Our arrival did not auger well. The chaos and disorganization of the Lisbon airport rivals that of Delhi's in 1990. Two hours waiting to get through immigration. Tired tourists uniting to resist pushy Nigerians trying to break in line. Lots of fun.
Then we discovered Bettie's suitcase failed to make the Newark connection. Curiously, mine was checked at the same time but made our flight. The suitcase was delivered next day, after much anxiety.
On our first touring day (arrival day being lost to jet lag) we walked through Bairro Alto, one of the old neighborhoods of Lisbon. The city is surprisingly walkable. We had expected much more noise, crowding, and traffic.
Our hotel "Eden Apartment Hotel" is a converted 1930's movie theater, hence the art deco facade. Comfortably appointed and located, but uncomfortably priced. Dollars and Euros are in unfavorable alignment.The San Roque church
is a 16th century Jesuit church with some of the most costly chapels ever seen. One dripping with lapis lazuli was built in Rome, blessed by the pope, disassembled and transported to Lisbon.
The floor panels cover the common graves of a multitude of the dead over the years. The practice was ended in the 19th century when parishioners objected to having bodies of plague victims under their feet.
The famous earthquake of 1755 destroyed Lisbon ("what a day, what a day, for an auto da fey!"). This monastery of Carmo was purposely left in ruins even after the city was reconstructed, as a monument to the devastation. About 10% of Lisbon died in the event.Description continued in future posts. Here is the full Lisbon album.
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4 comments:
Glad the luggage arrived. Looking forward to more of your blog.
I love this! What a great idea. It enhances the photos immensely - hey, ther isn't a spell check with this.
We get to experience the treats and you get to suffer the fatigue. Thanks. But of course, you get to eat the food.
Speaking of food, Happy April Fool's day. Libby is taking out to lunch in honor of our anniversary.
Are you bringing back any tiles?
HI! This is a great idea. What I want to know is how you find time to do this and travel at the same time. Glad to hear from you and glad you're having a good experience. We're doing all the usual things: hiking, cleaning up the yard from winter, mediating/arbitrating, and the glass fusing will start again next week. Take a look at http://www.lalagom.net/glassfusion and click on my name to see some of the latest things I made. My favorite travel & do internet thing was to sit inside the Roman wall in Barcelona and look at my e-mail. Now there's historical continuity for you.
Marcia, blogging does take a lot of time, and I'm trying to find the "right" amount so that it doesn't interfere with the trip. On the other hand it helps to document the photos etc as we go to preserve memories. I think I'm giving up on video of our travels; we still have unedited video from 15 years back. I'm finding handling the still photos is a lot easier.
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