Around The World – Lisbon, Portugal
My goal on this leg of the trip is to visit two people, one electric car buddy and one person I’ve never met before. Hmmm, mysterious. Details forthcoming. This is my country #42, which anyone who knows me, knows is the most important number in the Universe and I thought of Douglas as the trip was commencing.
Late in the evening in Madrid, I went to my nearby train station. Unlike before, there was no helpful man standing there to show my I-get-in-for-free Eurail pass and let me through the gate to get the train for 20 minutes to the other station where the train to Lisbon departs from. So I had to wait in line for the ticket agent, behind a woman who seemed to be booking an around the world trip, shouting through the glass. I finally got my free ticket, onto the train, over to the departure station.
I found the first class waiting room, the hostess lady says the track number will be announced 20 minutes before departure. Time enough for me to have two Diet Cokes and 3 small pieces of cake from the snack bar. I’m getting my moneysworth out of this outrageously expensive surcharge… 10 minutes to go and still no track, getting nervous. Then the track shows up, down I go. Directed into car 5, cabin 4. It looks like all the cabins have 4 fold-down beds, mine is set up with one of the bottom ones down and the other 3 remain folded up, this is how they make the 4, 2 and 1 combinations, configured on demand for each run. The cabin is cosy and just big enough with a sink, a bedside light and one power plug – that must be tough with four people unless you happen to bring a multi-socket extension cord. I walked through the coaches – 3 coaches of bed cabins, one cafe coach and then the seating coaches. Is it worth the extra fee over my Eurail price? Maybe, once for the experience. Looks like no hope for the massage, no sexy-stewardess types, just two guys managing the sleeper coaches.
I slept for about 6 hours total on the train, I kept waking up feeling like I was in an earthquake. These rails are *not* smooth, the train is bouncing up and down, jarring left and right through the whole ride. Almost Thai quality railroads. Oh well. At least I got where I wanted to be and got some sleep on the way.
We pulled into Lisbon Oriente station and as I stepped onto the platform in my country #42, I stopped to see if Life, The Universe And Everything would be revealed to me. Waited a bit. Nope. Nothing. Admittedly, I wasn’t on top of the Quentulus Quazgar Mountains in the land of Sevorbeupstry on planet Preliumtarn, third out from the sun Zarss in Galactic Sector QQ7 Active J. I didn’t see any signs saying âWe apologize for the inconvenience.â Not in 30 foot high letters of fire or even small paper signs inside the train station. Hmmm. Disappointing. And I still have this pain in all the diodes down my left side. Anyway.
It’s 7 AM and I took the metro to where Google said I could walk to the Airbnb location. After a while Google wanted me to go straight through a stone wall, not happening. Oh, also it’s up a massive hill, paved in cobblestones so the rolling suitcase is banging all the way up and around. I found the building, then walked up 3 flights of stairs to the unit, which has 7 rooms for rent. Rooms 4 through 7 are another flight of stairs up. Guess where my room is? And the Airbnb description says “easy walk from the metro station.” I’m already writing my Airbnb review in my head.
It’s still early so I put my stuff under the stairs as instructed by a helpful sign then got on the laptop and searched for a train south to the little fishing village of Sagres. Turns out there isn’t one. It’s at least two bus rides. I will have to get some local assistance on this as details are fuzzy.
I found out where to go to catch the hop-on hop-off bus. There are two city routes, blue and red. I did blue first and for the first time on this trip, I found nothing of value on the tour. The only thing I really saw was the Expo 98 grounds, with nothing going on. The route seemed chosen to take us way out to Expo and then way up to the airport. The rest looked like drab, graffitied concrete buildings and bad roads that would make an East German architect proud. Even the audio commentary gave it away, less than 60 seconds of descriptions on the whole route, but we went all the way around on the Christmas song soundtrack. Got back to Stop #1 and switched to the red bus. Some duplication of the blue route and then through the oldest part of the city at the riverfront, then west. Some of this was good but I suspect the best parts of the city are to come. Save your money and don’t take the tourist bus in Lisbon!
The traffic here is madness. Not only are the roads narrow and twisty and full of people and cars and trucks and buses, they simply stop in their lane, put on their 4-way flashers and then get out and go into a store, completely blocking the lane. Nobody beeps or seems to get upset so it must be acceptable in the driving culture, I saw examples of this over a dozen times.
I got off the bus at the center of town on the north bank of the Tagus river and went into an old building called Time Out which has been converted into a foodie dining hall. Amazing food all the way around the outside edge, about 30 little cubby holes to choose from. Had a goat cheese and pesto on bread thingy.
Walked through some nice old streets and squares back to the Airbnb. Did I mention the hills? Brutal, up and down. They say the city is built on 7 hills like Rome, I think I have to walk up and down all 7 every time I go somewhere.
