Lisbon

Down we go and once we got to the river and entered the Baixa area we stopped for a quick break.

And then in one alley we stumbled across a fascinating door in a 'street'

It was a door to an exclusive hotel and João was able to get us in to take a look around.

It was built in the late 1800s early 1900s by a rich merchant importer. It is wonderfully eclectic with influences of Victorian times as well as beautiful Art Deco rooms.

On the balcony outside was a grotto with a fountain. This was a 'cool room' where people would go to enjoy natural AC.

The walls where 'tiled' with broken china pieces, supposedly from porcelain that got broken on the long perilous journey around Africa.

Around the corner was the next moroudoro. Then we made our way down the narrow crooked streets of the Alfama.

This is one of the oldest parts of the town and dates back to the Moors that conquered this area. To protect from invaders potentially coming from the river, they built all the streets narrow, crooked and with steps.

This way invading armies can not use animals or anything on wheels, and the Moors will always have the high ground over the invaders.

Urban planning with function.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfama#History

We told him early this morning that we don’t really need to see the insides of buildings or museums, and that we like to walk and wander around and see places.

To top it all off , it was a beautiful day made for being outside.

So he happily parked in a good spot and we walked to the next viewpoint.

Our guide João picked us up early this morning for our private all-day tour.

To start us out with a bang, he took us to one of the most stunning ‘miradouros’ (viewpoints) in the city.

The view was breathtaking.

This was going to be a good day!

(And it was. )

Dinner was at a sweet little restaurant close to our place. It was really good.

PS. This was only the second time ever I asked a chef in a restaurant for his recipe. Once in France in a Michelin starred restaurant, and this one.

Random pictures (and a crazy video) of the fleeting time after lunch.

We are just walking through town looking for a place to find lunch and saw the Santa Justa Lift.

This was built by the Eiffel Studio and is great to see, but we did not have the patience in the line (we even had free tickets)

And then we had a great tourist lunch watching people.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Justa_Lift

Our bus tour gave us a great overview and idea of the layout of the city.

And with the audio part, we learned some stuff too!

On our way to our tourist bus, we walked up the park, past the National Book Fair to the top of the park to look down at the city and the Targus river.

Start of a great day!