Lisbon

As we said in the last post. We left Coimbra a little early because we wanted to have more time in Lisbon. But also at the same time we wanted to take some scenic routes in order to drive along the coast. We were reminded that scenic routes lead to a lot more time driving.
We did enjoy the random castles off in the distance.

These two picture was taken at a beautiful little coastal town called Ericeiria. The bad weather actually made them look pretty cool.

Finally we made it Lisbon and caught our Couchsurfing host on his dinner break. We dropped our stuff, met his cats and roomates, then headed out to a fado show. Fado is to Lisbon and Coimbra what flamenco is to Sevilla.
Our host directed us to one of the most famous fado houses in the city. We sat down but quickly moved on after realizing how expensive it was. Not soon after we got tempted in to another place where we were the only customers and we had our own personal fado show. The music was great. A man playing guitar, a man playing the 12 string, and a singer. First a man sang, then a woman. When we got the bill though it put a cloud over the whole thing. We hadn't realized that they were charging us for every little thing and we ended up spending a lot more than we wanted to. We felt defeated.

We headed out early the next day to give the city a chance to redeem itself.
Lisbon is indeed a very beautiful city. Lots of parks and art.

There were a few major roundabouts. We liked the statues.

There was a nice huge path to walk on down the main shopping area.

We liked this fountain because you could see just as much water going up
as you could see going down.

The night before we had seen a giant elevator that takes you up to a good viewing spot,
so we decided it would be a good way to get a feel for the city.

From the elevator and tower, there was a bridge that brought you to the Barrio Alto were you could find lots of cool restaurants and tiny streets.

Apparently my money is in the wrong bank

At the end of our walk we found ourselves at the waters edge. We enjoyed resting in the chair/plant holders and watching the water for awhile.

We did not think the city had redeemed itself completely,
but we surely could not deny its beauty.
We know that one day we will have to give it another chance.