Very tired from short sleep on the train so I have a nap from 3 – 7. Bought some cheese and DC at the little market across the street.
In the morning I’m meeting Paulo Almeida at his university, Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa or ISEL, so I walk down to the metro station, then one interchange later I’m at the gates of the school. It’s a university with only technical disciplines and a small campus on the east side of the city.
The Security Man pointed me to the Electrical Engineering building so off I went. I checked every door on all 4 floors, nothing. And the building was deserted at nearly 10 AM. Where is everyone? I finally found one guy who knew Paulo and he drew me a map to find his lab on the other side of campus. I follow the map and find Paulo in his lab. Paulo says nobody starts their day here until after lunch. He gave me a tour of his lab which I remembered from video clips that he and Celso Menaia submitted to EVTV. A Master’s student arrived and he delivered his thesis presentation to me, on designing and building the most efficient inductor for use with a very high power DC electric vehicle charger that Paulo was designing, using expensive high-speed, high-current silicon-carbide transistors supplied by Jack at EVTV.
We went upstairs to another department where they showed me a 3D machine they built. Depending on the head you install, it’s a laser cutter or a multi-color 3D printer. They handed me a special pair of safety glasses and cut 3 plastic pieces with the laser. Very impressive.
We then went for lunch and Paulo bought mine, a pasta, alfredo, tomato and asparagus yummy dish. We went back to the school and Paulo helped me figure out my plan to get to Sagres. I went to the Oriente train station and bought a ticket to Tunes (yes) and then a connecting train to Lagos. I’ll take a frequently-scheduled bus to Sagres to complete the journey.
While at the Oriente station, I bought a ticket for Sintra, a 1-hour ride west to the historic town. Getting off the train I spotted an electric car set up as a self-drive tour machine from LAS Tours Sintra. It’s a Renault Twizy, with a driver seat and a passenger seat directly behind. It’s got Lambo-style doors and the word waterproof is not in the vocabulary. The shop owner programmed a GPS unit with my desired route and told me to stay driving on the pink line. Off I go, limited to 48 kph. It’s tiny so it was easy to maneuver through the tight streets and had enough power to get up the big hills. My first stop was the lighthouse that represents the westernmost point of Continental Europe. The scenery is beautiful. I hopped back in, it’s getting dark and I made it to Pena Palace just as it closed. That’s OK, I’m kind of palaced-out, but it’s very beautiful from the valley below. Back in the car and pulled right through the front door of the shop after 2 hours of tiny-electric-driving fun.
I had a wonderful risotto just down the street but of course not as good as Kimarla Kass’. I took the train back into town, then two quick metro rides and a brutal uphill walk and I’m home for the night.
In the morning I walked outside and went down then up crazy hills to the lookout I can see across the valley from the Airbnb’s bathroom window. Several guides were there with tourists. From here I finally realize that the best part of Lisbon is within about a 2km semicircle around the riverside Praça Do Comercio square. Everything beyond this is uninspired expansion. Within it is amazing and this is the thing I couldn’t see on the bus tours because there’s no freaking way a bus can get through any of these twisty, one lane, cobblestone roads. They’re populated with little tiny shops and restaurants and bars and churches and squares. It’s flat for a couple of blocks from the river as it used to be a small bay that was filled in hundreds of years ago, but then the hills start. And I mean, hills. Brutal winding roads you’d have to go up in first gear, or stairs that take three rest breaks to get to the top. This area is best seen from my pictures from the lookout and the nearby St. Jorge castle-on-a-hill. There’s a sea of terracotta tiled roofs. I also learned there was an earthquake in 1755 which flattened, burned and then hit the old town with a 3-wave tsunami. The quake was felt as far away as Norway, and the tsunami hit England, Barbados and Brasil. It had an estimated strength of 8.5 to 9.0, killing between 10,000 and 100,000 people, making it one of the most destructive earthquakes in human history. The Wikipedia entry is definitely worth a read, I had never heard of it before.
From the lookout, I went down and then up again to Saint Jorge castle. Originally settled in the 6th century B.C., the invading Moors built the first real castle in the mid-11th century. It was then captured by the first King of Portugal and was a military post and royal residence for hundreds of years. Now they’re doing archeological digs and selling cappuccinos to tourists.
From there I walked down to the riverside and spotted the docked Queen Mary 2 ocean liner. I tried to get inside, asking for information on upcoming cruises but security wasn’t having it. I walked back to the main square and had a late-afternoon pizza and glass of beer. I walked back, up of course, to the Airbnb to get things ready for an early departure to Sagres tomorrow.
At first I was disappointed with Lisbon, but then I discovered the old city and she opened up in all her glory. This would be a fun place to live if it weren’t for all the bloody hills!
