Yvon and I went to Lisbon in the spring of 2023, intending a trip to this city and other places in Portugal, but our exploring was cut short by Yvon's illness. That didn't keep us from fully exploring the city, however, we had four enchanting days before our life became hospitals and hotels. It is a testament to the beauty of the city and the generosity of its people that our time there is something I remember fondly, even through the hardship of our stay there. Of all the cities I have visited anywhere, Lisbon would be high on any "favourites" list, because it was beautiful in a carefee and sometimes shabby way, which I found very inviting, and because the people are so generous and helpful.
Photo List (Total 671 Photos)
Click bolded headers below to view, or click "just the best" for quick tour
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Central Lisbon (263 photos) - This large gallery documents multiple visits to the centre of Lisbon. It made sense to start at the large square alongside the Rio Tejo, the Praça do Comércio, and then continues to the Cathedral, up to the Castelo de São Jorge. From there, the gallery moves to Baixa, the central commercial part of the city. "Baixa" means "low", as it is surrounded by hills on either side. The gallery moves in a northwards direction to the four large squares at the top of Baixa: Praça Dom Pedro IV (or Rossio Square), Praça da Figeuira, Praça Restauradores, and the mostly unpleasant Praça Martim Moniz and area. The gallery then jumps to the waterfront just west of the Praça do Comércio, including a market, the Pink Street, and some modern buildings, and continues to the Chiado area, and ends at the funicular Calçada de Glória, and the lovely Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântra, which offers gracious views of the whole central city.
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Bairro Alto and West (77 photos) - These photos include several visits to the north and west of central Lisbon, and include exploring and eating out in the Bairro Alto, the Jardim Botânico de Lisboa, the Jardim da Estrella, the Estrella Basilica, and the Cemitério dos Prazeres. The order of the photos is complex, because we were in these areas multiple times. For instance, after the Jardim da Estrella, there are photos towards the north, as I walked down from the Rato metro stop to the Jardim, by myself, on my first visit. Similarly, Yvon and I explored streets near the Jardim Botânico in a random way before visiting the garden.
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North (66 photos) - Our hotel was north of the centre of the city, in an unremarkable if pleasant area around the Praça do Duque de Saldanha. This gallery covers much of the area up there, including buildings around the hotel, and the Jardim Gulbenkian, where we had a relaxed visit following Yvon's illness. There is also the large formal Parque Eduardo VII including the Estufa Fria (a greenhouse, but with a kind of bamboo cover to render it less hot and sunny). Also includes random photos from several walks back to the hotel.
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Hospital-Hotel Walk (39 photos) - I ended up walking many times between our hotel in Saldanha, and the Hospital de Santo Antonio dos Capuchos. This walk took me down some very ordinary streets, mostly the Rua Gomes Freire and the Rua de Dona Estefânia. These are not prosperous streets; they are dotted through with abandoned buildings. But there are moments of grace throughout, a plaza, restaurants with a few tables outside, some lovely buildings. As I became more and more familiar with these ordinary vistas, I began to kind of fall in love with the ordinary beauty of this area. Being in a city with purposeful activity (visiting your husband in hospital) is very different from being there as a tourist, and Lisbon consoled me in multiple ways. The gallery starts with a funicular and a steep road that I took a few times to the hospital.
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Belém (151 photos) - This area, on the coast and to the west of the downtown, is not served by the subway but has a bunch of attractions near each other, all quite walkable. Yvon and I took a cab down there, a ride which started badly in snarled traffic, but which turned out well as we chatted with our interesting driver. The gallery starts at the modern and delightfully named Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, and also includes monuments and lighthouses, the Centro Cultural de Belém, the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, the Jardim Botânico Tropical, several public squares and parks, and the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology. When we finished the museum, we opted to walk most of the way back into town, stopping for supper at the Doca de Santo Amaro, where we had very serviceable pizza.
- Parque das Nações (43 photos) - I wonder if going to this area north-east of central Lisbon was worth it, essentially, Lisbon had a world's fair in 1998 and this area, often called Expo Park, was the grounds of the fair. Less a park than a collection of buildings alongside the water, it had a somewhat forlorn air on the day that Yvon and I visited, and it was hard to imagine it being full enough with people to be entertaining. We did see the lovely Santiago Calatrava train station, the Gare do Oriente, and we shopped at a fantastic and massive grocery store.
- Transportation Photos (32 photos) - These photos are at airports, on the subway in Lisbon, and of various subway stations. There are two photos of us in the business class lounge at Trudeau in Montreal; though we have flown business class often, it was our first lounge experience. We took the subway a lot in the city, and many of the stations are unremarkable, though a handful were quite pretty. Each subway line had its own symbol, which I thought was charming. Photos of Lisbon's trams and funiculars are in other galleries.
