More heavy rain this morning.
We were expecting bad weather so had planned a day of museums. Our first stop was the Museum of Portuguese Decorative Arts, which is only 100 metres from our hotel, in an old converted palace.
You forget that several times in its history, Lisbon has been a phenomenally important and wealthy city, because really it isn’t today (sorry).. At one point near the end of the 1500’s, one pope divided up the world into halves, one for Spain and one for Portugal! The latter had colonies in Africa, South America, India, and elsewhere. On these they bestowed the gifts of civilisation, language, oppression, and disease, and in return they got gold, spices, trade, and large amounts of cash. But, it hasn’t all been good times, as we learned in our second museum of the day, the Lisbon history centre. Did you know Lisbon is older than both Rome and Paris? First there were the Phoenicians, then Romans, Moors, Crusaders, and then the Spanish. Things were great once they booted the Spanish out until All Saints’ Day, November 1st, 1755. At ninish in the morning, the biggest earthquake ever recorded in European history, followed by a huge tsunami and many days of fires, destroyed 85% of the city. 
Many people were at church, and were killed by falling masonry. This church has been left in its destroyed condition, with no roof, as a memorial.
The city was rebuilt in a much more modern style, befitting such an important city. Fifty years later though, news came that Napoleon was arriving, and thousands of the most wealthy inhabitants fled to Brazil for safety, including the royal family and its court. They came back eventually, but in 1908 the king and his oldest son got shot in an open carriage in the town square as they were coming back from holiday (rude!) and that was the end of the monarchy.
Interestingly, they had a prime minister called Salazar from 1932 to 1968, who kept them out of WW2 and also stopped Spain invading, but no one seems to talk about him very much. There was a revolution in 1974 and it’s been a democracy ever since.
We had lunch in the main square, in a touristy little Italian restaurant. I must say, a simple pasta dish was a relief after the Portuguese food I’ve been sampling this week.
After we’d eaten we wandered down to the waterfront at the foot of the square. The river is very wide at Lisbon as it is nearly at the sea. The water was brown and uninviting, and smelled bad.
We walked along the shore to the ferry terminal and then across the road to the Time Out market. This place is much hyped but we couldn’t figure out why, it’s essentially a giant noisy and crowded food court.
By then we were tired, and faced with a 35 minute uphill walk home, we decided to take a tuk tuk instead. It was pricey, at ten euros each, but it was quick and fun. I can tell you, the cobblestones do not make for a smooth ride.
