Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011 Portugal
The desk at the Marriott hotel was very helpful in planning my day in Lisbon.
They sold me a ticket for the "Red Bus" and then got me a cab to go to Rossio Square.
It was formally called Praca de Dom Pedro IV and dates from the 1200's.
My mission for the day was to go to the Feira da Ladra market. The market is one
of Lisbon's favorites and is nicknamed the "Thieves" market. They don't tell you that in
most tour books as it scares people away - but I found it perfectly safe.
The cab driver dropped me off in Rossi Square and I found the place where you can
buy an all day ticket for the metro. The metro includes all buses, trolleys and subways.
Kathryn and I had walked a lot yesterday and my feet were sore and I had
a sore toe nail. You are probably thinking - "why is he telling us this?"
Anyway, I had a nail that was long and was cutting into the next toe, I was just
thinking I needed a "clipper" when I ran into this "little" guy on the street
(no more than 4'10" tall - elderly) He had a brief case set up on a small stool and
inside the briefcase he had about anything you would need. I saw a nail clipper and asked him
in English "How much?" He looked at me and smiled and said "Oh, English?" and I said
"American" He then said "80 cents" I said back "No, one euro" He looked at me puzzled
and said, "No, you give me one euro and I give you back 20 cents" I smiled at him and said
"No, I give you one euro and you give me nothing back" He looked like he could really use it!
So then he caught on and smiled. He went on to tell me that he learned his English running
a sound machine that changed soundtracks on famous movies from English to
Portuguese. He named a lot old movies, old movie stars including Humphrey Bogart and
African Queen. I should have taken his picture but didn't.
I asked him where the "Thieves Market" was and he told me to follow the trolley tracks
on the street where he was standing. So I started to follow them. They led up this huge
hill. I started up hoping I would see a trolley or a trolley stop! No such luck until I reached the top
of the hill. There a trolley driver told me to stand on the other side of the street and catch
number 28. I waited and did. This driver told me where to get off (no, he was nice!) and then
pointed an arch and said go through it to the market.
The market is set up on the street and is a couple of blocks long. Up and down
the hilly streets of this part of Lisbon.
It is only open on Tuesday and Saturday.
This would be typical of the stuff there. Anything out of your house
you want to get rid of!
It took me about an hour to get through the market, the booth operators being
very aggressive you show any interest in anything. I bought a 5 euro pair of sunglasses
for 4 euro and an 8 euro gift for my grandchild "to be" for 5 euros. After getting through the market,
I headed downhill towards the river hoping to find one of the "Red Buses".
Kathryn and I had seen no Cruise Ships the day before but there were many today.
I walked quit a ways and came across this arch.
The arch faced a large square right on the water and held this statue.
On the other side of the arch, was a street very similar to the ones I had seen in Madrid.
No traffic, and many restaurants set up with outside seating in the middle of the street.
I also saw a few of my favorite "street people". This guy gave me a wink when I dropped
a coin into his box and moved to a new
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