Skip to main content

Lisbon

Being in Lisbon It's a bit like being back home in the Northeast.  First of all we went to the contemporary art gallery that had been a biscuit factory -  it had kept and renovated as part of the decor a very beautiful old wall with the big old ovens built in.
And then we came across Roman Theatre remains which was very reminiscent of Binchester...

The weather was rather more clement and there were more tuktuks than you get around home. We had a good day wandering round the backstreets finding interesting nooks and crannies although its all very touristy pretty much everywhere. 

The Art Gallery was okay... not particulary anything but its all relative.
The most exciting thing was I got stuck in the loo!  Fortunatly Dr Fred was just outside but he couldn't open the door either.  It was a bit shocking how quickly I felt close to panicking 🤣🤣 Rationally I knew I would get out but for a few minutes I wasnt very happy!  The gallery assistant had to come and explain that the door stuck and needed to be pushed while the latch unlocked... simple when you know how but I wish there had been a notice on the door... it would have saved a sweaty moment....
Back out in freedom we headed back into town and came across an interesting metal bridge like structure that we had no idea what it was - we walked up the hill to access it and wandered about taking photos both of the intricate metal work and the amazing views it allowed... 
When we eventually walked back down we found a huge queue for a lift up to it.  Turns out it was an alternative to a 'funicular' to get people up the very steep hill.
A slow meander took us back to the big square and then back up through the old town using the time honoured method of just taking next left then next right... left... right ...until we found more amazing viewpoints and even more tuktuks....
its a big city but the old bit is quite picturesque with cobbled streets, white houses, red rooves and ornate balconies... even the washing hanging up looks quite charming. 

Close on 8 miles tramping round town gave us city leg quite badly.. back to base for a lazy late afternoon and a decent cuppa while watching the sun set. 

And a lovely view of  the suspension bridge as we sail away






Comments

  1. Caroline Mackay29 January 2024 at 20:42

    Make the most of any blue sky you can see... It's a bit soggy here 🌧️ xx

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Scotland part 2

The second half of the week continued in much the same vein.  We had one rainy afternoon which was actually quite nice to be holed up in the house with the rain lashing the windows.  It probably wasn't quite so nice for the two visitors that came on their bikes but they're tough cookies - and its only water- but I did feel sorry for them having to cycle six miles back down the track in the wind and rain, but given Scotland,  it wasn't as bad as it could be. The big quest for the 2nd half of the week was to find some deer antiers!  The chap that owned the house dropped in to visit - he was a very friendly fella and was chatting about how this was the time of year when all the Stags lost their antlers (he collected them and sold them) so after that we were on the serious lookout.   It's always been Fred's mission to find some dropped antlers....  The Monro baggers continued with the mission to bag the remaining three Monros... there is discussion as whet...
Post a Comment
Read more

Vigo

We left the ship to explore Vigo. Its a much larger place then we expected... although tbh I hadn't given ut a lot of thought. Its a real mish mash of old and new and having got a map from tourist info we decided to follow the walking trail to the Monte Castro... the highest point of the town.  Most of the town was pretty much as everywhere else... lots of traffic... lots of people... one or two interesting buildings and a lot of shopping. We headed to the art gallery - this has been a year of gallery visits so we we seen o reason to change now.  The Museo de Marco is housed in the towns ex prison building and its very grand. In fact, I think that on this occaision the building might have been more interesting than the art....  Although the visiting exhibition by Susanne S D Themlitz was strangely compelling. It was a huge varied collection of eclectic items... found, salavaged, manipulated and arranged in lots of ways - weirdly inspiring - and mostly enjoyable to look at...
2 comments
Read more

Funchal

So after three days at sea we finally hit Funchal in Madeira.  An escape from the ship, and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed.  First of all the weather is really splendid.  Especially when you know that everybody else in the UK is suffering grim storms and vile winds..  Over here it is between 22 and 25 degrees is really quite warm.    Funchal is a pretty city. It's built on a hill it with lots of lovely white houses with stunning red roofs.   In order to get the best of it we walked along the sea front until we got to the cable car and we took it up the hill.  It was a really good ride much longer than we imagined and it's quite weird because it goes right through the town -  completely over everybody's house...  So not only do you get a lovely vista of the bay but you can view the beautiful rooftops and get to look in everybody's gardens and to look at their picnic sets.. clean washing nice plants... scratty b...
2 comments
Read more