Why Lisbon at all? Why a second time after twenty-odd years? The first time it was curiosity that made us choose this destination: what is that capital like at the edge of Europe? Not many details stayed in mind after such a long time but the ones that did were positive ones and we remembered a general sense of well-being, so when my husband and I discussed where to spend a week around Easter this year, Lisbon came to mind.

Situated where it is all the peoples that were on the move in historic times were interested in the site, it may be a myth that Ulysses discovered it, but there is proof that the Phoenicians did at around 5000 BC, they called their colony ´Alis Ubbo´- ´lovely little port´. Later the Romans, the Visigoths and Moorish conquerors from North Africa came, the latter stayed for 300 years (some Portuguese have Arabic features), in 1147 King Alfonso succeeded in driving them back with the help of Crusaders (occasionally one sees tall and blond Portuguese) to say nothing of the Spanish and French occupation.

One would assume that architectural gems mirror the former wealth, that the city is full of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque buildings as is the case with so many other rich cities in Europe, alas, that is not the case. Tourists interested in ticking off sights in the afore mentioned styles are disappointed, they realise that they´ve come too late, in fact they should have come before 1st November, 1755 when an earthquake lasting nine minutes and a following tsunami destroyed most of the city; from what I´ve read I get the impression that this date is one of the - if not the - most important dates in the history of modern Lisbon.

The Rua Augusta is a pedestrian precinct with mostly expensive shops on either side and open-air cafés in the middle, from there we got through a triumphal arc to the Praça do Comércio. A big equestrian statue of King José looks out at the river Tejo passing Lisbon for 30 km before it flows into the Atlantic, its mouth is between 3 to 17 km wide so that one has a feeling of the sea in the city; unfortunately a direct access to the bank is not possible due to a busy motorway.

We passed the cathedral which surprised me a lot. Begun in 1147 on the remains of a mosque in Romanesque style it hasn´t changed much through the centuries, no Renaissance frescoes or Baroque religious knick-knack adorn the bare grey sandstone walls to show off the incredible wealth Portugal had accumulated, after all it´s the most important religious building in the capital of a former empire. Very modest, the Portuguese!

The outer walls of the castle (entrance fee 3 Euro) have been reconstructed, the inside is empty, i.e., there are no buildings, one of the inner yards has a stage for concerts and a self-service open-air restaurant (we saw two other restaurants on the premises). I noticed a steep flight of stairs leading to the top of the wall and suggested to my husband we climb up there to have an even better view of the city, the river Tejo, the 2287m long suspension bridge and the Rio de Janeiro-like statue of Christ on the opposite bank of the river. The moment I had reached the top I knew I had to get back down at once, I hadn´t looked properly from below, the inner wall was only knee high, the outer one was high enough but consisted of a row of pinnacles with wide openings and no railings anywhere. As if I didn´t know myself by now, sometimes I´m dumber than the police permits (as we say in German).

What else is there to do? Portugal has about 10 million inhabitants, one fifth of whom live in Greater Lisbon, yet the city centre is not big, one day is enough to see it including a museum. We abstained from visiting one on our first day (we went to an art museum later, I´m going to write an extra op on it), we preferred sitting at the tables infront of the Pastelaria Suiça (pastry shop, Lisbon is full of pastelarias, the pastry is excellent!) on the central place Rossio in the Baixa watching the Portuguese world pass by. We saw only few tourists, conventionally and still winterly dressed Portuguese, noticed many black Africans from the former colonies, street musicians played for us, beggars wanted money.

The three sights of Belém are the tower built in 1516 to protect the harbour and (from the guidebook) ´the strikingly modern monument praising the discoveries rising dramatically above the river, the streamlined prow of an explorer´s caravel with Prince Henry the Navigator symbolically heading a crowd of famous figures from that rich and golden era of Portuguese history´ and the Jerónimo Monastery built by King Manuel I in the 16th century in honour of Vasco da Gama who had discovered the seaway to India, it´s late Gothic with lavish decoration in the so-called Manueline style.

With Belém ´done´ one has seen what is Lisbon famous for, if one stays longer than two or three days it is to see the towns along the coast or in the hinterland, if the weather is favourable, the tourist can easily and pleasurably fill a week.