 |
| Our apartment in the Alfama district |
We arrived yesterday and got a cab from the airport to the
Alfama district. We'll be staying here for the next two weeks. Our very friendly airbnb host greeted us at the door. The apartment is lovely and airy with a view of the Tejo river, a welcome site as our place in Istanbul looked out on a wall several stories high. It did become the scene of a gripping small world drama but more about that later.
 |
Cat on the ledge
a view of the Alfama from our apartment |
The Alfama district is the oldest district in Lisbon and a labyrinth of narrow, winding stone streets. During Moorish rule it was home to fishermen and
the poor. The Alfama was also the only part of the city to survive the earthquake and tsunami
of 1775 which almost completely destroyed the rest of Lisbon. I can't imagine how horrifying it must
have been watching the tsunami pull the water back revealing, according to records from the time, "
a sea floor littered with lost cargo and shipwrecks".
Ok. Gotta go. It's time for a customary first day in a new country, make-do, shitty sandwich then a walk. If you want to read more about Lisbon, I recommend reading the Never Ending Voyage. They do
a fine post on Lisbon. Though I travel a lo t these days, this isn't really a travel blog. And there's always my go-to site, Wikipedia, if you want to read
more about Lisbon. Cheers.
9 comments:
Seems like in history, people were always fleeing to Spain, or fleeing from Spain, including Bishop De Gregorio who fled to Rome to tattle to the Pope that the Spanish were trying to set him up as "anti-Pope." Where is Father Guido Sarducci when you need him?
That looks beautiful. I hope the kitty made it through the day OK. Have fun!
Bishop De Gregorio? A relative of yours? Unfortunately, Father Guido could not help him but Lazlo took a swing at it.
The kitty is A-OK. Obviously a ledge walker from way back.
Let's hope I'm not a direct descendant--but I like that after that little episode, he had a very successful career in the Vatican.
LOL. "They call me 'Ledge Walker.'"
The Vatican is a very absorbent place.
Ledge Walker sends his hellos.
By the way, I meant to say that camera of yours is pretty damn good. I'm kind of amazed at the technical quality of your pictures. (As opposed to artistic quality, which in your case is always good.)
You're too kind. But... I do love this camera. The counter-intuitive thing about it is that they lowered the pixel count in order to improve clarity. Go figure but so far, so good. The one knock I have is the battery. It's got a really really short life. The battery in my last camera, the Sony, was virtually deathless. I got out of the habit of charging it at all. The Lumix battery is kaput in two days.
My Sony camera is like that. I am always surprised at how much battery life is left. But--main thing is it lasts longer than one day, so you probably won't be left with a dead camera some time after lunch.
Oops sometimes I go weeks without even thinking of Flickr.
I haven't gotten caught with a dead battery since the first time. That was way too painful to want to repeat but I am scarred.
Hey hey....don't forget flickr. It's a real photo site. Instagram is provocative but all novelty. Here and gone. Promotional activity, girls endless posting themselves wearing butt thongs..boring things like that.
What do those girls want from me???
Post a Comment