Lisbon, Portugal

An hour after we landed in Lisbon we were sitting at a slightly rickety table on a couple of mismatched chairs drinking cheap red wine and scoffing crusty bread and chunks of fresh tomato smothered in olive oil. Delicious!

We came chasing the sun; apparently Lisbon is Europe’s sunniest capital. It’s sunnier than Athens and older than Rome. And if you’ve been here, you’ll know it’s hilly too.

The idea is to spend about a month pottering around Portugal. We don’t have much of a plan yet but as we sat at that little table, sipping wine and watching the world go by, an old saying came to mind: ‘Begin as you mean to go on, and go on as you began.’

Good advice, we think … very good advice indeed.

The Rua Augusta Arch, gateway to the city of Lisbon; the triumphal arch was built to commemorate the city's reconstruction after the devastating earthquake of 1755

The Arch also marks the start of Rua Augusta, the long pedestrian street running through Lisbon's historic heart

Along here, and on almost every Lisbon street, you'll find pastry shops selling Pastéis de Nata, Portugal's famous egg-custard tarts

Part of Lisbon's charm is the diversity of its architecture

This beautiful old palace is now a retail space for local designers and craftspeople

Does this tower look slightly familiar? The Santa Justa lift was built in 1902 by a Portuguese-born French engineer who was an admirer Gustave Eiffel's work

Portuguese pavement (calçada Portuguesa) is a traditional style of paving found throughout the country and in the old Portuguese colonies around the world

Small blocks of basalt or limestone are laid to form intricate patterns and pictures

These beautiful pavements make wandering around cities like Lisbon a joy

If you're not looking down here you're sure to be looking up - at the azulejo, the beautiful polished ceramic tiles that decorate the facades of many buildings

Dating back to the time of the Moorish invasions, azulejo became popular in Portugal and Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries

After the 1755 earthquake, azulejo was used to decorate all manner of buildings and public spaces

Traditionally the tiles were blue and white

Or yellow and green

 

But eventually a broad range of colours and styles was introduced

Azulejo was also used as a form of story-telling (here's St George slaying the dragon outside a local restaurant)

And to recount episodes from history (a bit like the tile version of oral history)

The Siege of Lisbon in 1147, which saw the Portuguese defeat the Moors to take control of the city

Like Rome, Lisbon was built on a series of seven hills

Which means there's a lot of this

And, inevitably, a lot of that

Before long you decide that riding the trams is a good alternative; they were introduced to Lisbon in 1873

The historic wooden trams still operate on some routes (where modern versions can't cope with the tight turns and steep gradients)

Usually trams and cars happily share Lisbon's sometimes narrow streets

But occasionally the competition between tram and car gets serious

You can be certain, though, that tram will always triumph (this driver would have recovered his car with a brand new ding and scratch along the side)

The Jerónimos Monastery, one of Lisbon's most important monuments, was built in the 1500s

The monastery's wonderful Manueline cloister; the ornate architectural style is named for Portugal's King Manuel I

The job of the monks who lived here was to support the navigators and sailors who set off from Lisbon to discover the world

And the sailors did just that - Portugal was one of the world's great maritime nations; voyages of discovery (and colonisation) during the 1500s turned the country into a trading powerhouse

It's interesting how familiar the names of Portuguese sailors like Vasco da Gama and Ferdinand Magellan are to us, yet at school we didn't hear the name of a single Aboriginal tribal group from our own country

Lisbon's extraordinary 'Monument to the Discoveries'

Belém Tower (1515), built as a fortress to guard the entrance to Lisbon's harbour; it was also the first sight of home for returning sailors

Portuguese Fado music is said to have its origins in those dangerous sea voyages; women left behind sang mournful songs about absent husbands and sons (you won't be bopping home after a night in a fado bar )

There's a lot of music on the streets of Lisbon - and a lot of passion in every performance; this young group was rocking out a medley of Elvis' greatest hits

And sometimes, when the spirit moves you, there's nothing for it but to jump on in, grab the busker's mic and go for it

Really, just one more song and then I'll leave you to it ...

Ah, Lisbon, you've been a lot of fun; and now we definitely plan to go on as we've begun