Lisbon: A Saturday visiting the city through its viewpoints🇵🇹

Last Friday, after telling the people to whom I was giving the training about my passion for photography and that I had a blog in Hive one of the clients to whom I was giving the training, who is called Tiago Branco and whom I already consider a good friend, offered to be my tour guide around the city of the seven hills during Saturday, since I was leaving the city on Sunday morning. At that time, I didn't know that Lisbon was known as the city of the seven hills and that's when he explained to me that the city is built around seven hills and on each of them there are viewpoints from which you can discover the city from a different point of view.

Because Tiago lives in Cascais, he has a young son and I needed to find a laundromat to do my laundry for the week, Tiago and I arranged for him to pick me up at 12:30 a.m. at the Hotel Villa Gale Opera, which is the hotel where I was staying. Once he picked me up in his car, Tiago decided to start the tourist route from the parking lot located in the Don Luis Garden, near the Ribeira Market. From this place we headed to the Ribeira das Naus Avenue, which is a beautiful promenade on the banks of the Tagus River from where you can see the other end of the river, the 25th of April Bridge and the Sanctuary of Cristo Sol.

Along this walk, we went taking some photos that I have reserved for the contests on photographs with reflections that organizes #Shadowshunters community until the Plaza del comercio where in the Tagus River I could take a picture of myself in the pier of the columns.

Then, after enjoying the views of the Tagus river from the pier of the columns, we headed to the commerce square, which is one of the most important squares in Lisbon and was the gateway to Lisbon in times past. This square is surrounded on 3 sides by various government buildings, highlighting the Rua Agusta arch in its central part and in the center of the square the equestrian statue of Jose I king of Portugal during the great earthquake that destroyed Lisbon in 1755.

After visiting this important square, we headed to another of the tourist attractions of Lisbon which is the Casa dos Bicos, which is a sixteenth century house whose characteristic is that its facade is made up of stones carved in the shape of diamond point. This house currently houses the museum of the foundation of the Portuguese writer Jose Saramago.

After a short break, Tiago decided it was time to start visiting some of the viewpoints that exist in the 7 hills of the city to be able to observe the grandeur of this great and beautiful city and in turn to visit other emblematic areas of Lisbon.

This viewpoint is located in the Castle of St. George. Unfortunately, there was a large influx of people waiting to get to this viewpoint and access the castle. Therefore, as our goal was to visit as many viewpoints as possible to see the city from the top, we had to desist from entering. That is why I share the following link where you can access information and photographs of the city that can be obtained from this viewpoint.

After the failure of not being able to access the viewpoint of the castle of St. George, we decided to go to another of the viewpoints of the city. The selected viewpoint was the viewpoint of Puerta del Sol, but we made a short stop to be able to photograph the Lisbon Cathedral and the mythical Lisbon tram number 28 that makes a tour of the city for tourists.

It is one of the free viewpoints of the city. It is located in the Alfama area. From this viewpoint you can photograph the church of San Vicente de Fora with a very nice background of the Tagus River.

At this point, because it was already 2 pm we decided to stop to hydrate and eat. To do this, we ordered a fresh pitcher of beer, some sparkling mineral water and to share some cheeses, olives and we both opted for a plate of pasta with shrimp.

After lunch, we resumed our tour of the viewpoints. Next on our list was the Gracia viewpoint. This viewpoint was very crowded due to the splendid shade and that one can cool off at one of the terraces of the bars at this viewpoint.

Next on our list was the Mirador de la Senora del Monte. Getting to this viewpoint after lunch cost me a little more than the other viewpoints, as you have to climb some steep slopes. However, the effort is rewarding to be able to see the beautiful views from this viewpoint. At the same time, I was grateful that there was a stall where I could hydrate myself with a refreshing lemonade with ice.

This viewpoint was the least crowded of the ones we were able to visit, as fatigue was starting to show in my legs. This viewpoint is not on the contracted tours and is one of the viewpoints that Lisbon locals proudly show off, being a less crowded viewpoint that has great charm. It has fabulous views of the north of the city and the entire western area. According to what Tiago told me, it is one of the highest viewpoints in the city.

After the visit to this viewpoint, we decided to go to the place where we had parked the car, but as good lovers of photography we went to two other points of interest in the city such as Rossio Square and the monument of the restorers.

The Rossio Square is one of the liveliest areas of the city and the meeting place of Lisboners and visitors. On the sides of the square and along its surrounding streets there are a large number of stores, bars and restaurants. In the square is the statue of Pedro IV of Portugal and also the National Theater Dona Maria II.

It is an obelisk in the center of Restauradores Square that commemorates Portugal's independence from Spain.

Finally, after a few extra minutes walking and when it was already 6:30 pm, we arrived back at the Jardim Don Luis square, where we had parked the car and drank some sparkling water to recover hydration, since my phone app indicated that we had walked more than 11 kilometers since 12:30 am.

Arriving at the hotel, I took a refreshing shower, rested a bit and went down to dinner at the hotel restaurant with the pleasant surprise that in the hotel lobby an opera concert was being held for the guests, which I loved.

I hope you liked this tour of Lisbon.

All pictures were taken with my iPhone SE.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

The cover photo was created with Microsoft Power Point.