lisbon stories :: a three hour walk

are you up for it today? it’s beautiful outside, so i thought you could use some time off and i thought of a walk that might be really nice to appreciate spring that has officially arrived this week! and how are you feeling today? excited about the weekend that is almost here? oh and did you read yesterday’s post about paper? so, now i think we might be ready to go for our walk. so to start i chose a garden, because i want you to sit a while and listen to me while i explain to you where we are going, ok? by the way, i brought my tilt-shift lens to take a few pictures for you to take afterwards! so this is a place called são bento. this is where our government works and it’s also a place where several economics and management schools are placed (i mean, not in this garden, but around… you got it, right?).

and now let’s go down and up again, as this is lisbon and it’s not called the 7 hill city just by accident! so, we’re going to do that often during our walk today! please note the beautiful architecture on this area and the fact that you’ll start to see a lot of the yellow trams from this point on.

we are starting to go up again towards the beautiful area of chiado. this is like the heart of lisbon, it’s a very old, but traditional and elegant quarter. you may see more of this area here and here. you’ll find really old stores, but they also manage to keep their charm! actually you can visit some of my very own favourites in this city, as you can have a drink/eat something here or here, and do some shopping here or here! and now let’s turn left and go up towards principe real, another charming quarter.

so, let’s stop for a while here on this viewpoint called miradouro de s. pedro de alcântara. lisbon is filled with viewpoints all over the city and this one is among the well-known and that has gained more life in this last year, with concerts and several events going on. as you can see this is quite a beautiful place to rest in the end of the day, specially during spring and summer time. now look at this view (note the castle on the top)…

and now let’s continue our journey, because i just want you to visit on this garden for a while and then we’ll go down again through chiado, ok? so, now that we are here, this is also a very well-known garden, jardim do príncipe real. this garden hosts several craft fairs and is a very pleasant place to make a stop and drink something or just rest our feet from all the walking around! it has several benches and a few shades here and there!

and now let’s go down again, one day we’ll get through the streets of principe real, but not today, ok? so going down again towards chiado, we’ll pass by another famous yellow tram, but this one is a special one. it’s called ascensor da glória or in english gloria funicular and takes you from miradouro de s. pedro de alcântara to restauradores, which is the end of liberty avenue.

after passing by the funicular, we’ll pass by a small square on the left and now we’ll go down the stairs so that i can show you where i usually have dinner on the popular saint’s night here in lisbon, which is when we celebrate saint anthony and the city holiday. i usually have dinner on these tables, that look so empty now, but so gorgeous! imagine this full of people, with traditional music in the air, as well as the smell of grilled sardines! yummm, i’m starting to feel hungry!

after the restaurant, we went up on a narrow street and arrived at the largo do carmo, where the 1974 carnation revolution was held. here we can visit the ruins of the gothic church on the carmo convent and the santa just lift, which will take you from here to downtown. and this is both beautiful and another interesting viewpoint! did you know that the engineer who built this was an apprentice of gustave eiffel? fancy, right? but let’s appreciate the view from here, shall we?

so what do you think about this walk? did you enjoy it? i hope so! because next time i’ll take you to a new place where we can both shop and eat, and this my friends is perfection to me! see you tomorrow!!

ps. are you with me on facebook yet? i think i’ll launching visual challenges every now and then, and if you get the answer right first you’ll get a discount code to use on any of my etsy shops! what do you think? nice idea? and by the way, note that my facebook name page was changed from twiggs’ place to twiggs photography! yay! i wanted this for so long!

* Lisbon’s Travel Guide

Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest