{"id":21965,"date":"2023-05-03T00:01:06","date_gmt":"2023-05-03T07:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=21965"},"modified":"2023-05-01T21:15:12","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T04:15:12","slug":"lisbon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2023\/05\/03\/lisbon\/","title":{"rendered":"Lisbon"},"content":{"rendered":"

I should have paid more attention in my elementary and junior high school geography classes. I remember studying Christopher Columbus (the guy who \u201cdiscovered\u201d America), but the other explorers\u2019 names are lost among my fading neurons. And here we were, in Lisbon, where Vasco de Gama, Magellan, Henry the Navigator, old Christopher C. himself, and others hung out five or six centuries ago.\u00a0 I wish I could repeat my 7th grade geography class with Mr. Costa for just that reason.\u00a0 Being 12 years old again would be cool, too.<\/p>\n

My new good buddy Ibrahim, one of our fellow tourists on this adventure, is a serious photographer.\u00a0 He used my consumer grade Nikon to take the photo below at the Parque Eduardo VII .\u00a0 It was one of the first places we stopped in Lisbon, and the statue at the end is Christopher Columbus. Look at those hedges and think about how much labor is needed to keep them looking this good. By the time you get to the end trimming them, you\u2019d have to go back to the beginning and start over. That\u2019s the Tagus River in the background. Lisbon is right on the Atlantic Ocean. A lot of 14th and 15th century New World explorations started right here.<\/p>\n

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Susie and yours truly at the Parque Eduardo VII in Lisbon. Photo by Ibrahim Alava.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The photo below is from one of many churches we visited (we saw many churches and a couple of synagogues in Spain and Portugal; before the Spanish Inquisition, there was a thriving Jewish community on the Iberian Peninsula).<\/p>\n

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Blue and white tiles were a common decor in Spain and Portugal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Blue tiles were everywhere in Lisbon.\u00a0 Spain and Portugal were occupied by the Moors for centuries. The Moors brought their art, their architecture, and their style (including blue tiles) to the region.\u00a0 The Moors were ultimately driven out, but the tiles remained. I could spend a month in Lisbon just photographing the tiles. The tiles get their blue color from cobalt, which is locally mined.<\/p>\n

We wandered through Lisbon\u2019s Alfama neighborhood to a church at the top of a hill, led by a local guide. Our walk here involved a steep uphill climb through narrow streets and alleys. When Sue and I first joined up with our tour group two days earlier, I felt good seeing that the group was mostly made up of old people (I called our group the Portugueezers). I figured our age would hold the walking and climbing to a minimum. I was wrong. We did a ton of walking and climbing. My iPhone told me one day I did over 17,000 steps. Most days were at least 10,000 steps.<\/p>\n

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A colorful door in Lisbon’s Alfama neighborhood.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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An interesting doorknob.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I took a lot of artsy-fartsy photos of doors, doorknobs, door knockers, and other things as we climbed the twisting and narrow streets of Lisbon’s Alfama neighborhood.\u00a0 My fellow Portugueezers thought I was a serious amateur photographer when I frequently stopped to grab a picture, and I didn’t say anything to persuade them otherwise (the stops were so I could catch my breath).<\/p>\n

I noticed that a few of the homes had printed tiles with photos of older women on their exterior walls. I tried to find out more about this on Google but I struck out (I should have asked our guide while we were there, but I was huffing and puffing too hard to ask). Maybe these women were famous Portuguese mountain climbers. Sue later told me our guide said the tiles tell a bit about the residents of each home.\u00a0 Say hello to Ms. Delmira and Ms. da Luz.<\/p>\n

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Ms. Delmira, an Alfama neighborhood denizen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Ms. da Luz, known as Maria to her friends.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We were in an area frequented by tourists and there were lots of shops selling things. Where there were colors, I took a photo or two.<\/p>\n

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Dresses for sale in Lisbon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We then went down to the waterfront Bel\u00e9m area along the Tagus River. The statue below is a monument to Henry the Navigator.<\/p>\n

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An interesting monument to Henry the Navigator in the Bel\u00e9m area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A closer view of statues on the Henry the Navigator monument.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Hieronymites Monastery was across the street from the Henry the Navigator monument. Jose, our guide, told us that nuns in this monastery (I didn\u2019t think they had nuns in a monastery, but what do I know?) were famous for their Past\u00e9is de Bel\u00e9m. Jose disappeared for a bit and then reappeared with samples for us to try. They were excellent.<\/p>\n

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James (one of our fellow travelers) and Jose, our tour guide.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like Porto and other big European cities, downtown Lisbon was a hotbed of scooter activity.\u00a0 At any traffic light, scooters filtered to the front of the queue, and when the light turned green, it was a multi-scooter drag race.\u00a0 It was fun to watch.\u00a0 I guess Portugal has a helmet law; everyone wore one.\u00a0 But that was it for protective gear.\u00a0 Think full face helmets accompanied by t-shirts, shorts, and flip flops (all the gear, all the time).\u00a0 I’m guessing I saw a hundred scooters for every motorcycle, and when we did see motorcycles, they were mostly 125cc machines.\u00a0 Many appeared to be of Chinese origin, with Honda and Yamaha motorcycles making up the balance.\u00a0 \u00a0There were a few big bikes; I spoke to a guy at a rest stop who was on a BMW GS.\u00a0 He told me he liked his GS and it was a good machine, but he had another motorcycle that was his pride and joy:\u00a0 A Harley Sportster.\u00a0 “It has a carburetor,” he proudly told me (an obvious vintageness badge).\u00a0 I thought I might refer him to our earlier ExNotes post, 18 Reasons Why You Should Buy A Used Sportster<\/a>, but he was in a hurry and I had already run out of ExNotes business cards.<\/p>\n

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Check it out: 18 Reasons Why You Should Buy A Used Sportster<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s more, but this blog is getting long enough. You get the idea. After two days in Lisbon, it was on to \u00c9vora and then Spain.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned, my friends.<\/p>\n

\n

Have you bought your copy of our latest book, A Cup O’ Joes<\/a>?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I should have paid more attention in my elementary and junior high school geography classes. I remember studying Christopher Columbus (the guy who \u201cdiscovered\u201d America), but the other explorers\u2019 names are lost among my fading neurons. And here we were, in Lisbon, where Vasco de Gama, Magellan, Henry the Navigator, old Christopher C. himself, and … Continue reading “Lisbon”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[654,352,452,103,139],"tags":[420,1574,3488,1908,3312,1477],"class_list":["post-21965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure-motorcycle-books","category-bmw","category-harley","category-harley-davidson","category-native-american-ruins","tag-bmw","tag-chinese-motorcycle","tag-lisbon","tag-motor-scooter","tag-portugal","tag-sportster"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/DSC0347-900.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21965"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22073,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21965\/revisions\/22073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}