Dates – March 26th – 28th 2005
March 28th was a national holiday in France. At first, we didn’t have any plans and were going to spend the weekend in Paris but, at the last minute, we decided to book a trip to Lisbon for the weekend. We flew Air France and stayed at the Le Meridian just a few minutes by taxi or metro from the old city center, Rossio.
We arrived in Lisbon on Saturday afternoon. After quickly checking into our hotel, we immediately made our way to the city center, Rossio. We walked around the Baixa area and then took tram 28 (and old, wooden tram left around mostly for nostalgic tourists; it reminded me of the wild mouse rollercoaster ride at Playland in Vancouver) up to the Alfama quarter. The Alfama quarter is high on a hill overlooking the Atlantic ocean and the city of Lisbon itself. Here, there are some wonderful, windy cobblestone streets with trams dangerously careening up and down them. We spent some time sitting at a small café with magnificent views.
On Saturday evening, we took a taxi (extremely cheap in Lisbon, by the way) down to the Docas area. This is a modern area by the waterfront with a thriving nightlife and great (although pricey) restaurants. Here, we had fish soup, bacalau (salted cod) and some very fresh mangoes from Brazil.
On Sunday, we spent the day in the Belem area (along the waterfront) and saw the Torre de Belem, Monumento dos Descobrimentos (Monument of the Discoveries) and the Jeronumos Monastery. It was a nice sunny day, so it was nice to spend some time in the fresh air of the waterfront region. On Sunday evening, we spent our time in the Oceanaria district on the south eastern edge side of Lisbon. This area was the site of Expo 98 and is made up of brand new centers and a large, modern shopping mall.
Some of my thoughts from abroad. You can also have a look at my photos from abroad.
