Exploring Old Lisbon - Friday 2-20-09

Friday, February 20th Lisboa

Up and down for breakfast by 8:30 AM. Then it was computer time while waiting for the tour guide who would arrive by 11. They had finished our laundry so it was upstairs to sort it out and put back on our freshly laundered blue jeans…… Yikes, I had to lay on the bed to zip them up…. Guess I’d better lay off the bread. But after wearing them a few hours the stretch had come back to them and they were comfortable again.

While waiting in the lobby a very large group of college age students came in from Paris for a seminar. Very mixed group of both male and female, a mixed ethnic group. This morning the halls all filled with their voices as they get themselves ready to go out and of course the bathrooms are all full. Think that we will give them a chance to move on before we go down for breakfast.

Soon the tour guide, with 2 other couples from the other hostel, arrived and we were off for a walking tour of old lisboa. First we caught the tram which would take us to Alfama the oldest quarter of Lisbon is also its most charming. Alfama sprawls across a hill between the Castelo de Sao Jorge and the River Tagus, a maze of cobbled lanes, alleyways, staircases and secret gardens whose Moorish street plan has largely survived the damage caused by the 1755 earthquake.

We really got a work out on our walk today it seemed that we were either going up or coming down sidewalks of tile, steps of marble or streets of cobblestone. They sometimes had to wait for me to catch up as I am the slow one watching just where to put my foot down each time. When possible I always use the railings and if the area is wide enough Martha and I hang on to each other for support.. But we made it and I think that we can truly say that we have experienced Lisbon. A highlight of the tour was to visit Castelo de Sao Jorge. This time I elected to not walk the ramparts (top of the walls) as I was being to tire out a bit. We also visited a tile shop where a lady demonstrated tile painting. We saw many walls decorated with pictures made from multiple tiles.
Then we went into a very small restaurant for a lovely Portuguese dinner of Octopus a Lagareiro….. yes we ate Octopus. It was very good and I think that I would eat it again. We then shared a lovely Cream Brea lay for desert. Walking again we were back to our hostel by 3:30. Side note… due to our advanced age we were allowed to visit the castle for free and also later we were given a reduced price for our fare when we bought our tickets for Seville. Sometime age does have it’s advantages.

We set out again to find the metro for a ride to the international bus station to buy tickets for an overnite, Sunday, bus to Seville, Spain. We are getting so good…. Did not get lost this time and made it there and back in good time. Because of our late lunch we elected to forgo supper and headed up to bed early to read our books.

Hope that you are all enjoyed our blogs as much as we are…. Even the hostel has contected on to check out our blog and we have given out several cards to people we have met in our travels. So Long for now….
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