Lisbon, Portugal

From Seville, we went to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. Compared to Madrid, the streets of Lisbon were generally less clean, less well-kept and is evidently the poorer city of the two. We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant before we visited the sites of Lisbon. It was here that we had our first unhappy experience. Our tour manager had a heated argument with the restaurant lady owner over the food arrangement for the coach driver. She accused the tour manager of "bai cher" (eating for free in Mandarin), little knowing that these were prophetic words when the events unfold later. Many of us were concerned after this quarrel since we would be having lunch again here the next day and we were afraid that we would be getting "extra ingredients" in our meal. All this were forgotten when we tour the city.

Two of the many monuments in the city.




The main bull-ring.

The Alfama area, the oldest part of the city but it is poorly maintained and rather depressing.

The river side was more interesting. First the Torre de Belem or Belem Tower commemorating Portugal's age of discovery.

The Monument to the Discoveries, dedicated to the greatest Portuguese explorers.

A copy of the Golden Gate Bridge?

Shoppers in the main pedestrian mall.

We had Portuguese dinner at the popular restaurant Luso where it was accompanied by Fado entertainment which is traditional Portuguese singing and folk dancing.

Thus ended a great evening and there would be shocking news the next day.

Ronald Kwok
http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok