Lisbon; Wednesday, 21 November, 2007

Bags deposited in the luggage room, though with the thought would it still be the luggage room when we got back, we headed out for a final day in Lisbon.

We took the Santa Justa lift up to the Convent do Carmo overlooking the city to look around the remains of the Earthquake ravaged church, and take advantage of their facilities, for the port the previous evening had appeared to be a good idea at the time, but wasn’t so much now.

After looking around the Convent we headed back down in the lift to Rossio and caught the metro up to the top of the Parque Eduardo VII. The park was named in honour of the British Monarch who came to reaffirm the Anglo-Portuguese alliance (Portugal is England’s oldest ally) in 1902. From the top of the park you can look down the length of it, down the hill it is on, towards the roundabout and statue at the Praça Marquês de Pombal and from there on down the Avenida da Liberadade towards the Tejo in the distance.

Based in the park is the botanical gardens, so we popped into here to have a look around, and take advantage of their facilities, for the port the previous evening had appeared to be a good idea at the time, but wasn’t so much now.

From the Botanical gardens we walked down to the bottom of the park, and then headed down the Avenida da Liberadade stopping part way down for a very pleasant lunch in a little street-side café. We continued walking down, and near Rossio stopped again at another café, partly to have another coffee, but also to take advantage of their facilities, for the port the previous evening had appeared to be a good idea at the time, but wasn’t so much now.

With very little time left before we had to head to the airport, my friend wanted to go on a final tram ride through the streets of the Alfama, so we caught a 28 round up through the Alfama and back to the city centre past the Cathedral. Having arrived back near the Praça do Comércio we walked the short distance to the hotel, picked up our bags and hopped on the AeroBus back to the airport. When we got there we took advantage of their facilities, for the port the previous evening had appeared to be a good idea at the time, but wasn’t so much now.