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| Cheers to Portugal’s 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution! And also a chance for you to see Beth’s new Lisbon haircut! |
Lisbon is a sprawling, hilly, coastal city of around 600,000 people (metro population is approximately 3 million) that serves as Portugal’s capital. It’s one of those places that the more we visit it, the more we like. There’s plenty to see and do around Lisbon and there are a number of interesting places nearby that can easily be reached by rail, bus or car.
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| A beautiful day in Lisbon’s Rossi Plaza |
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| A full over Lisbon. My sister-in-law Debbie tells me this was a “Pink Moon”. She keeps me up to date on these things! |
We have had four days in Lisbon since disembarking the Celebrity Equinox and before we get on the Norwegian Star. Little did we realize that one of these four days would be a national holiday celebrating an event that occurred fifty years ago that changed Portugal’s future.
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| Steve and Marilyn spent two nights in Lisbon after the cruise. We got together for meals in the evening and swapped stories of our days adventures. |
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One final meal together before their flight back
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| One of our favorite places to visit near Lisbon is the small coastal city of Cascais. It’s a short (around 30 minutes) and inexpensive (around $5 per person round trip) train ride from Lisbon. It’s well worth visiting! |
There are a couple of more photos from Cascais below:
On April 25, 1974 (50 years ago) a nearly bloodless military coup took place led by military officers who were seeking to oust the authoritarian regime that was in power. Miraculously, there were very few shots fired and only five fatalities. Tragic, but as history has shown, these military coups can get quite messy.
In this case, it was a very peaceful transition that has led to a better Portugal socially, economically and politically, both internally and on the world stage. In many ways the day, which is a national holiday, is celebrated similar to the way we celebrate the 4th of July.
The day seems to be known by many different names including liberation and freedom day, but it is also known as the Carnation Revolution. According to historians, once the coup was successful, citizens joined the soldiers in the street to celebrate their new found freedoms. A restaurant worker named Celeste Cuerio began placing carnations in the barrels of the soldiers guns. Other citizens joined in and the Carnation Revolution was born. Red carnations were on sale on practically every street corner and most folks carried one around throughout the day.
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| Red carnations were plentiful around the city center |
Among the festivities in Lisbon there was a symphony and choral concert followed by fireworks from 10pm to midnight on the evening of the 24th. The morning of the 25th there was a military flyover along the riverfront, a huge run/walk event that had thousands of participants, an open house at City Hall, a military motorcade that included veterans from the Carnation Revolution, live music and a parade.
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| Thousands of runners running and walkers walking! |
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| The military motorcade featured vehicles and veterans from the Carnation Revolution era. |
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| The line to tour City Hall was long but moved quickly….. |
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| …..and was well worth seeing! |
The parade was an event unlike anything Beth and I had ever witnessed. There was a “Freedom March” down the main avenue (Avenida de Liberdade) with thousands of participants. They were in groups enthusiastically (signs, flags, chants, cheers, drums, horns and whistles) supporting what seemed like every side of every social, environmental and political cause known to man. Obviously the viewpoints were very different, but the real beauty of it was that by all appearances every group was respectful of the others. It was quite a sight to see and we were happy to be able to witness it!
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| This is a picture of the spectators walking up the street toward the beginning of the march. There were so many spectators and marchers that it moved very slowly. Our new cruise friend Robbie described it as a “reverse march”, where due to the number of participants and congestion, the spectators marched by and the participants were at a standstill. |
