In 1998 Lisbon held a World's Fair. The fairgrounds are now called the Parque das Nações, (Park of the Nations). Go to the link (only in Portuguese) if you would like to see more pictures.
We went on Monday. It was cool, gray and dreary, but we still enjoyed seeing a bit of it. It was lovely and sunny the day before, so it was probably a zoo then.
We took the metro to the end of the red line and walked over to the water. Naturally we were hungry by then, so we found a little place that was open and much to our delight, had a delicious meal there. On our way back to the station, I took some pictures.
This sculpture of bathers is lots of fun. There are many more pictures of it and other works of art in the park at the website.
I didn't take any pictures on the way to the park, but these are on the way back and from the train.
As is common, there are major shops at big metro intersections. That's why you rarely see any large stores on the streets. In fact, at one point where we changed lines, I had to go to the bathroom. Trout stayed inside the station and I went through the turnstile to try to find a potty. One flight of stairs headed above ground, so I knew that wasn't an option. The other flight went straight to an enormous grocery and shopping complex, complete with the Lisbon version of a food court. I did find a women's bathroom, much to my relief. Our passes let us come and go at will, so I was able to easily get back through the turnstile to where Trout was waiting for me.
This is not that location. It is on the way to the station from the park, but it is similar. I took the picture because of the lovely terrazzo floor.
Lisbon being famous for tiles, all the Lisbon Metro stations are artistically done with tiles. This is the station (Oriente) at the end of the red line where the park is. At the link you can read about the artists and see the station list as well as a map of the whole system.
Trout asked if I wanted to get out to take pictures, but I preferred to take them from the train as we stopped.
At one point on the red line we went above ground. This is a typical suburban modern apartment building.
Now we're back underground.
I didn't take pictures of every stop along the way. These have been just some examples. Most of the stations we saw were very modern. At first this one looked like it was more traditional, but if you click and look closely, you can tell it really isn't.
These are the last of my pictures. This cross monument is actually a statue of Christ called Christ the King. It is across the Tagus River, but visible from many locations in the area. This is from the apartment during the day.
It is lit at night.
This is a closer photo from when we were in Belem.
So that concludes our stay in Lisbon from a photographic point of view. I had some gut issues on the last day there, and we didn't get out except for dinner. I'd hoped to take another day trip that day, but it was not to be.
One of the major parts of our European travels is the food. On the whole, I'd say we had pretty good food. Where we didn't it was either a poor choice of restaurant (really only once) or of menu items (Trout did better than I did). In general, the food in Portugal is considered to be the cheapest in Europe. That doesn't mean that it's cheap, though.
One major problem with it for us is that, almost everything we got was heavily salted. I understand this is common with Portuguese cuisine, but we are so not into salt that we could really taste the difference.
Our last meal was at a restaurant right around another corner from our apartment that was touted as having a great view. It did have a good view over the train station, but not as good a view as we had from our apartment. In fact, I realized that I could see its dining area from our kitchen window, that's how close it is to where we stayed. It was packed on a Tuesday night, but we got early reservations so we had no problems with service or waiting. This is the only place I've ever been where they used an iPad for the menu. Mine worked fine, but Trout's was a little balky. I noticed after us, the rest of the people in the place got paper menus.
We found our way around the city easily by foot and by public transportation and taxis were always available. The people we met were consistently nice and helpful. Even with our muddled Portuguese and their muddled English, we usually could figure things out.
Staying in an apartment was great, even if it was up lots of steep stairs. It was very helpful financially because we typically only ate 1 meal a day out and the lodging cost per day was also much cheaper than in a hotel. It was also helpful when either or both of us needed to slow down a bit.
Trout's ready to go back, but wants to be sure to go to Estoril, the site of a racetrack, of course. There are other more rural parts of Portugal I wouldn't mind seeing, but I'm not as interested in going back as he is.
