We caught the train from Porto at7.45 and arrived in Lisbon at 10.45. We met up with our landlady who took us to the apartment which we wouldn’t have found as it a bit like a maze in this area called Alfama. I was wondering whether we had made a mistake as it was a bit grotty but ‘all’s well that ends well’.

This was entry to our place - next day it has been swept and looked much better. I think there is not much money in Portugal.

This is before the party started which is because of St Anthony who was born here! And this goes on for at least 3 weeks -good time to visit! Of course we decided to really stay out on Monday night before we left and it was not on Monday! Most things are closed in Lisbon on a Monday. So we went to the only place open offering the tapas and it was terrible.

getting ready.....

And here is the party

There was music playing over the loudspeakers

And this is the morning after! Some streets were a sea of plastic cups

This was a skyscraper which was built when they had an expo here. We caught a red bus tour on the first afternoon and hopped off at this very new area to have a look around. It had a huge shopping centre and marina and was all quite flash. I mustn’t have taken any photos on the bus tour mainly because the bus rocks around and you have usually passed whatever.

There were tiles of saints all over the place Lisbon especially in the Alfama district where we stayed and as you can see this is Saint Anthony. It was a great place, medieval streets, hilly where every street ran into another one so you could sort of get yourself out of the maze. It was only about 10-15 minutes out of the centre. There was a big procession for Saint Anthony from the cathedral near us on the Sunday. Heaps of people everywhere. A beautiful choir in the street outside the cathedral and the mass was being broadcast over last speakers even in the city streets.

This was part of our tapas on the first night - this funny little bar just near us - very cheap drinks etc.

we saw these dishes in a shop and wondered what they were used for and now we know. They do this in some form wherever you order chorizo. we tried this a couple of other times

Our second day in Lisboa.

this is the man who engineered the reconstruction of the city after the earthquake in 1755. As you can from his statue he was pretty pleased with himself!