Lisbon - The Land of Snails, Sailors, and Ginja Berries

It has been really hard to find time and an interet connection for the last week. I'll try to get some updates on here over the next day or two. Rich says, "less words and more pictures." So, here goes...

Saturday, June 9 – Day 12 (Lisbon)

We woke up in Lisbon, Portugal. Well, actually we were awake most of the night because sleeping in a seat on a train is even worse than sleeping in a seat on an airplane. At one point in the middle of the night, I opened my eyes and caught the gaze of an older gentleman across the aisle who said with a great accent, “What? Do they use square wheels on this train?” Maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty darn funny at the time (probably close to 4:00am)!

Anyway, Lisbon is an interesting city (from a sightseeing perspective, probably not worth much more time than the 15 hours we dedicated). An earthquake in 1755 leveled the city and killed nearly ¼ of its people. The city was rebuilt on a strict symmetrical grid plan, but pre-earthquake Lisbon survives in three historic neighborhoods: Belém, the Alfama, and the Bairro Alto. We visited two of these three.

In Belém, the Torre de Belém (Belém Tower, seen here)
has guarded Lisbon’s harbor since 1555. Today it symbolizes the sea voyages that made this city powerful in its day. This was the last sight sailors saw as they left and the first one they’d see upon their return.

Nearby the giant Monumento a los Descubrimientos (Monument of the Discovereries, seen here) honors Portugal’s leading explorers.






















Across the street is the Mosteiros dos Jerónimos (Monastery of Jerónimos, seen here).























Here Rich poses with the Monastery in the backgraound (from across the street).
King Manuel had this giant church and its beautiful cloisters (see these next two pictures)
built in 1496 as a thank you for the discoveries. Sailors would spend their last night here in prayer before embarking on their frightening voyages.


Next we ventured into the Alfama. In its day, this was a colorful sailors’ quarter. Today the historic district is a maze of twisted alleys and steeply slanted streets with cobblestones that carry you back to the Old World with every step! The houses bend as if to comfort one another and the air drips with laundry. Here Rich poses in one such alley…
Gradually we zigzagged our way up to the castle-crowned hill. Here is a spot where we rested and surveyed the Alfama rooftops below…

To finish off the day trip, were told we had to try a quintessential Lisbon spirit – ginginha (zheen-zheen-yah). This sweet liquor made from the sour cherry-like ginja berry, sugar, and schnapps is actually quite delicious and refreshing. As we enjoyed our ginginha, we noticed everyone around us was ordering these tiny snails, and we starred with curiosity. The very friendly waiter (who was already tickled when we ordered the ginginha) noticed our stares and brought us a small tester of the snails – called caracois.
When in Rome…(no wait that is later in our adventures).