Monday 28th March 2011

Walked into the town centre and caught the bus into Lisbon, very reasonable at just under 7 euros return. This route took us across the Lisbon version of the Golden Gate bridge and past their statue of Christ in the same pose as the one is Brazil. Got off the bus north of the city centre which meant we were walking downhill, see we’re not as stupid as we sometimes seem! This area was very busy with traffic and looked very run down in parts. It’s such a shame a lot of the historic buildings that remain are in a terrible state, falling down and covered in graffiti. We did see their new arena which is round and Islamic looking. The posters were up for a forthcoming bull fight and then a “Queen” show, very diverse! Still I suppose both feature men prancing about in very tight trousers!

As we got further down we past some very expensive hotels and office blocks for major banks, but even these didn’t look particularly stunning, but there was definitely people with money judging by the cars. Once we reached the older and more touristy part it did improve but still gave the impression of a city with little money to spend on its buildings. We walked along a tree lined dual carriageway where there was a service road to the side with parking spots. Wherever there was an available spot a homeless druggy/alcoholic was standing there motioning to the oncoming cars that they could park there. If someone pulled in the guy helped them park, would you trust someone in their state to see you back? They then wanted paying for the service! My legal advisors (Lynn & Sarah) have forbidden me from making any further comment, still accidents do happen!

We had lunch inside as it was beginning to rain and was still raining when we came out. We continued walking towards the riverfront past some nice statues and lovely old buildings. We saw the “Elevador de Santa Justa”, an elevator dating from 1502, designed I believe by an apprentice of Gustav Eiffel, now not a lot of people know that! At the bottom of it were some expensive jewellers and I saw the most expensive watch I’ve ever seen, wait for it………….. 98,000 euros! Yep, just under a hundred grand for a watch! And as someone commented, if you asked a guy wearing one he’s still likely to stay “ about half past…”!

At the bottom you walk through an archway and out onto a grand square which fronts onto the river, this was the entry point to the city for the Kings and Queens and housed the Royal palace for 400 years. In 1908 the King and his son were assassinated here and in 1974 the armed forces began their “Carnation Revolution” in the square, which saw them overthrow the dictatorship.

We all agreed that due to the weather we probably hadn’t seen Lisbon at its best and everyone’s advice is to see it at night when the cafes and bars really come alive. Plus you can’t see the state of the buildings. Somewhere to return to.