October 14, 2021 – Lisbon

October 14, 2021 – Lisbon and Belem
The eight of us met in the lobby at 9am and boarded a full size tour bus with Sira, our tour guide, and Filippa, our local guide. There was lots of room to spread out. The morning was billed as a Lisbon Tour. We rode down Av. LIberdad to the river front. Filippa gave us lots of history and pointed out interesting things we probably would not have noticed. At the waterfront we turned and drove so we could see the bridge that looks amazingly like the Golden Gate Bridge. They don’t have a walking lane due to the amount of suicides the GGB had. The lower deck contains train tracks for commuter trains.

We next went to Belem where we saw the Belem tower. It was used to defend Lisbon from pirates. They and another Tower across the river would simultaneously fire on approaching ships.
After the tower we stopped at the Monument to the Discoveries. It was built in 1960 to commerate 500 years of Portuguese Discoveries of new lands.
Heading back to central Lisbon, we went to the Alfama district which escaped damage in the Great Earthquake of 1755, It was an area which historically housed immigrants, sailors, and prostitutes. Recent years the area has suffered from gentrification. Despite this, it is a wonderful part of town to walk through with very narrow streams and nicely tiled buildings. Thisis the area where Fado music was born.
After the tour ended we were taken to a restaurant for a talk by a woman on why racism is a recent problem trying to be solved by the government. It was interesting.
The group split up for “time on our own”. We had asked Sira how to get to the Chiado district. She volunteered to show us how to get there but joined us for our stroll. We had a Portuguese “snack” of a Pork Sandwich. A little beer washed it down perfectly.
After walking until 3pm, we decided to take a taxi back to the hotel.
At 6pm we met to walk to our Welcome Dinner. We walked to the funicular and took it up to a view point. In Barrio Alto and then walked to our restaurant. After a glass of wine, we had a wonderful Fado concert. There were 2 musicians and both a male and female singer. They were all very talented. After the concert dinner was served. We had a cheese and meat tray, fish soup, and fish with veggies and rice with class followed by custard, It was all very delicious.
Tomorrow we head to Cascais and Sintra.