Days 30-33: Welcome to Lisboa - Part 1: around the city

Disclaimer: All voyages in this blog are being taken safely in the comfort of our imaginations - based on our plans and intentions for travel in 2020. What is reality after all?  But the people here are based on real friends... However, the reflections are ours, not theirs.

What a wild weekend!  We're exhausted and ready to move on, but let us tell you a few things about the lesser discovered sides of Lisbon. (We had spent the Friday just wandering round the neighbourhood - one of those fabled 'slow days'.)

We were lucky to have local guides - our friends Rita, Tiago and Filipe - to introduce us to some of the lesser visited aspects of their city and its surrounds over two days - and enabling them also to see their city through visitors' eyes.

We'll break this blog into two parts - with more on walking in Sintra on Sunday - in the next posting.

On the Saturday, they took us all round the city by bike - yes: by bike!  We are actually foresworn not to reveal any photos of us on the e-bikes, for fear both of embarrassment and the legal consequences. But you'll see Rita and Filipe firstly, and then later joined by Tiago, as we are introduced to the city of these intrepid and champion (and we mean that literally) riders.

Rita and Filipe cycled in to meet us in the late Saturday morning. They live out near the airport, so it was a substantial ride via the Praça do Aeroporto - or locally known as the Rotunda do Relógio (because there used to be a large floral clock here, now removed, with just a statue of a wristwatch left ... but the flyover also now looks like the clock hands on a map):

They eventually arrived at Restauradores (via Av. Brasil, Saldanha and Marquês de Pombal they tell us), not at all flushed by the ride, and we met them at the train station:

We then immediately retired to a local cake shop for some Pastel de Nata:

We picked up our ordered bikes and off we went. The city was strangely quiet - Rita says she's never seen Rossio like this:

This was where Rita and friends met us way back in the day, for the first time, checking out that we weren't weirdos (and despite this, we've subsequently become close friends, staying with them on occasions, and hosting them here in Australia).  

Uphill from there into Chiado in the Alto, to visit the statue of Fernando de Pessoa:

Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa, who died in 1935, was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher. He is described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets in the Portuguese language. This bronze statue in Chiado shows Pessoa outside the A Brasileira coffee house, which he used to frequent. Next to the sitting Pessoa is an empty chair for the use of tourists who wish to take a photo snap with the great man! Or invite him to take a bike ride together.

Back down to the waterfront to the docks at Santos, passing a strange modernist swimming pool in a house - or perhaps an embassy:

and the first of the wonderful murals we'll see today: the fox:

We'll tell you more about these a little later. Another nearby one is of a raccoon:

From there it was a short ride along to the Praça Dom Luis, and a quick look at the Mercado da Ribeira:

and further to the main waterfront square - the huge Praça do Comércio - also very empty:

At the Terreiro do Paço station we gave up on the biking for the moment, and took the train to Oriente station, nearer to where Rita, Filipe and Tiago live ... and where Tiago met us for a late lunch:

and of course for some fearsome portraits:

This area is the Parque das Nações, known locally as Expo and developed from reclaimed land for the 1998 World Exposition.  It contains a variety of wonderfully modern buildings along a boardwalk, and a suspended gondola skyway - which we didn't take:

Filipe in a Titanic moment

But in one corner of this riverside area are a couple of great statues:

including the Iberian Lynx:

and here's a video (not by us) so you can get a closer look.

We had to find out more about this sculpture made of recycled materials – by the same artist who we'd seen earlier with the fox and the raccoon – and, of course, since we were now with three computer-centric locals, we could look up the information on-line:

"Creating this statue of an almost extinct animal, the Iberian Lynx, with discarded materials like plastic and computer components, Bordalo II, the artist, wanted to question and reflect on the current materialistic and consumeristic ways of life.

"Before the turn of the 21st century, the Portuguese lynx population was estimated to be around 20-25 individuals, and a few years later it was limited to a few wandering individuals. In Spain, in 2002, there were 94 left.
"Nowadays, it’s a great happiness to know that there are 75 lynx in Portugal and that the Iberian population has over 500 individuals.

"The public space provides a playground for the artist Bordalo II to work at large scale and engage with the public in a more meaningful way. Using discarded materials, he questions the current materialistic and consumeristic ways of life, many of which are harmful to the environment. By using these specific discarded elements, he hopes to shine a light on the global issue that is currently endangering all species of life: climate change.  Through the use of trash and animals (the most identifiable part of nature), the artist hopes to question the viewer.

"First, animals foster an innate sense of attachment, creating a secondary opportunity to contemplate the medium employed to create them. Each piece is made by collecting from junkyards, cutting down, re-assembling, and painting.

"Bordalo II says about his work:

'I belong to a generation that is extremely consumerist, materialist and greedy. With the production of things at its highest, the production of "waste" and unused objects is also at its highest. "Waste" is quoted because of its abstract definition: "one man's trash is another man's treasure". I create, recreate, assemble and develop ideas with end-of-life material and try to relate it to sustainability, ecological and social awareness.'"

You can find out more about Bordalo II here.

More riding now: along the boardwalk constructed alongside the Tejo - and sometimes out into it:

This took us right up to the amazing Vasco da Gama bridge:

before we turned inland finally to visit (again) the home of our tourist guides.  We remembered the lift up to their top-floor apartment, for its frightening warning of death when taking out the rubbish:

But now for the same lift's affirmation of life:

From near there, we watched the sun setting over the water (hint: what does this tell us about the veracity of our virtual travels? - leave a comment if you know):

before taking the metro train back to our own apartment down town.