Lisbon

Friday 25th April 2025.

We have stayed for 2 nights in the small town of Corroios south of Lisbon south of the River Tagus.

We managed to find out after visiting both the tram station and the train station that Layla would not be allowed on the tram but it was ok for her to travel on the train and so we used that option to get into Lisbon.

The train took us over April 25th Bridge which is of course todays date, it is a National Holiday here in Portugal to celebrate their day of revolution in 1974 where the dictator signed over power to the army generals. During the afternoon today there was a large parade celebrating the event and as on the day when people placed red carnations in the barrels of the soldiers, carnations are for sale everywhere.

The train took us to a station north of Lisbons old quarter and we walked 3 miles to get there passing on the way a few monuments.

We eventually emerged in Rossio Square with a monument to Dom Pedro 1V where we were approached by a pleasant young man touting for business to take a site seeing ride in his Tuk Tuk, and much to our surprise he agreed to take Layla and did so giving her much fuss.

Duncan took us on an excellent trip around the narrow streets to all the sites and view points over the city, he explained much of its history and the influence of Fado music.

Duncan took time to explain the different architecture, Lisbon had been one of the most important ports in Europe until struck by a great earthquake in 1755 which was felt as far away as Jamaica. It struck at 9.30 am on November 1st, All Saints’ day when most of the city’s population was at mass, within the space of 10 minutes there had been three major tremors and the candles of a hundred church altars started fires that swept through the capital. A huge tsunami then struck the city drowning many who escaped to the river away from the fires ( we learned of the tsunami last year when in Ireland a it caused huge damage there) 40,000 of 270,000 people died. It later lead to debate about God’s action and why destroy people at prayer and those who believed in natural disasters. Lisbon was rebuilt in a grid fashion but never recovered its golden age.

After the Tuk Tuk ride we wandered some more and had lunch outside a restaurant .

Slowly the streets began to fill with people who wanted to watch the parade and it got a point when it wasn’t easy for Layla to walk comfortably so we decided as we were feeling weary we would head back to the station, another 3 mile walk! By the time we had returned to Homer my steps calculator indicated we had walked 9 miles, and did we know it.

It would be better to explore Lisbon on foot taking funiculars and elevators and having time to enter the buildings but as Layla is banned from all these we at least can say we have seen the tourist sites even if we haven’t been in them, which is better than not doing so.