are a unique Portuguese breed.
Day 7
Head back out to the riverside Parque das Nações district packed with modern architecture. Apart from the Oceanário (p. 113), kids will love the Pavilion of Knowledge–Ciência Viva, an interactive science museum, where they can engage in an array of experiments, including riding a bike on a tight rope. It’s loads of fun. After that, take a ride in the cable cars that run high above the riverbank, giving a splendid view over Europe’s longest bridge. Be warned: The area also contains another big shopping mall.
5
Settling
into Lisbon
Lisbon is the gateway to Portugal, the nation’s capital, its biggest city and a vibrant cultural hub. Long a sleeping beauty, the city is now firmly established as a must-see European destination. Bathed in milky light, the ancient hills of Europe’s sunniest capital overlook the shimmering estuary of the river Tagus just before it flows into the Atlantic. Lisbon has been a global meeting place since its explorers and traders reached out around the world in the 15th century.
Today, it’s changing fast, as trendy boutiques, gourmet restaurants, and chic hotels spring up to serve the tourists who fill its winding lanes and 18th-century avenues. Some fear it’s losing its soul, but the city’s unique character endures. Find it in the impassioned strains of fado music echoing down the alleys of Alfama, the fishmongers hawking sardines in the Ribeira market, or the gentle sway of ferry boats carrying commuters across the broad river. For visitors the city offers a potent emotional mix. You can surf ocean rollers in the morning, peruse exquisite art in the afternoon, and then dine alfresco beneath castle walls once guarded by Roman legionnaires, Arab warriors, and crusader knights.
Top Things to Do Like Rome, Lisbon is built on seven hills, each ringed by viewpoints (miradouros) where you can contemplate the city laid out before you, the vast estuary, and distant hills: The miradouro at São Pedro de Alcântara (p. 101) is a good place to start. Eat seafood in bustling marisqueiras (seafood restaurants) like Ramiro (p. 88). Rattle through lanes in a vintage street car; Tram 28 (p. 105) is the most sought after, but other routes are less crowded. Grab some great art: from the masterpiece-filled Gulbenkian (p. 116) and Ancient Art (p. 111) museums to cutting-edge collections at the MAAT (p. 107) or CCB (p. 110). Refresh your wardrobe in the hip Príncipe Real (p. 126) district, where an Arabian Nights–style palace maybe the world’s prettiest shopping mall. Sip bicas (shots of strong espresso) at the bar where poets and artists have dallied for over a century. Explore the monumental Belém (p. 71) neighborhood redolent of the great Age of Discoveries. Go nose-to-nose with sharks and rays at the colossal Oceanário (p. 113) aquarium. Dance the night away in the clubs of Cais do Sodré. Save some energy for the best Lisbon activity: losing yourself in a stroll around the streets and alleys of the old city where every curve can reveal a surprise, be it a church lined with baroque gold; a “hospital” that’s treated broken dolls since 1830; or another stunning view of the expanse of blue water that holds the city in an eternal embrace.
Lisbon
Shopping Avenida da Liberdade has been Lisbon’s chicest shopping street since 1879. Inspired by Paris’s Champs Élysées, this tree-lined boulevard boasts 1,200 yards of designer stores, theaters, and upscale eateries. More eclectic shopping experiences can be found in older neighborhoods like the Baixa, Chiado, or Príncipe Real. The Baixa has a street almost entirely devoted to tiny retro stores selling buttons and ribbons, as well as some of the best specialist wine and gourmet stores. Chiado’s treasures include the world’s oldest bookshop and a tiny boutique dedicated to exquisite handmade leather gloves. Príncipe Real is a fashionistas’ delight. For mall rats, the city is ringed by huge modern shopping centers: Amoreiras is the poshest and most architecturally distinctive.
Dining Lisbon’s food scene has been transformed. A generation of young chefs such as José Avillez and Henrique Sá Pessoa have refined and modernized Portuguese cuisine, winning the city of constellation of newly minted Michelin starts. The city’s historic ties means Lisbon has always had an exotic mix of restaurants serving cuisine from places like Brazil, Mozambique and Goa, but lately there’s been an explosion of international eating options meaning you can get excellent pizza, ceviche, mezze, or braised sea cucumber. Thankfully, traditional Portuguese food is still available either in hole-in-the-wall tascas (taverns) or decades-old temples to tradition, where white-suited waiters will supply you with city favorites like fava beans sautéed with peppery chouriço sausage and cilantro, or shredded salt-cod mixed with scrambled egg, fried potatoes, and black olives. Then, of course, you must track down the source of Lisbon’s most successful culinary export, the cinnamon-dusted custard tarts, known as pastéis de nata.
Nightlife & Entertainment Lisbon’s legendary nightlife includes riverside discotheques featuring Europe’s top DJs, rooftops where you can toast the sunset, and whimsical antique-filled cocktail bars. The Bairro Alto and Cais do Sodré districts hold the greatest concentration of nightspots. To get an authentic taste of Lisbon’s unique fado music, it’s best to go late when most tourists head for their hotels but true aficionados emerge. Cinema buffs will love that Portugal doesn’t dub, but shows subtitled films in their original language. The São Carlos opera house is a rococo treat; the Gulbenkian orchestra offers world-class classical music, and the Teatro Camões showcases avant-garde dance.
Lisbon Yesterday & Today
In his hit Lisboa Menina e Moça, fado legend Carlos do Carmo croons an erotic paean to his hometown, likening this “city-woman” to a lover who has seduced him by the purity of her light. Lisbon is a sensual city, easy to fall in love with. Seen from the river, the gentle curves of its hills are clad in a harmonious architectural mix where gothic towers and baroque church fronts blend with the Enlightenment rigor of its 18th-century downtown.
Sunlight from the expanse of slow-flowing river reflects onto limestone walls and paving stones giving Lisbon a “white city” nickname. Close up, you’ll find it’s full of colors. Centuries-old government ministries, mansions, or apartment blocks can be painted in burgundy, cornflower-blue, or lemon-yellow. Even the skyline’s most intrusive modern addition—the towers of the Amoreiras shopping mall—are a technicolor tribute to 1980s taste.
Be prepared for a sensory overload. Another favorite song claims “it smells good, it smells of Lisbon”: you can catch the scent of orange blossom, laundry freshly hung from wrought-laundry balconies, or cinnamon sprinkled on oven-hot pastries. Tastes and sounds will be a multicultural mix. Lisbon was the first global city; its cuisine is fused with cinnamon, cumin, and cilantro. Shots of thick black coffee are knocked back at countless neighborhood pastry shops. The soundtrack will include the cries of gulls, rattling of streetcars, and fado music mixed with rhythms from Brazil and Africa, the throb of Portuguese hip-hop from the suburbs. Feel the cool of marble bars in 19th-century cafes or the sun-warmed azulejo tiles on the walls of a baroque church.
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