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| Praca do Comercio-Lisbon's Largest Plaza |
We've left Lisbon and Portugal behind and moved on to Spain. Our final day in Lisbon was pretty laid back but also very enjoyable.
We started with a short walk from the hotel to the Cais do Sodre station. This busy station is a combination train, metro, bus and ferry terminal. We took the ferry, which was about a ten minute ride across the Tagus River to the Cacilhas barrio. Once across, we made our way along the riverfront, up a public elevator to the town level, walked through town and were soon staring up at Cristo Rei, Lisbon's smaller but impressive version of the Christ the Redeemer statue that overlooks Rio de Janeiro.
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| Cristo Rei-Christ the Redeemer |
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| Stations of the Cross are around the base of the stature. This picture has the April 25 bridge in the background |
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| Lisbon from across the river and standing at the base of Cristo Rei. On a clear day you can see the castle on the top of the hill in Sintra. It is a little left of center. |
Downtown Lisbon was quite lively late in the afternoon. It seems as if that soccer match that I had blogged about previously was to decide the Portugal Premier League Championship. The winning team, Benfica, is from Lisbon. There was a huge victory celebration going on in the downtown square. In my younger days I would have wanted to jump right in the middle of the celebration. Now days, I was content to observe the proceedings from the safe distance of a few blocks away. It looked like they were having fun and they should be pretty good at celebrating championships. It was their 37th league championship. I guess they're the New England Patriots of the Portugal Premier League.
As the sun was setting we boarded the train for an overnight journey from Lisbon to Salamanca, Spain. We left at 9:30 PM and arrived in Salamanca at 5:00 AM (there was a one hour time change). Thankfully there was a coffee shop in the train station where we could sit for a couple of hours, have something hot to drink, a bite to eat and wait on the buses to start running. It also gave us time for our teeth to quit rattling. The trains in Europe are nice, however a train is a train and it was still a bumpy ride.
As far as final thoughts on Lisbon, we loved it. If it's on your agenda I hope you can pick up a few helpful hints from the day to day blogs. Also, you can check out the blog "Porto Pointers". The same general information applies to Lisbon. If you do come, you are most likely going to walk quite a bit. The paths and the roads are cobblestone. Make sure you have a good pair of walking shoes, not sandals or flip flops. Your feet and ankles will greatly appreciate it.
Porto Pointers
