings spread before you down to the river with its 25th April suspension bridge striding the estuary in the left middle distance. You can wander the outer courts to your hearts content, but should venture into the stronghold itself, still a well preserved hulk of a fortification but without much innards to see. The primary task is to circumvent the battlements and admire further slightly more elevated views of the city and the various turrets and crenellations of the walls. There is an exhibition as well in a building in the outer courtyards where you can admire pottery pieces, coinage and suchlike from previous ages before being disgorged into the shop. Entrance to the Castelo is €8.50. I remember being up here in 1997 but that was in blazing August. Now the weather is somewhat typical April, that is it's known for rain in Lisbon, and we had to wear our wet gear as we admired the view out over the city skyline.

The red tram takes a circular route (circular in a very loose sense) back down into the city centre and then up the other side to the Basilica Estrela, an impressive church building with a massive dome. Going on the red tram in Lisbon is a bit like travelling on a roller coaster for very old people over 150 years of age, there are lots of ups and downs but at incredibly slow speeds, especially when a lorry or van blocks the tracks to do a delivery or the traffic lights come into play. Lisbon bears a light resemblance to San Fransisco in this sense, lots of hills around a luminescent waterfront. The Basilica itself is worth a visit even for the climb up the circular staircase to the roof (3 euro) where you get great views all round and lots of photo opportunities. We declined to go inside as there was a service going on and I was required to remove my trilby and not to take pictures which provided little encouragement to hang around inside.

Take care with the metro in Lisbon or you might get stuck at the ticket machine for the afternoon. As I say a one trip ticket costs 1.40 euro, and then you can load extra journeys onto the same card by inserting it into a machine after use and adding however many extra journeys you may desire. Getting a ticket in Lisbon for the metro or train requires superhuman levels of patience. Unless you know the code to those ticket machines you could be doomed to going round in circles trying to find the secret formula that produces a fully functioning ticket short of assaulting the machine after losing the will to live. The basic idea is that you buy one ticket and then you can 'load' it with other journeys by reinserting the card at a later time. And you certainly cannot load more than one person on the same ticket and pass the ticket back over the barrier for them to use. One of our gang repeatedly tried to load their ticket on the machine but was repeatedly rebuffed. They may have been forgiven for beating the machine in John Cleese frustration mode with a large piece of foliage, but a nice young Lisbon man eventually helped. After an age he was able to inform our friend that the card was faulty, possibly because he had been sitting on it all day. The alternative of course is getting a Lisbon Card for one, two or three days which gives unlimited travel on the buses, trams and trains, as well as discounts on museum entries. The cheapest is 18.50 euro for one day which you may consider too expensive. Will I make that many journeys?

On the first night having landed safely we ventured out from the hotel and found a splendid place to eat. Restaurant Cervejaria is a humdinger of a restaurant on Avenida Roma north of the city centre in the district of Areeiro, a small but perfectly formed (in a culinary sense) eatery. We feasted on seafood heaven here two nights running with a mixture of sea bass, sea bream, cod and paella Portuguese style for 77 euro and 88 euro per night for three grown men. That included starters, sweets, three bottles of wine, beer and coffees. You could do a lot worse.  We actually ate at a Portuguese restaurant on the main thoroughfare into town on the last night but although the most expensive meal, I enjoyed it the least, basically steak, chips and spinach, a sort of watered down version of a Popeye meal. I suspect it upset my stomach as well.

How about renting a bike for a day from the waterfront, 20 euro for a city bike to be bought back at 6.30pm? We rented three bikes and set off along the riverfront west towards Belem, a hub of activity, beautiful architecture, waterfront eateries and generally cool place to hang out. You can stay off road for virtually the whole distance to Belem, more or less hugging the waterfront along the cycle lane laid out for you. The route takes you past all the port infrastructure and under the famous Lisbon bridge, the 25th April suspension bridge, a monster that takes trains on a lower level and cars on the top level. At one and a half miles long it is one of the world's big suspension bridges, and it's reddish orange colour makes it look like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Then you carry on past ranks of seafront restaurants and cafes until you get to Belem. The waterfront heads straight to the west and the Atlantic Ocean, in these parts interspersed with little yachting marinas and leisure facilities.



