Lisbon’s Charm revealed

From one bridge to another – while it looks like a mirror image of the Golden Gate – this spectacular man made wonder is called the 25th of April bridge and it spans the Tagus River from Lisbon to its suburb of Almada. It is noteworthy that not only are both suspension bridges, they have an indirect link from a construction perspective. The 25th of April bridge was in fact built by the American Bridge Company whom also constructed the Bay Bridge linking Oakland to San Francisco.

In town to board the Crystal Serenity for a special recognition event tomorrow, we had time to see the charm of this often overlooked European capital. After a rather long flight (6 hours spent connecting in Philadelphia due to weather) we landed in Portugal’s capital Lisbon and made our way via metro and bus to the hotel. As it has been 13 years since my last visit here, I had kind of forgotten how steep and hilly Lisbon is – schlepping luggage only made this more adventurous to say the least.

The views and setting of our room at the lovely Lapa Palace hotel made the effort well worth it. A quick shower later, we made off exploring with stops in Belem at the monument dedicated to the Portuguese seafarers whom discovered much of the Western Hemisphere and the tower of Belem.

Then we took the tram 15 line back to Lisbon and meandered the streets of the commercial district and the Alfama neighborhood which is forever linked to the music style that is Fado. Views of the streets and sunlit rooftops complimented our 16k steps today which included a fair share of stairs.