Lisboa and the Yellow Tram to Alfama

Lisbon is hot hot hot! So hot that Spanish tourist women were bfanning me with their fans while we were all waiting under the hot sun to board Tram 28 to Alfama. Note to self that I may need to buy a paper fan tomorrow :-)

Lisbon is also very colorful - with lots of yellow, pink, and red buildings. It's also full of cobberstone streets - some of which were making me slip around a tad going downhill. So Lisbon is definitely very photogenic.

About Alfama...It is the oldest district (at least 12th century old) in Lisbon because it survived a big fire in the late 1700's. Alfama has narrow windy and uphill streets, and Tram 28 is one of the public transportation through Alfama. Tram 28 is so cuteee! It's a yellow and vintage trolley...and you can sit by the open window and hang your head out a bit to take pictures! The only time that I felt a breeze was while I was on the tram since we were heading toward the water - it's a river btw, not the Atlantic ocean. See the pictures that I have in the Lisbon section.

My tour book actually says that Lisbon reminds people of many cities - one of which is San Francisco. It has a bridge that looks like the Bay bridge (see in my picture from the Castle overlooking the water) and then of course the hills and trolleys.

I stopped at St George Castle and toured the Castle. The grounds are great with 360 degree view of the city and water. It was very cool to be able to climb up the towers of the castle and also just walk around the entire length of the top of the castle. I had a gazillion pictures there.

I'll actually need to catch the tram again tomorrow for a few things that I didn't have time to do today: visit a famous monastery, a cathedral, and walk around the winding streets and maybe have lunch there.

I arrived at my hotel around 1:30pm, and so half of the day was already gone. So outside of Alfama, I headed out for a lovely seafood lunch and then stumbled onto a Sunday flea market. I bought a couple necklace pendants - one is a 3-D carrousel that I wore for the rest of the day.

Dinner was outdoors at a nearby square and tons of seafood again. I may need to try out Portuguese grilled meats tomorrow just to mix it up.


I'm hoping to also explore Rosario Square tomorrow. Apparently, there is a food market and then there are some notable historical buildings to see. One thing that is supposed to be a big deal here is their aquarium, Oceanarium - hopefully tomorrow or the day after.