Lisbon - Days 8 and 9 - final days, walking tour.

I have been home now for a couple of weeks and life has been too busy to blog. So here is the final post of my Portuguese trip. Then I can start posting about current events.
My second to last day was rainy and dismal so I spent most of the day in my hotel room, reading. I went outside briefly for lunch.

I ate at this place, next to the train station. I had noticed it when walking around and then found it on a website "Eating Cheap in Lisbon"

It had soup, an extensive salad bar and another section, that I didn't bother with, that had various meats grilled on a BBQ.

The city centre and the squares behind it are in a valley, almost at river level, but Lisbon is made up of 7 hills, so there are various ways of getting up them. This is one, a tram that just climbs the hill.

And this one on the other side of the valley. There are also escalators, elevators and, of course, lots of stairs and steep streets.

I also found another of these before I was driven back to the hotel by a downpour.

On my last day I had to check out of my hotel by 11am and the taxi wasn't coming to take me to the airport until 3pm, so with 4 hours to spend I decided just to walk around, explore some streets that I had not yet been up.

It was a beautiful day, though a little cool. As I walked into this square I saw a group walking away. The leader had an umbrella that said "free walking tour". I have done those in other cities, the group leaders get paid by voluntary tips.

There was another man with a similar umbrella standing by the fountain and I asked him how long his tour was and whether we could be back by 2. He described the tour and said if we left now we could be back by 2. I said I didn't have much cash and shouldn't he wait for more people but he said no, it was Ok, he would just take me.

He was able to customize the tour for me, leaving out things I had already done and places I had seen and showing me areas that I had not.

The elaborate front door area is all that is left of the original  Lady of Conception church, the rest was destroyed in the 1755 earthquake.

Now that's a really bad tile repair job.

My guide, Carlos, asked if I was interested in the Roman walls. Well yes! I didn't even realize there were Roman walls. This map showed the castle walls (in white) and the town walls in yellow.

One of the original gates

integrated into the bottom of these more modern (relatively speaking) buildings.

In the bottom floor of another building, remains of the wall and some fish sauce tanks

as well as drawings

and artifacts.

I had told Carlos that I wasn't particularly interested in seeing the Cathedral. The outside was quite plain but inside was lovely vaulted ceilings.

He explained that the Cathedral was built on the remains of a Mosque that had built on the remains of a Roman temple.

We walked around to the side and back of the cathedral, where the windows for the monastery had been cut into the old Roman Walls.

We were now in the old Jewish section, they had been banished to outside of the city walls as the king grew suspicious of their growing wealth. Very narrow streets.

This marked another of the walls gates out to the harbour.

This had been built as a guest palace. The king lived within the castle walls but visiting royalty was housed within the city walls. Water flowed from the fountains at the base of the structure that only the royal household could use.

It is now a high end hotel.

Back into the Jewish area

with its confusing streets

to find another section of the city wall.

I am so glad I didn't try to explore this section on my own

I would have got totally lost.

A lovely, old, tiled water fountain that Carlos described as having both Moorish and Christian symbols and that the two religions lived in harmony for a period of time in Lisbon.

Walking and climbing a lot of stairs had made us thirsty so we stopped at a tiny cafe (literally just 2 tables, 4 chairs, outside a bar the size of a closet) for some Vinho Verde.

At this point I got a text from the taxi driver. He was at the hotel an hour early. So we rushed back and I gave Carlos my last cash, 20 Euro and it had been worth every penny to have this private, custom, walking tour. A great way to end my trip.