Our second visit to Lisbon sees us staying for a couple of nights on a site south of the Tagus river on a recommendation (beware of these as they are seldom what you actually desire yourself)
Not sexy and not tranquil next to a busy road and we soon regret not staying over the water at a previously used site in Lisbon
Even next door is moving out..
Next day and another mini-drama….
Our intention was to use Fozz to visit Lisbon, simples…or so we thought.
Just ride over the bridge and in to the heart of Old Lisbon.
When we get to the bridge its shut! What!
Today, sunday, its fun run time so they've closed the whole bridge. The local Police say why don't we ride along the short coastline to Cacilhas and take the transport ferry over to Lisbon. OK good idea..we knew we could use this as we were told about it at campsite reception, but strangely not about the fun run, cheers team!
On arrival its obvious that there are no car ferries, just the passenger ones.
Back to the bridge and its still shut despite being told it would reopen in fifteen minutes
Great, we have the means to visit Lisbon but can't get over the water so we ride the whole way back to the site, wait twenty minutes in reception to be seen (allowing me to calm down) and advise the good lady that all is not well in Touristland
She advises us to take the passenger ferry from Cacilhas, er Doh!, we can't
Ok why not try the nearer one, what!, at Trafaria which defo takes scooters.
OK then off we go again to Trafaria this time and buy the tickets from the automatic machine, get in lane, and await the ferry. A very nice Portuguese guy tells Nina we can't take it but we are not perturbed as we are on sound local advice.
The 'passenger ferry' arrives and I hotfoot it down the ramp to speak with the ferry guys.
No Sir sorry, the usual car ferry is in for repair…
So with tickets to nowhere we are thankfully befriended by a local who gets us our money back and persuades us (very easily actually) that its best to follow him to his local restaurant for lunch
Thankyou Paoalo you calmed us down!
Of course by this time the bridge was open but I would rather have swam across than use it at that moment...
So after a very late arrival the first 'Attraction' we see is the Prison...
The pavilion on what we thought would be splendid surrounds, what a pity its in total disrepair
Every few minutes these fly over and then take a detour over our campsite several kms away just for laughs (All his friends did the same until past midnight it then transpired)
Fozz is remounted and we descend in to more familiar territory
One of many chestnut sellers
Home of the famous Nata
Newly arrived tourist
Its at this moment when I was approached by two guys in quick succession who showed me some Marijuana and would I like to buy some? Amazing, why me?
Yes we did...
Obligatory tram shot
I really wanted to go up the Elevador de Santa Justa but the queue stretched up the street
This is the Praça do Comércio and from one of those balconies was shot the video to accompany H & M's recent advertisement with David Beckham on UK television
The Arco da Rua Augusta
'That" bridge (Ponte 25 de Abril) open now to all, including scooters….
Our brief visit to the capital, although pleasant, reinforced our opinion that its not really in our top ten must see cities. Culture vultures and teenagers may see differently but there's little here to draw us back a third time...
