Finally! The city has been my top "must-see" since moving to London, and it did not disappoint! I had an art history professor who specialized in Portuguese Baroque architecture, and ever since her class, those slides have inspired me to visit this beautiful city. Brandon and I went in early November with our good friend, Eric, just as London was turning wet(ter) and chilly, so 70 degrees and sunny was very welcome!
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| Loving the weather, views, and company! |
Lisbon has so much character. The buildings and streets were not as pristine as Paris or London, with some buildings in need of a bit of TLC. But overall gorgeous and colorful, and you could sense that the Portuguese were very passionate and proud of their city. Our Airbnb host talked at us for at least a solid hour about the best places to visit. After three days, we could see why!
Although Lisbon has been a major port city since the 8th century, most of the architecture dates after 1755 when a deadly earthquake destroyed 85% of the city. The resulting architecture is fairly modern by European standards.
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| Rossio Square |
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| Praca do Comercio greeted visitors arriving at the port |
The city has seven major hills, and the iconic funiculars and trams were constructed to ease access to the neighborhoods. I loved the pop of colors! It was a photographer's playground, and Brandon took full advantage.
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| Tram 15 |
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| Funicular beauty |
On top of one of the hills is Sao Jorge Castle, the remains of the 8th-century citadel constructed during the Moorish rule. It was reconstructed continuously throughout different monarch's reigns so has varying styles of Moorish, Spanish, and Portuguese.
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| Sao Jorge Castle illuminated overlooking Lisbon |
We took a day excursion to Sintra, about 30km from Lisbon by train, and the host of a dazzling array of summer palaces and estates belonging to royalty and aristocracy from around the world. The mansions have been used as backdrops for millionaires' weddings and movies for decades!
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| Coast of Sintra on the Atlantic Ocean |
We toured the outside of several castles by car, around twisting, hilly, dirt roads surrounded by lush vegetation, including cork trees (only country in the world where cork trees grow.) Our guide told us ghost stories of sacrificial rituals and hiker disappearances in the forest. With the density of the trees, fog in the air, and the network of secret tunnels that ran for miles underneath the estates, I started to believe him!
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| Secret passageway entrance (full of spiders!) |
We visited the grounds, gardens, and mansion of the Quinta da Regaleira, built in the late nineteenth century for an eccentric millionaire with Masonic ties. We spent over two hours wandering around the spectacular gardens that included waterfalls, tunnels, wells, bridges and towers. I've never seen anything like it!
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| View of the forest from an elaborate bridge in the Quinta da Regaleira |
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| Quinta da Regaleira estate |
All those hills in Sintra and Lisbon made us hungry, so we made a beeline for the most famous custard tarts in town at Pastels de Belem - I'm still dreaming about the perfectly warm vanilla custard on flaky shells! The tarts are a Portuguese specialty, but these were especially delicious and served with cinnamon.
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| This may have been our third tart each...of the hour |
To sum it up, Lisbon was everything I had hoped for and more. Definitely one of my favorite cities. I would love to explore more of Portugal! And now I leave you with this gem - Brandon's homemade gif of our funicular experience post some vinho verde...
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