Lisbon, Portugal: As I write this we are pulling into the harbor of Lisbon, a place we’ve not been before. Our ship is only here for half a day, we’ll do a city tour just to get an overview.
The day is clear and warm. Lisbon as seen from the ship is a beautiful old city, centered on the harbor as many old cities were. Cruise ships here have the advantage of tying up right by the downtown, no shuttle buses needed.
We sailed into the harbor under a suspension bridge that resembles the Golden Gate Bridge. It was built by Salazar, their former dictator.
I spent a few years living and visiting in the portion of central CA that has many Portuguese immigrants. I’m wondering to what extent I’ll see things here which echo that experience – names and the like.
Yesterday we sailed down the Mediterranean coast of Spain and were amazed at the ship traffic along that coast. At any given time we were within sight of half a dozen other ships, almost all of them cargo ships. I expect this eastern Spanish coast is some of most heavily traveled water in the world.
We turned the corner at Gibraltar and immediately ran into rougher water as we eased into the southern reaches of the North Atlantic. Last night was unpleasantly choppy…it happens.
Later…we spent the afternoon in Lisbon, on a tour. Every time someone said “Lisbon” I’d think of the boss cop of that name in the CBS TV program entitled The Mentalist.
Our tour included a one-hour ride on a cute little street car – a real Toonerville Trolley. That is definitely the way to see the older parts of Lisbon, some of the streets we screeched and clanked down were so narrow a tour bus couldn’t have gotten through.
These streetcars date back to the early 1900s and have been updated with electric doors. Mostly, they are still old technology that continues to get the job done. Examples include a tongue-and-groove bentwood roof and low-tech single-hung windows.
Lisbon is built on seven hills, like Rome, only steep like San Francisco. In order to get sufficient traction, the cars have a sand dispenser that, on demand, drops grit on the rails. There are air brakes and old-fashioned leverage brakes as a back-up – both get used on the steeper hills. The last time I’d experienced a noisy ride like this was on the Streetcar Named Desire in New Orleans, I avoid SF’s cable cars.
Thoughts about Lisbon: given that it is old, I like it quite a lot. The pretty setting reminds me of Perth; Lisbon is on the bank of the wide Tagus River just inland from the Atlantic. Much of the city was rebuilt after a big earthquake in the mid-1700s, so it isn’t ancient.
There is the normal quotient of showy big Catholic churches, plus the grand governmental buildings you expect in a national capital. The parliament building is particularly fine and the presidential palace (not a residence, only a workplace) has a great setting.
Lisbon is a clean city; the cobblestones are limestone, which means foot traffic has polished them to a buttery smoothness like those in Dubrovnik. This can make for slippery footing, even when dry. Set into the whitish limestone are designs made of blackish basalt – very elegant.
Many of the older homes are covered with glazed tiles on the outside, similar to what we would do with a kitchen backsplash or a shower wall. Except that Lisbon’s tiles are patterned, like the Moorish designs or the tiles the Spanish use for accent décor. Where we’d paint or stucco, they often tile – I’ve never seen the like.
Portugal is very aware (and rightly proud) of its heritage as a “launching pad” for world explorers. You hear a lot about Prince Henry, the Navigator, and Vasco da Gama. They remember with a mixture of pride and shame the empire they once had, and are proud of letting Brazil go without a fight. You’re told, for instance, that around the world something like 200 million people speak Portuguese.
