Lisbon beach

In past years OH and I have gone on holiday in the UK and I've always enjoyed it but last year as it poured down for a third year in a row OH announced that he'd had enough and wanted to go abroad next year to seek out the sun. So he was in charge of deciding where we would go and booking it. He had always wanted to go to Portugal during the Saint's Festivals so Portugal it was. He had seen a deal which was perfect, 5* hotel in central Lisbon near where we wanted to go. Perfect! Except when he called to book that deal had sold out and he was talked into another deal only this time it was in Lisbon Beach which is not Lisbon. Now this holiday could have gone either way but luckily it was a success. Although we weren't in central Lisbon it was only a half hour bus journey from literally the beach and we saw more of Portugal than if we'd stayed in central Lisbon. However I realise now we've returned home most of my photos are from in town.....

So after finding our way onto the metro from the bus stop this was our first real view once we'd reached above ground. Rossio square - and look how blue that sky is!

We stumbled across this giant lift nearby which we jumped on and were delighted to find it was free with our 2 day travel card (which were a godsend! Would highly recommend getting this if you go).

The views of Lisbon were amazing.

 But while we were admiring the view there was a small parade of farm animals going through the street. It was frustrating for me being up so high and missing the action, however I got some interesting shots from up above. We never quite worked out where all of  these beasts ended up as they were heading towards the river.....  

Now Lisbon seems to be full of two things. Hills and street art, one of which I really enjoy, one of which I don't, I'll let you guess which! Here is the first major piece of street art I saw which stretched over three different walls. Made a welcome pit stop conquering my first hill....  

 Our destination was the castle (OH's choice) which was incredibly solid though full of tourists including some Americans who seemed flummoxed that you bought the ticket outside of the castle. To quote from the line for tickets 'why are people buying tickets here but then going over there?'. It was scarry!

 But once we got in the views were even more incredible than those from the lift which you can just see in the left hand corner of this photo. The big church looking structure was the Archaeology museum - yes there is no escaping work even when on holiday. 

 OH hates having his photo taken so I always have to take a sneaky shot when he's not looking. Here he is admiring the view.

 The other great thing about the castle were the peacocks. There were loads of them and they hung around the cafe looking for left overs.

  And this (although not a great shot) is a peacock up a tree which was a surprise!

Lisbon has seven hills in total, something OH omitted to mention when he suggested Lisbon. This one combines graffiti and steps!

 

 And boy were there a lot of steps! Though I did surprise myself and didn't struggle that much...

But on the second day our calves told us that we had walked quite a lot so we explored the funicular railways (there are two). One lady who got on at the bottom pointed to a house half way up the hill saying that's where she lived but it was easier to take the railway to the top of the hill and walk back down the hill with her shopping. To be honest I didn't blame her! 

I had suggested to OH that we walked down the hill and got the railway back up. The drop towards the bottom made my stomach lurch and I was only on foot. I hate to think what it would have been like on the railway!

There was also the tram of which there were many but this route, Route 28 is one for the tourists as it travels through the streets up and down the hills like a fairground ride.

It meant you saw some of the many old fashioned style shops. Here is a haberdashery - I think OH was glad we were on the tram so I couldn't rush in to have a look!

Towards the end of the route we jumped off and stumbled onto a botanical garden which had the most amazing number of ducklings. Here are about 1/5 of the total number of ducklings on the pond. It was incredible and I was in seventh heaven.

Lisbon was celebrating the feast of St Antoine who I think was the patron saint of sardines as they were everywhere though I could be wrong

And the streets were decorated in bright tinsel. All in all our few days away were amazing. It was so nice to see the sun but Lisbon is so beautiful and everyone was so friendly. I even managed to ask for 2 bus tickets in Portuguese! But I will leave you with a few images of the great street art that we saw, mostly unofficial but there was one place we saw some official areas for graffiti.