...finally - back at home and almost over my jet lag! For some reason, it always seems to hit me harder when I travel westward.
My Lisbon picture gallery is up - enjoy! Remember to click on the thumbnails in the gallery to expand each image...
If you've been following along, you know I was at a meeting in Lisbon, Portugal this past week.
I needed a visa to get there and wasn't even sure it would arrive in time. Finally got the okay...a scant 2.5 days before I had to leave. There were a few 'throw things in a bag and run' kind of moments before I finally got on the plane!
What it meant, though, was that I had not had time to read up on the city and the country. To be honest, I was so frazzled by the lengthy visa process, I wasn't really looking forward to the destination at all - just the meeting.
Pleasant surprise - Lisbon is a gorgeous city. Flying in, I was startled by its beauty - and was hoping to have a bit of time to get some pictures.
Lisbon has a strong nautical heritage, and you can see visible signs of that - simply everywhere. From ships decorating the tops of lamp posts, to mosaics of ships on the pavements, to ships on trash cans...
Lisbon's history dates back to Phoenician times; you'd be hard pressed to find much evidence of that however - almost the entire city was flattened in 1755 by a massive 9.0 earthquake and a resulting tsunami.
It is today a city of grand avenues and narrow, precipitous, cobbled streets. A city of beautiful art-deco buildings and old churches. Its main street is the tree-lined and gracious Avenida de Liberdade, which was modeled after the Champs-Elysees in Paris, but to my mind - is far more evocative of a different, gentler, era than the Parisian boulevard. Having said that, here's a wry historical note. Portugal was neutral in WWII - and yet was known for being rife with spies.
As with most team meetings, we had the chance to have dinner in a couple of unusual locations. The first was the Blues Cafe, on the banks of the river Tagus. Entering it was a bit like stepping back in time (unless you noticed the DJ and his sound equipment!) Red plush velvet furnishings, potted palms, pink lampshades, retro metal fans, oil paintings on the walls....and...hmmmm, look...is that a Kenny G.-ish sax player? Yep.
Dinner the second night was at the Palácio dos Condes D'Óbidos, a old palace that is now the HQ of the Portuguese Red Cross. This is a stunning location, made even more so, by the imaginative decor at dinner. The palace is richly tiled throughout; the dinner tables, with their profusion of tumbling fruits, flowers, terracotta and candles were such a fitting complement. View my pictures.
On the final day of our meeting, I had a few free hours and took the chance to wander over to St. George's Castle - a castle dating back to the 6th century BC. I'm torn whether to call this a castle or a fort - when I think of a castle, I think of (say) the Alhambra in Granada - my favorite castle in the world. Unlike the Alhambra, there's not much left within the interiors of St. George's Castle; I suspect the earthquake of 1755 may have had a hand in it somehow. It's just walls, battlements, lots of cannons lying around, and miles of stunning views.
And, may I add, murderous cobblestones. How did the ancients manage it? It's one thing to ride a horse up cobblestones...quite another to walk on them - for hours on end. I picked my way warily round the castle - not helped at all by the boots I was wearing. If you'd called me a tenderfoot that day - you would not be off the mark.
I wanted to see the castle for another reason...it has a connection to India.
The great explorer Vasco da Gama set sail from Lisbon to India, arriving there in 1498. India still retains elements of Portuguese culture, especially in the cities of Goa and Bombay. An aside...Bombay was gifted by the Portuguese to the British in 1661 - as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza when she married Charles II.
When da Gama returned to Lisbon as a hero, he was received by King Manuel I of Portugal at.......St. George's Castle.