Lisbon

Portugal became a republic in 1910 and has a population of 10.5 million, of which 700,000 live in Lisbon.The Tagus River runs through Lisbon. It was originally settled by the Romans and then the Arabs. It was an important cosmopolitan trading post until an earthquake and subsequent tsunami in 1755 destroyed much of Lisbon , so it doesn't have the beautiful old buildings like Madrid. Many of the buildings are pastel coloured. It does, however, have the most beautiful main street called Liberty Avenue, which is a tree- lined boulevard not unlike the Champs Élysées. Also all of the streets are paved in patterns in limestone and basalt as in Coimbra. The downtown area -the Maquis of Pombal Square, the Restoration Square and Rossio Square were lovely and the hill suburbs are linked by funicular. The Castle of St George on the hill above was built in the 16th century. There are two huge bridges joining both sides of the Tagus River - the April 25th and Vasco da Gama Bridges.We also went to Belem to see the Belem Tower, an old fortress , the Discoveries Monument dedicated to Portuguese discoverers and Henry the Navigator and the Geronimus Monastery.The latter was a huge Gothic cathedral which wasn't destroyed in the earthquake. The huge tombs of Vasco da Gama and the poet are Luis de Camões....( the Portuguese Shakespeare) were here. The Order of Christ ( former Templars) funded many of the famous Portuguese voyages and subsequent maritime expansion. Their Red Cross was on the sailing ships' sails. The photo of the reddish building with the turret is of Lisbon's bull ring which is also used as a concert hall. Some of our group went to a bull fight tonight. It started at 10pm, so needless to say, Margaret and I didn't go!