Basilica da Estrela.
Our one tourism of the day was Basilica da Estrela. After that - a lot of walking, waiting, and zoom.
Olga, Tanya and I left the apartment around 11:30, I think. Walked up to the Intendente metro station, just as we were approaching it, the 28 tram rolled in, and it seemed to have space inside. We hopped on, tested the use of the Via Viagem ticket in trams (works!) and went on an about 40 min ride up the hill to Graca (we walked those streets last year on the day of Olga's dental emergency), through Graca and down and up through Alfama, riding past the Lisbon Cathedral, crossing Baixa, going up to Chiado and then down the hill towards the Palacio de Sao Bento (Portugal's Parliament), and past it to Estrela, where we hopped off the tram in front of the Estrela park and Basilica do Estrela. During our trip through Alfama and Graca (and once going up in Chiado) the tram was blocked by cars, and had to wait until the blocking car moved - the streets are extremely narrow - in some places one could touch the walls by stretching an arm from the tram (not recommended - as it's a sure way to an injury).
We crossed the street to the Basilica, and learned that - as many other churches and cathedrals in Portugal, it allows - for a small fee - people to go to the top. We bought our tickets and navigated a really narrow spiral stairway of 112 steps up to the roof of the Basilica.
Top of the stairwell.
At the top, we got some really nice views of Lisbon rooftops - from a new vantage point, as well as access to the walkway around the top of the Basilica's transept, from where we could take a look at the church itself (its entrance was closed when we visited).
Basilica da Estrela: a view of the church from the top of the transept.
Basilica da Estrela - the ceiling.
We walked around the transept, then went out to the roof again, and walked around the roof catching the different views of Lisbon's neighborhoods. The Basilica appears to be part of a Carmelite convent, and the church itself is immediately adjacent to a couple of cloisters - below is the best attempt I had at taking a picture of one of them.
A Carmelite cloister, (partial) view from above.
I tried taking some aerial pictures, but the sensor on my camera got really dusty, so the pictures feature some spots. Luckily, I was able to clean the sensor the next day.
A view of central Lisbon (Barro Alto, Chiado, Baixa, and St. Jorge's Castle) from Estrela.
The roof. Unfortunately, I failed at horizon on every single picture of the roof I took )-:
After we went back down the spiral staircase, we left the Basilica, crossed the street again and walked through the Estrela park (Jardim da Estrela), until we reached Avenida Alvares Cabral. We took it, and stopped by a pasteleria to get some coffee and pasteis da nata. We also saw - for the first time, the new metro construction. Apparently, Lisbon is extending what is currently its Yellow Line past the Rato station into Estrela, and then down to the Santos train station along Tejo, and is planning to connect at Cais do Sodre and turn the chunks of the Green and the Yellow lines into a circular line - which, in my opinion would be absolutely great. The part of the Lisbon we visited - Estrela, and nearby neighborhoods do not have metro service at the moment, Rato - the closest station is about a 12 min walk from the Basilica da Estrela through the park. The plan I saw (see below) is not perfect (it still leaves several neighborhood w/o a metro station), but it is definitely an improvement over the current state of affairs, where the center is over-saturated, but east side (hills along Tejo) and west (Estrela, Campo De Ourique, and further west of it) are not served at all.
After coffee, we continued on, stopping briefly by a local produce store, which - to date - had the lowest price we could find on passion fruit (4.99/kg) - I bought 800 (on the nose) and a single pear that I ate immediately (it was good), and then proceeded past the Rato metro station towards the part of Lisbon we know - the Marques de Pombal square.
The Rato.
My understanding is that this walk took us along some of the poshest parts of Lisbon. From Marques de Pombal, we took Avenida Fontes Pereira de Melo all the way to Saldanha, where we spent a few mins at the Saldanha Atrium (I discovered that several food court businesses had Fanta Zero on their drinks menu, and got a 500 ml of cold Fanta Zero to cool off - walking through Lisbon got real hot by that time).
From Saldanha, we took streets towards Arroios - with the goal of hitting the third Cash Converters store (Yuri and I visited the first two looking for the lens
two days prior). On the way, found a perfume store where Olga and Tanya spend some time buying several perfumes. After that, walked to the Cash Converters store. It turned out to have a decent selection of photographic equipment, but no useful Sony camera stuff (they were stocked with Lumix and Cannon cameras though). Olga and Tanya checked their coffee-maker selection and did not find what they were looking for.
From there, we decided to revisit the Sao Sebastio Cash Converters, in case they had the coffee-maker. Walked to Arroios metro station, too metro to Alameda, then changed to the Red Line, went to Sao Sebastio, walked to the store, saw that their selection of coffeemakers had nothing interesting either. At that point, the time was 4:20pm, Olga's appointment at Entrecampos was at 5. I charted the walk - and it appeared that at 23 minutes of walking we might get there faster than trying to take a metro to Entrecampos and walking from there, so we walked through the neighborhood where we lived in 2017, passing by the very end of Avenida Conde Valbom, before crossing over the railroad using a pedestrian bridge and then walking through an old neighborhood of Bairro do Rego, and reaching the high-rise building where Olga had her appointment.
Avenida Conde de Valbom.
We waited for Olga - in the meantime, I moved my zooms by an hour. At 7, she was done, we walked out, walked to Entrecampos, decided to take Uber (which cost use 4.50 Euro - actually cheaper than three metro fares), and had a nice lady drive us in her Nissan Leaf through Avenidas Novas, Saldanha and Arroios to our Largo do Intendente home base.
Upon arrival, went to my three hours of zoom, after which called it a night.
Steps. 15,117 according to the phone. The watch had around 15,000 as well, I think.
Alcohol. Nothing new to report.
Next. A trip to Cascais.
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