A Day of Sightseeing in Lisbon

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Day 3: A Day of Sightseeing in Lisbon – 30 Dec 2009

I slept in till 1000 (this was my vacation after all) and missed breakfast downstairs. No worries—I wasn’t hungry. The rain was back, but it was not steady and the clouds were quickly moving. It would rain for ten minutes, the clouds would blow away and the skies would be blue for about 20 minutes, then the rain would come back.

With umbrella in hand, I started walking. I am a huge museum fan, but with only one day in Lisbon (at least that was the initial plan), I elected to explore the city by foot. I walked toward the Ponte 25 de Abril, the sister bridge of the Golden Gate in San Francisco, named in honor of the 1974 Carnation Revolution that overthrew the Estado Novo dictatorship. I stopped at a fitness center on the waterfront because I had planned to keep up on my physical fitness regimen on the trip, but they wanted EU30 for a day pass. Looks like it was pushups and city running for me.

a group of people walking on a sidewalk

a building with many columns and people walking on the street

a wet street with buildings in the background

a rainbow over a city

a bridge over water with a statue in the background

a port with cranes and a bridge

a stone path with trees and a bench

a street with buildings on the side

a statue of a woman in front of a pink building

a statue in a park

a group of people walking on a sidewalk

I stopped at a hole in the wall bar for brunch and had a ham and cheese omelet with French fries and a salad for 2,90. I found the food prices in Portugal were reasonable, though still higher than good ol’ bankrupt Greece and even some parts of Germany.

Later in the afternoon I took a ferry from Cais do Sobre to Cacilhas to see the Cristo Rei (Christ statue), similar to the one in Rio De Janiero. I walked around Cacilhas till dusk then returned to Lisbon for some shawarma. I planned to take a bus to Algercias, Spain the following day—positioning me for a day trip to British Gibraltar and a short ferry ride to Morocco. Plans would change, however.

a bridge over water with a statue in the background