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Wednesday, December 30, 1998
The final day in Lisbon I headed downtown again on the Metro. I particularly wanted to send out so me postcards today. That done, I next wanted to find a special outdoor elevator built at the turn of the century called the Santa Justa. Some attributed its construction to Gustave Eiffel of Eiffel tower fame. But I read the elevator had been designed instead by a local builder Sr Raul Mesnier. Anyway, I didn’t find it right away, but in the process of looking made my way up many hills to the working class neighborhood called Barrio Alto.
The Barrio Alto lies upon another of Lisbon’s hills. While my high altitude background made the hills easy to climb, I did get a bit turned around  in the maze of streets, some only 4 feet wide. I could see light above the buildings as I made my way along each street, but had no way to look out and orient myself to a known landmark. I walked for at least an hour not really knowing where I was going.
Here and there amongst the streets was tucked a business - shoe shop, carpenter, restaurant, grocery, etc. Some buildings were completely tiled (picture below). I eventually popped out of the maze 90 degrees from where I thought I would. I ended up down by the harbor.
The walk b ack to town was fun. On the way, I passed by various fish markets. I especially noted the heaps of dried, salted codfish knows as bacalhau and was tempted to bring a few home. I learned later that there are over 365 recipes for using the dried fish and that it is the main ingredient of the Portuguese traditional Christmas feast..
Back in central Lisbon, I found a great seafood restaurant that cleverly used their see-through refrigerator, containing lobster and other local favorites, as a store front window. A fish tank containing the latest catch was used as the other window. My seafood lunch was wonderful.
After lunch, I set out to find the Santa Justa elevator I still hadn’t seen. After much asking and wrong detours, I eventually found it (and wondered how I missed it!) The line  for tickets was too long for me so I took some pictures and moved on. Up on top is a small snack bar from which you can get a good view of the castle we visited earlier.
I made a quick trip back to the hotel, then headed back downtown for a little shopping expedition for Rachel and the boys.
I managed to find the main tourist things: Port, ceramics, cork articles, and painted tile. Though it was around 8 PM, the town was really hopping. I was in the core of Lisbon and I guess the shopping goes on until rather late. I finally headed back to the Hotel for the last time. I would have loved to stay as I was just getting to know my way around.
Tomorrow would be an early morning and a very long day, so I headed back to the Hotel and went to bed. I made sure I had a wake up call in place as I didn´t trust my alarm clock.
Next...the return trip starting with a canceled flight...
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