We spent a major part of our time in Lisbon on recommissioning Suwena. However, we managed to squeeze in a few days of exploring the city. After all we were in the heart of Lisbon and it’s a very fascinating city. We can really recommend visiting Lisbon for a week-long holiday, there is so much to do and see. Even ourselves we think that we’d like to return here for a city break. There is still so much more to see.
Our first touch with Lisbon was to jump on a yellow historic tram from 1930s on line 28. The feeling was sky high as the tram carriage was rattling on narrow streets among other traffic. Also, even if locals still use trams for daily travel, it was mostly tourists onboard. Oncoming trams were passing so close that when two carriages stopped at the traffic lights, Andrus had time to high five from the open window with a guy in the other tram.
We walked all round in the center of Lisbon and when our feet got tired, we tested one of the three funiculars of Lisbon. The funicular of Bica took us downhill in no time, it has only two stops: one at the top of the hill and the other down below. It was a fun ride!
Rental car took us the south side of the river Tejo by crossing the bridge of 25 de Abril. Earlier when we sailed with Suwena under this bridge we were wondering the constant rumbling sound. The bridge does not have any driving surfaces, instead the cars drive on the steel grate and the noise pollution is terrible. The bridge of 25 de Abril is the longest suspension bridge in Europe and reminds a lot of the Golden Gate bridge of San Francisco. No wonder, because they both were built by the same company.
On the other side of the bridge, in Almada we visited the statue of Cristo Rei who has spread his arms in a wide hug of the whole Lisbon. The statue in Lisbon is quite like the Christ the Redeemer statue of Rio de Janeiro. The 28 meter tall Cristo Rei monument is raising up to 82 meters above the city. It is a very visible landmark that can be seen from all over Lisbon.
We also drove to explore the fairytale destination of Sintra and we wanted to visit Palace of Pena and Moorish Castle. However, we got lost in narrow streets and ended up in the unbelievable area of Quinta da Regaleira. The area of four hectares has for example a villa, a chapel, extensive gardens, lakes,, and of course the most interesting underground caves, tunnels and 27 meters deep well that can be descended into by spiral staircase. The well is tickling our imagination as it used to be the initiation well of freemasons. For once we got lucky by being lost, Quinta da Regaleira was just amazing!
The road trip continued as we still wanted to visit the Capo da Roca, the westernmost point of continental Europe that we had earlier sailed past onboard Suwena.
And for last here is a funny Christmas memory from our December trip to Lisbon.
