Lisbon, Monday Day 5

Still tired from the big day yesterday, so we decided to just stroll up Avenida Liberdade, kind of the big posh posh shopping street that has a walking area between north and south lanes of traffic.  

The train station, nice building

Rossio Square

Hard Rock Cafe, Lisbon.  We can get out Mexican fix

We walked and walked, all up hill by the way, so much for resting, to the next square.  At the north end of the Aveida de Liberdade is a large traffic junction known as the Praca do Marques de Pombal (Square of the Marquis of Pombal.  At its center stands a tall monument with a stature of the marquis.  

Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, later known as the first Marquis of Pombal, was the prime minister of king Joseph I from 1750 until 1777.   But the marquis may be best known for his efficient and pragmatic handling of the crisis caused by the earthquake and tsunami that ravaged much of Lisbon in 1755. He is famous for his response to the disaster: "What to do? We bury the dead and feed the living." Thanks to his leadership there was no epidemic outbreak after the earthquake and reconstruction started swiftly. 

The marquis is looking towards the Baxia district he helped rebuild and is accompanied by a lion, a symbol of power. 

Just north of this square is Parque Eduardo VII (it too is all up hill)

What looks like a beautiful church just off to the side of the park, we walked over to it.

The building was totally closed up with broken windows and tiles and appears now to just be a parking lot for the park.  This one appears to be the tsunami that hit after the eartquake

a battle

Sa, but I suspect there is no money for restoration

Moving on up the hill we passed a little pond with black swans

And finally the top

From here we walked around the hill to a huge shopping mallcalled El Corte Ingles.  We decided to go down and find something to eat.  This place has seven stories above ground and four below, including a metro station and a cinema and a hge supermarket.  This place rates as a tourist attraction in Lisbon.  We toured the supermarket and found our favorite decaf cappacinos.  We had lunch and then decided we were tired of walking and went to a movie.  Saw Michael Keaton in Birdman.  Weird, but excellent acting by all.  After the movie we hopped on the metro and rode back down the hill to Rossio Square.  From there we strolled over to a little street just off the square and found the famous cherry liqueur bar.

Only three people can fit in this bar, so most everybody goes in gets their drink and comes back outside to drink it.  We met new friends here.  They all work at a hostel just up the street.  They were very friendly and took our picture and talked and talked.  They guy standing next to Terry was from Brazil, but the rest were from Portugal, Lisbon and other cities.

friendly lively crowd

After finishing our drink we walked on down the street which is supposed to have a lot of restaurants, which it did.  We walked back and on into another square to a hotel which has a rooftop terrace for coffee and wine and thought we would go up.  Oops not open today.  The square next to it is full of weird founntains that look like they are made out of junk,  but appears to be a very family friendly park.

We found an italian restaurant during our stroll so we headed back there for dinner.  It was quite good and then strolled back through the Rossio Square on our way home

THe train station at night

and the fountain at Rossio Square