The Monument to the Discoveries rises up from the promenade like a massive funnel on a giant ocean liner. It has serried ranks of enormous statues carved into its sides commemorating Portugal's relationship to the sea and it's great adventurers of old like Vasco de Gama and Henry the Navigator, names from long forgotten schooldays. For 4 euro you can take the lift to the very narrow walkway on top and stand and admire the view in all directions. It feels higher than you think and pretty scary to look over the edge. There was a party of Americans up there talking about homing devices to the nearest ice cream parlours which seemed a pretty American thing to be talking about. Not long afterwards I found myself at such a parlour down below gorging on a large chocolate ice cream.



A bit further on you get to Belem Tower, a fortified tower dating from 1515. My friend wondered if it was fake, a 20th century folly made to look like an ancient listed buildings, but it is the real deal! Just past the Belem Tower is the military museum, splendidly named the Museo do Combatente, with a couple of sentry boxes and a troop of three strutting their stuff into the barracks. 4 euro gets you into the museum which is actually quite interesting. It's set in a fort type structure (the Forte de Bom Sucesso) overlooking the estuary and has various pieces of military hardware scattered over the ramparts, including the front bit of a plane. There is an interesting indoor exhibition detailing the history of the Portuguese Empire scattered around the world in Mozambique, Angola, Tome, Guinea, Timo, Goa and so forth. It seems from a quick reading of the history that Portugal wanted to hang onto her colonies and make them into a kind of greater Portugal with lots of different races mixed together as equally Portuguese. But this meant the usual rebellions and backlashes. Perhaps Great Britain was wise to slip away from her colonies and leave them to self government rather than coerce native peoples. Amazing, Portugal, another tiny country with a big empire, just like Britain.

A good tip for the UK with regard to cyclists. The underpass for the seriously busy seafront road has a narrow steel track following the stairs both down and up which you can hook your bike wheel into to save carrying the thing. I recall a similar thing for luggage in Freiberg rail station, Germany.

I think we had had had enough of museums by the time we had cycled back into Belem, so instead of visiting the Navy museum, the Marine museum, the Archeology Museum and the planetarium we made do with the Botanic gardens, the Jardim Botanico Tropical (€2 entrance) a lush oasis of palm trees, hibiscus, flowers and lake to sooth the soul. By this time the sun was out and we were down to tee shirts with a couple of layers hanging round waists. By the time we had cycled back into the centre of the city the punters were pouring onto the waterfront and taking all available tables for a lazy beer in the sun, in our case there was a musician to entertain the locals.

The last day in Lisbon was spent going to Sintra, a nineteenth century watering hole that would have been beloved by the rich and famous. It lies high up above the coastal plain and has its own microclimate. That means it could be sweltering in the heart of Lisbon but misty and fog bound on the summit of Sintra. So if you go be prepared perhaps with a light sweater. Sintra is the sort of place that you feel has had its glory days and is now a vast tourist playground, and it would only really come into its own if there were people dressed up in top hats and carrying parasols. Oh, and the whole place could do with a lick of paint. Apart from that it's a great place to spend a day, with its over abundance of terracotta and pastel coloured architecture spread over the wooded hillsides and its fancy main square with the National Palace on the edge and a rather sumptuous cafe selling the usual tempting cake and coffee. It' s the sort of place where if you believe in conspiracy theories the Bilderbergers might choose for one of their jollies, using lots of tinted window limousines and police barriers to keep out the hoi polloi.

A bus takes a circular route from the rail station through the town centre and then up through a dizzying series of hairpin bends through the forest to the Pena Palace which is what we have all come to Sintra for, although we may not have known it! The palace and park are 14 euro for an adult and 7.50 euro just for the gardens. We just plumped for the gardens given the time we had before catching the plane. The gardens or park (national park?) are layered around the summit on which stands our palace and are ideal for an extensive walk. They give you a handy map at the entrance. And there are fantastic views out over towards Lisbon and away to the countryside.

How do you get there? Well you could take a tour costing 49 euro from Lisbon, or you could take a train from Rossio rail station in the heart of the city. For 4.80 euro you can buy a return ticket for a journey of about 40m. What a contrast of a journey! The train ploughs through endless soulless suburbs consisting of massive ranks of apartment blocks before just about getting rid of the urban blight as you enter Sintra amid a bit of green countryside. This is apparently one of the busiest stretches of suburban rail and road in Europe.

All told you could do a lot worse than take a city break in Lisbon.



A few money considerations:

Ticket open return Durrington to Gatwick airport - £21.50