The final port of call on our Spanish odyssey wasn’t actually in Spain at all – it was Lisbon, Portugal, again somewhere I’d wanted to visit for years; as soon as I saw the whitewashed houses with their terracotta roofs and the steep streets I knew I was going to absolutely adore the Portuguese capital. It’s a delightfully higgledypiggledy city, with something unexpected and amazing around every corner, fantastic colours and a great atmosphere.
A steep (and I do mean steep) climb up the cobbled streets from the port brings you to the Panteão Nacional, which is absolutely beautiful;
…you have to pay to go in properly but if you stand by the rope barrier you can get a pretty good view of the beautiful ceiling…
…I loved the Lisbon trams, you see them all over the city…
There are wall tile murals everywhere as well – I thought this one was very cool (ignore the graffiti – there’s a lot of that too)…
…and I really liked the colours of this one…
…and of course bougainvillea (if only you could grow it in gardens in the UK).
I thought the colour of this door was just fabulous, despite the fact the paint was all peeling – such a great shade of blue…
…and the faded yellow paint of this house.
Lisbon was really delightful – definitely one for the ‘I’d like to spend a weekend here’ list.
And then it was time to head to the airport to fly home, which brings me, dear reader, to my Lisbon Airport Moment of Shame. I was determined to buy a pastel de nata to eat in Lisbon – we often buy them from a Portuguese bakery near us but there’s nothing quite like eating something in the place it actually comes from, is there? So at Lisbon Airport (which is very cool by the way, stylish and modern, with free wifi) I chose a delicious-looking pastel de nata and, being a good travel blogger, decided to instagram a photo of it before I ate it. I stood up to take a photo…
…and promptly tripped over a step and fell flat on my face. In the middle of Lisbon airport. With all the ladies from the duty-free shop running to pick me up. See? The SHAME of it.
Still, even though I have bruises on my arms and legs, the pastel de nata was delicious.
Oh and I nearly forgot! Here’s a Lisbon street lamp 🙂