Lisbon!

 Usually I plan trips in advance but sometimes you just want to get away, and not think about it too much.  So off we went to Lisbon, in Portugal, with no planning except an Airbnb, and it was great! The weather was good and we basically just spent a lot of time wandering up and down. Literally up and down - it's a really hilly city!  This street below was typical. 

Or else the streets consisted of great big flights of steps. Our Airbnb was on top of a big hill and I'm sure it was good for us! 

There are a variety of trams in Lisbon, but the old ones are very small and so they're are perfect for the most twisty, turny and hilly streets where the larger trams or buses would get stuck.  If you're lucky enough to get a seat, you can watch life from close up outside the window. My eye was caught by this woman waiting for the tram to move away so she could cross the road.  She had such a presence, and I loved the colours behind her too.  What do you think?

If you've ever been to Portugal you'll know about the fantastic tiles to be found on so many of the houses. It sometimes seems as if you'll never see the same design twice. This old place caught my eye, combining a formal blue and white look (and 1920s decorative frieze at the top) with an abstract design at ground level. 

This 19th century tiled building still housed a tile shop

I like the monkey by the balcony

Lisbon is built around the wide estuary of the River Tagus. This is the view down Rua Augusta, one of the major streets of Lisbon. It was Saturday night and people were strolling around, watching street entertainers and going into the little cafes. And, at the end, beneath the arch, is Commerce Square, which fronts on to the Tagus waterfront.  The statue is of King Dom José I.  

Lisbon has become far more affluent since we last visited, years ago, and this area has changed I think, since I seem to remember a lot of little old shops selling dried codfish around here. There is about the right mix of quirky and traditional now. 

 

Just off Rua Augusta is the famous Elevador Santa Justa,  built over 100 years ago by a pupil of Eiffel.  It is a practical bit of public transport, offering a quick and easy route from ground level up to the Largo do Carmo district at the top of the hill. I didn't want to goto Largo do Carmo, but considered going up to the top in the evening ... but something distracted me.

And here's what it looks like in the daytime - a striking sight, over a hundred years old and still in daily use. 

We spent a lot of time around by the waterfront at the bottom of Rua Augusta.  The waterfront faces directly south at this point, and at most times of the day you'll find people ambling around, or sitting with their friends, watching the sea, looking at other people or having a coffee or a beer in the square.   

Each part of the day had its own character. Below is a photo of the same location as above, but this time in the evening, when the tide was in, little boats were scudding to and fro and the sun was sinking behind us.

At the weekends, the square and waterfront had their share of entertainers, but one person who was on the shore the whole time was a pleasant, benign old man who pottered about creating a curious stone sculpture garden. Actually, he simply balanced rocks from the shore one on top of the other. He had painted some of them with faces or colours to create a quaint little family of characters. These were quietly compelling in their surreal way. Some seemed to represent people, male and female; some were animals, mostly quite lovable; and some were fantastic monsters. We noticed that every time we came back, he'd changed something about the group - since the rocks were only balanced I suppose it was not hard to change them about. In the end they began to seem almost alive, you never quite knew how you were going to find them.   Here they are in the bright morning sun with the tide out, all of them seeming fairly cheerful.  See the little white figure sitting on a large bollard at the far right?

 By the evening, the sea was beating against the shore, and she - or he - was marooned.  To me this pile of stones began to look like a contemplative Indian figure, sitting cross legged and detaching itself from the foaming water surrounding it.  

We also went to some of the important sites and museums, although again in a relaxed way.  I did want to see the wonderful early 16th century fortified tower at Belem, a western suburb of Lisbon.  It is the area from which the Portuguese explorers set out in the 16th century; a golden age in Portugal.     

The tram ride to from central Lisbon to Belem is mundane - a mish-mash of commercial areas, a scruffy railway and an absolutely sensational overhead bridge - but when you reach it, it has the most spectacular monastery.  In fact, the monastery is so good that it really deserves a post to itself, as I don't feel I can do it justice here.  Dating from 1502, it also houses the archaeological museum of Lisbon.  The best way to get an idea of how it looks is to take a look at some of the photos here on Tripadvisor

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g189158-d195318-Reviews-Jeronimos_Monastery-Lisbon_Lisbon_District_Central_Portugal.html

The fortified tower is built in similar style to the monastery, but because it is smaller (even though it's four storeys high) it does have a particularly fantastical air, specially when the tide is in and the water swirls about.   We walked from the monastery- about half a mile - and crossed the dismal railway into a park which surrounds the tower.   Although it was early February, the grass was green and lush and studded with little flowers.  We walked down to the shore.

There are too many spiral stairs to count in the tower and the authorities have installed a rather hokey-pokey traffic lights system so that not too many people are trying to go up and down at the same time. Nobody mentioned the system when we went in, and it was a bit broken anyway, so there was much confusion, but in the end we did manage to get right up to the top and back again. It's beautifully restored and it's a fine experience to be standing within in the fortifications (below) with the water swirling all around outside.  It must be so exciting to be there when it is storming wildly.  

But it was all calm and blue.  The tower is reached by a drawbridge, with a windlass, and its interior is well restored and full of cannon, all strategically placed to set off a bombardment against enemy approach.  I can't imagine how noisy and smoky it must have been when the cannon were in use down there. 

