Red bus tour around Lisbon

Prior to our departure, we made arrangements for to spend a day on the "hop-on-hop-off" bus in Lisbon.  We have found this to be one of the best ways to get to know a city, learn the history and decide if there are any points of interest worth exploring further.

Apparently there are two companies that run similar operations in Lisbon, and they both have red buses.  Needless to say, we stood at one stop for quite a while before any bus showed up.  And when one did, it turned out to be the wrong company, but the driver was kind enough to suggested we cross the street-square-street to the other stop.  We did and happened upon some people from the cruise.  They had been waiting for over half an hour for a bus!  We waited a little longer with them, each surmising what the problem might be.  After a while, we called the number on our voucher.  The gentleman with the lovely British accent couldn't understand what the problem was or why we were at stop 22 when he only had a total of 17.  Everything he had showed the buses were running on time.  When we determined he was in Bath, England and we were in Lisbon, Portugal, everything became perfectly clear!  (Apparently the Avenue was closed to traffic because of needed to breakdown the concernt from the night before.  (See previous post.)  So, we walked up to the main bus stop where we hoped to find a bus.

Hard to believe this was a huge bandshell, full of electronics and people the night before.

We got to the stop just as the bus was leaving....

 

Bullring in Lisbon. 

Yes, we were in the top of the bus and that close to the airport.  :o)

City view.

Lisbon jail - making good use of those old forts.

Courthouse is conveniently located next to the prison.

Same statue, different view.

"Lion Building"

City gates

April 25th bridge. 

Padrão dos Descobrimentos

Tower of Belem

Park along the river.

Park at Jeronimos Monastery

Waiting for the next bus.

Fado Museum

National Pavillion.

Garden and zoo.

 As mentioned in previous posts from our time in Madrid and Barcelona, the young people in these countries are very upset over the economy and unemployment.  On Sunday, from our hotel room, we could see this group marching down the avenue in protest.

The protest group "sat down" in protest at one of the big squares.
Traffic was backed up for quite a few blocks and people were not happy.

 Dinner in Lisbon!  We really tried to stay away from the touristy places where the waiters come out on the promenade and offer you their menus and coupons.  We really could not wait until 10 or 11PM to eat dinner like the Lisboans.  But we did happen to find a little place that didn't have the very pushy waiters.

Yummy vegetable soup!

Typical Sunday Portuguese dinner - meats, potatoes, veggies, sausage and rice.

A view of "restaurant alley".

Was a full day exploring Lisbon and it ended with a very good dinner!

Next up:  Excursion to Sintra and Cascais