Bem-vindo a Lisboa

That was a little harder than it should have been! After hustling through our connection in Madrid, we met up with Erica from Dallas at the Lisbon departure gate.

We were confirmed, Erica standing by. At the appointed hour we boarded and boarded and boarded until there were no chairs left for Erica. She took off for the next Lisbon departure and we sat, and sat, and sat. Portugal has been plagued by heavy rain the last few days and today was no exception!

After an hour we pushed back and took off for Lisbon. Landed in a pouring rain, terminal was mass chaos with people everywhere.

Ran to the curb, grabbed a taxi, and 20 minutes later we arrived at our hotel – The Torel Palace, located in the Bairro Alto neighborhood of Lisbon.

Our room overlooks Lisbon!

The neighbood is at the top of a hill and we have views to the west.

Erica was about four hours behind us so we took the opportunity to relax in the garden of the hotel after the rain. But once she arrived we were off and running. We took the ascensor from our hotel down to the bottom of our hill and then walked along the Avenue da Liberdade.

All the sidewalks here are made from stones that are driven into the sand in order to form mosaics. The result is some very beautiful sidewalks.

Our walk took us by the Elevador Santa Justa, just sitting in the middle of a street making no sense.

Until you realize that behind it, out of sight is a hill that looks like this.

And so the elevator is a clever way to scale the hill from the lower city. From here we went to the Praça do Comércio which is one of those grand European squares with an exception.

The original palace that stood here was destroyed in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and when the rebuilding commenced a square was placed with government buildings ringing it. The “Square of Commerce” looks out onto the water the city of Lisbon was the center of world exploration and nearly all Portugese commerce flowed through the square.

Beautiful buildings line the square, including the Arco da rua Augusta. It all squarely faces the source of Portugese power, especially in the 16th century.

In the middle of the square is a statue of King Jose I who presided over Portugal at the time of the earthquake.

After our walk it was time for an early dinner at the famous and very lively Timeout Market

Great start to the trip, tomorrow is more exploring around this beautiful place.