Despite its ethereal appearance, the tower also has a fairly nasty dungeon, although they have done their best not to make it too scary.  I was so glad to have seen it at last.  To me the architecture reflects both the strength and the civilised culture of Portugal in those confident days. 

We had a coffee in a jetty cafe a little further up the shore, sitting on the deck with a good strong coffee and a pastel de nata (those delectable Portuguese custard pies) while the sun blazed down and winter felt a long way away.

I'll finish with a view of the balcony of our Airbnb, which overhung a steep drop, and had a side view of the castle on top of the hill on the left.  And, also I've put in a little video I took of some fado musicians who we came across playing in a little park overlooking the city.  I thought the singer was terrific but have no idea who they were. Fado is still very much alive in Lisbon, and there is actually a fado museum, which we didn't visit.  Ah, well, another time - I am glad that mostly we just wandered around and relaxed. 

Fuengirola

I appreciated all your comments on Palmyra.  Have you noticed that this amazing city has actually been written about quite a lot,  so it seems the eyes of the world are turned anxiously towards it, and its significance for all of us.  I'm just hoping, and also stopping myself from checking the news too much.

Over the last week I've been in Southern Spain, mostly away from the news,  thank goodness. It wasn't a travel writing assignment, because we were attending a big wedding.  That involved visiting an old, small but beautiful church in the mountains about Fuengirola, in Andalucia. Here's the view from the terrace outside the church, down to the sea.



Inside, the church had the kind of ornate golden altar that you often see in Spanish churches. Unusually  (I thought) the Virgin Mary was at the centre of the altar, not Jesus on the Cross - which is much more usual in Northern churches.



I wish I could post loads of photos about the wedding and people, and indeed the whole experience, but with so many people attending, there wasn't a hope of getting everyone's permission. So I am afraid I can't tell you about any of that - but I'll write about where we stayed because it was a very pleasant surprise. In fact, I liked it so much that we're dead set on returning later this year or next.

We were in the the town called Fuengirola, which is about 20 miles down the coast from Malaga by train, just past Torremolinos.  As many English people will know, this area, also known as the Costa Del Sol,  was for some years the centre of the package holiday business, and it became associated with the idea of tower block hotels and noisy bars.  I liked Malaga, but I'd never considered going down the coast.  So what a surprise it was to finally get there! And even more of one to find good restaurants, interesting shops,flowers, and a general air of brightness and cleanliness.

True, Fuengirola has a big beach, lots of bars and hotels, and quite a large expat community, too, so it is not the fishing village it was 50 years ago when our relatives' family bought their house there. But the apartment complex where we stayed was so pleasant and central, that I realised it would be a terrific place to go with a family and still be able to stay sane.  Kids would appreciate the little funfair on the beach and the various attractions, but it doesn't take long to drive out into the mountains beyond, the town itself is a good place to hang out and our apartment complex was just plain amazing.

It's probably nicer at this time of year than in high summer, not only because it's less busy but because so many of the streets are lined with jacaranda trees in full bloom. Their lilac-blue blossoms seem almost ethereal because the leaves of the trees mostly come out a bit after the blossoms, and you get this lavender colour as a sort of haze against the sky.

We stayed in a holiday complex very near the centre just to the right of the road above.  It's called Puebla Lucia, and is a mixture of apartments and houses, set around gardens which are obviously maintained by a perfectionist.

They were just immaculate. More meticulously cared for than even Kew Gardens, I'd say. They were divided into several different areas, with fountains and swimming pools.

I think the Pueblo Lucia complex has grown when the owners took over and converted existing apartment blocks, so there is a variety of flats, houses and studios, and we kept discovering new corners. There is also a bar and restaurant on site, although we didn't try them.
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It's a few minutes walk from the train station and about another 10 minutes to the huge beach. That frankly is not my scene as it was already boiling hot and it's only May, and I just don't see the point of sitting in full sun for hours, even if the sea is nearby.  I wasn't that crazy on the children's funfair, family restaurants and all the other things English holidaymakers expect, either, although it was all clean and friendly enough.. 

Eating out is very cheap - in fact, everything seems ridiculously cheap from a British perspective (but then, we are not in the Euro).  We ate quite a bit in restaurants where there was very good fish of all kinds, as well as some unexpected dishes.  At first, we didn't quite know what to make of this, below, with the tomato in the middle. It's actually a fish pancake in a herb sauce. I was a bit dubious, but it turned out to be so delicious that everyone wanted one.  

We had breakfast each morning in the public market's cafe, where the twins (now almost toddling) were a star turn with the owners.   Then we'd buy fruit and veg for the day. I wish we could get great big  tomatoes like this in England.  Not that we can't get beefsteak tomatoes here, but after weeks of sitting in a chiller somewhere, they have usually lost all their taste by the time they get onto the supermarket shelves. 

Although of course part of the attraction for us was in having other people around, we were really sorry to leave our apartment, and intend to return.  This was the last sight of Spain, baking in the sunshine. 

Next time I visit, I'll  buy some Spanish tiles, bring them home and tile the inside of our back balcony with them.  Because, even allowing for the weather, I am already yearning for a bit more Spanish brightness and colour around the place.

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