We wanted to explore the Alfama & Mouraria parts of the city two of the oldest districts of Lisbon & decided to search for a free tours (you tip the guide at the end of the tour the amount you think the tour was worth) as the streets of these districts are often narrow & rather rabbit warren ish. I settled on a tour provided by Hi Lisbon Walking Tours & we set off planning to get on the hop on hop off bus - blue line, as our tickets were still valid, unfortunately we just missed it & the next one wasn’t for 40 mins so we set off walking. I stopped at Fabrica for a takeaway coffee on the way, it took us about 1/2 an hour to work to the tour meeting spot in commerce square. We passed the Santa Justa lift, it’s a vertical lift that connects two streets, it’s construction was completed in 1902. We met our tour guide Alexandra & the rest of our group including two sisters from Darlington & set off walking. The
2 1/2 hour tour was really good & Alexandra was very knowledgeable. In this area you could see the influences of the Romans, Phoenicians, Visigoths & the Moors. The city was almost totally destroyed by the great earthquake of 1755 measuring 9.1 on the Richter scale. The same quake caused damage in Morocco. Alexandra explained Fado, a genre that can be traced to 1820’s in Lisbon, a very mournful style of music often about the sea & of life. We visited the Se Cathedral which was small & quite plain compared to a lot of the cathedrals we’ve visited, & the Sao Jorge Castle & wondered the streets of the district with lots of interesting features & viewpoints.


We completed the tour & found a bakery for lunch, lovely fresh soft cheese & tomato rolls & a freshly squeezed orange juice. The freshly squeezed orange juice is really popular here, I’ve even seen juicers in the supermarket. We walked home, heading a bit out of our way (not intentionally) we stopped at the small supermarket but their salad items didn’t look too fresh so we decided to come home, have a cup of tea & rest & then head to the larger supermarket which we did. Cold roast chicken, baked potatoes & salad for dinner, yum. The Sangria was unfortunately sweet, fingers crossed the Rose I’ve selected for tonight isn’t also sweet!! Lots of walking, steps & hills today.