Our Lisbon (or Lisboa as they call it here) Adventure Begins.

We really enjoyed our time in Sesimbra, but we were looking forward to our time in Lisboa. I managed to move our Monday E-bike tour to today. We set out early to start our transit adventure. It would not be a Kassirer family vacation without some running for a bus or train, so of course we ended up running for the first bus. Today was the Lisbon marathon, so the regular route was changed as the bridge from the south to Lisbon was closed. Instead of taking two buses, we had to take a bus, a train and then another bus, although it turns out the last method of transportation was actually a metro, but we didn’t realize that until we looked at the bus stop and realized we were supposed to go underground to take the metro instead.

Interestingly, the main bridge in Lisboa (called the 25th of April bridge) is actually a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, made by the same architect, thirty years after the original was built in San Francisco. That is the bridge where the runners were running, so it was closed to traffic, but the train could go under the runners on that same bridge 🙂

*Fun fact: the subway had cork covered seats 🙂* *This was especially cool after we had learned about cork production on our tour of the Arrabida Nature Park yesterday*. We saw several cork trees in the park.

We arrived at the bike shop quite early, so were planning to go for lunch before the tour at 2:00. The shop had graciously agreed to let us store our bags for us during the day. As we were unloading, we noticed a group arriving for the noon tour. We asked and there was room, so we joined the earlier tour.

There were 9 people in our group – 6 from the Netherlands, 2 from Germany and the three of us. Lisbon is a very hilly city, so I was very happy that we had electric assisted bikes. Even on the craziest, steepest hills, we were able to get up very easily. On turbo mode, pedalling uphill felt no different that on flat ground! What a dream! If only I had one of these at home!

The tour lasted over 3 hours, and we covered most of the city. Our guide Jwan was excellent, and we learned so much. He gave us a lot of historical context which we really appreciated. Here are a few highlights from the tour:

The view from one of the vistas, where you can see the 25th of April bridge – At the time of its inauguration in 1966, the bridge was named Salazar Bridge (Ponte Salazar), after Portuguese Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar, who ordered its construction. He was envious of the American bridge in San Francisco. After the Carnation Revolution in 1974, which overthrew the remnants of Salazar’s Estado Novo regime, the bridge was renamed for April 25, the date of the revolution.

*This church was one of the only buildings that survived the huge earthquake in 1755, the rest of the city was pretty much destroyed.*

*Grafitti art on one of the towers at the top of the city*

*A toast with a traditional Portuguese cherry wine/liquor called Ginja at the end of the tour*.

After the tour we took a bus and then a ferry to check into our condo in Almada, a neighborhood right across the Tagus river from downtown Lisbon. After loading up our ferry transit cards for the week, we decided to eat at a restaurant right outside the ferry terminal. We ordered the grilled mixed fish plate. Wow! It was really something!

Tomorrow we are heading to Sintra for a day trip…