One of the appeals of this particular cruise aboard Ventura in 2024 was that it included an overnight stay in Portugal’s capital city, Lisbon, which we’d visited before and very much enjoyed, taking a tour of the aqueduct system and a walking tour at that time. Very similar to the Spanish stop at Vigo, which we’d just sailed away from the evening before, on this cruise visit we decided we’d like to do our own thing, although only after a little bit of looking at the map to see what was interesting.
The thing we decided we’d like to do was visit the Belém Tower, something we knew was popular and often had long queues, but since we were under no real time constraints we thought would be a sensible target to aim for. We didn’t want to take a taxi there if there were better public transport options, having already discounted walking the nearly nine kilometres there (and nine kilometres back) in Lisbon’s warmth. There was a train option not too far from the cruise ship, and this was what we were going to do until we saw the bus routes offered by the Hop-On, Hop-Off operators in the terminal and realised one stopped at the tower. We’d be able to buy a ticket that lasted through the next day too so could get our money’s worth of it the following day, and we’d get to sightsee some of the capital city. And we’d never taken a Hop-On, Hop-Off bus before either, so a new experience to check off the list. Of course, you’d already worked all this out because the post’s title has somewhat given it away.
So this first post of several that will cover what we got up to during a two-day stop in Lisbon will feature sights from the top deck of the Hop-On, Hop-Off bus we were on. Gray Line, if you need to know. There were a few operators, there were different routes available, and the pricing really depended on what you wanted to do so there’s no point mentioning any of that even before you factor in how things will likely have changed by the time you read this. This is a travelogue to give you an idea of what happened to us, not a guide you should actually rely on. This also isn’t one of those infuriating articles that treats you like a salivating imbecile by saying things like “read on to see if we made it to Belém Tower.” We didn’t.
In the first photo below you can see how close the Hop-On, Hop-Off bus boarding area was to the cruise terminal entrance and to our ship, Ventura, just beyond.
The first part of the bus route took us away from where we wanted to end up, heading north-eastwards towards the Viaduto da Cruz da Pedra which crosses over the train tracks that side of the cruise port. Buildings were in various states of disrepair here with nothing particularly noteworthy but we did come within sight of the dome of the National Pantheon rising up the nearby hill and we would be visiting that the following day.
While we drove past buildings with the typically Portuguese tiling over their exteriors and other buildings of architectural interest – at least to me – we could listen in to some commentary of the city’s history as well as fado music. I’d never heard fado music before and I can confidently say that if I never hear any fado music again it will be too soon.
There weren’t many buildings of historical interest that we passed, or if there were then I tuned out the commentary because of the accompanying musical torture, but I was happy enough to see modernist architecture butting up next to older styles; Art Nouveau and Art Deco existing side-by-side.
The Marquis of Pombal Square, despite its name, is a roundabout. This endeared it to us because we live in a city with a place still known to us as the Johnson & Johnson roundabout even though it’s a huge, multi-lane, four-way junction. The marquis atop the monument is Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, a rather unpleasant politician who was a big fan of autocracy and despotism – you still get them – but who did bring about some reforms that the Portuguese people were pleased about – port production in the Douro region, for instance – and who was praised for how swiftly he was able to arrange for Lisbon’s reconstruction following its terrible 1755 earthquake. The monument was erected in the early decades of the twentieth century.
A familiar sight greeted us after a pleasant drive through a long avenue shaded by trees. The Teatro Eden, now a hotel, was something I’d been very impressed by when we’d been taking our walking tour on our previous visit to Lisbon. This area was a square dedicated to the restoration of the independence of Portugal in 1640 following a period of rule by the Spanish. The 1886 monument lists the dates of battles leading up to independence.
Another familiar sight was that of the terraced area with fountain and viewpoint, Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara. We’d actually started our walking tour of Lisbon here after emerging from the tunnels of the city’s reservoir system.
Our Hop-On, Hop-Off bus continued down to the coastline now, following the train tracks and passing under the Ponte 25 de Abril bridge that we’d cruised under before, and would be cruising under again the next day.
The Belém Tower was now only a few stops away but you already know that we don’t make it there. When we reached the Palace of Ajuda we decided to actually hop off and visit that first, reasoning that we could simply walk to the tower afterwards or catch the next bus if the timing was right. We were the only people to get off the bus. In fact, other than at the square dedicated to the restoration of independence I’m not sure anybody hopped off at all. Now, perhaps everyone was just waiting to get to the tower too, but I suspect a lot of tourists simply ride the bus and return to the ship. Although I will concede that maybe everyone had decided that continuous fado music was all they really needed in life. I didn’t spot anyone getting clonked on the head by trees on the open top deck but it’s certainly possible that I missed it.
In the next post in this series we’ll pop inside the Palace of Ajuda and the Royal Treasury Museum next door to it. These were fantastic.