Portugal: A walk around Lisbon

The Fado Museum

We've just arrived in Lisbon and we weren't quite sure what to do when Ange came up with the inspired idea of walking from our hotel to the Fado Museum. It struck me that I could just take photos of whatever we stumbled across. (I am always on the look out, but usually I have some definite targets as well.) So off we went from our hotel heading south along Avenida da Liberdade towards the centre.

The first notable sight was this tram, adapted to operate as a funicular.

A little further along we were taken in by two men doing some work – presumably laying the cobbles that are such a feature of Lisbon's pavements - in bronze .

Next was the marvelous façade of the Rossio Station, built in the Manueline style in 1886-7.

We crossed Praça Dom Pedro IV (also popularly known as Rossio) with its tiled ground that made feel as though you were walking over waves.

The lower end of the square offered our first glimpse of the Castle of St George – where we started our first exploration of Lisbon 26 years ago. I read that it was much restored towards the end of the 20^th century.

We climbed up and followed a winding road passing beneath the castle. There were some very attractive house with tiled facades in the Portugese style. I especially liked this one.

We reached a viewpoint and enjoyed our first view over the enormously wide river Tagus …

… and descended to reach the Fado Museum. It was an interesting experience, starting with film clips of (presumably famous) Fado singers and guitarists trying to answer the question "What is Fado". They were generally inclined to mystification – head scratching, you can't be taught, you just sort of pick it up, and so on. We listened to several songs which we enjoyed and we learned that as well as a normal guitar, a round, deep 12 string model is in wide use.

Leaving the Museum we headed west a bit inland from the river. I was very taken by the upper storeys of this building, which had an art nouveau feeling. (I realised that there were probably other art nouveau buildings in the city and wished I had had the wit to do some research. Most unlike me!)

A little further along was the intriguing Casa dos Bicos (the House of Points).

It dates from the 16th century and was one of the few buildings not to be completely destroyed by the notorious earthquake of 1755. It is thought to have been inspired by the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara. The building is now a cultural centre.

We headed uphill now to reach Lisbon's cathedral (or Sé), which we remembered well from our previous visit. It is very awkwardly located with tram lines going right up to the entrance and round the left side of the building. We didn't go in, remembering it as rather plain.

We dipped back down to reach the large Praca do Comercio, or Palace Square, right on the waterfront. It is enclosed on three sides by colonnaded buildings in a uniform style. It was rebuilt after the 11755 earthquake. In the centre is an equestrian statue of King José I, inaugurated in 1775.

We left the square through the Triumphal Arch which was not completed until 1873. This is the view from Rua Augusta.

Further along the street in a turning on the left is the rather wonderful Santa Justa Elevator. It was opened in 1902 and links the lower and upper parts of the city.

We continued along Rua Augusta and at the top went to the left to re-enter Rossio square. These nymphs were my final shot of the day.

Conditions: bright and mild, becoming cloudy.

Distance: somewhere between four and five miles.

Rating: four stars. A wonderful open-ended ramble.

Portugal: Évora - city centre

The Roman Temple

Having walked around the walls of Évora yesterday, today we are seeing some of the main sights of the city, starting with the most astonishing, the Roman Temple. It used to be known as the Temple of Diana, but this is now seen as incorrect. It has fourteen columns in the Corinthian style and dates from the first century AD. It is the only such building in Portugal.

To the left is the Palace of the Dukes of Cadaval. The grand doorway leads into the Palace's Church of St John the Evangelist, a rather lovely building whose walls were all covered in azulejos.

The museum next door had quite an interesting medley of contents. We especially liked these Chinese figures.

Next we had a brief look at the University of Evora, the second oldest in Portugal after Coimbra. It was founded in 1559 by the Jesuit order and closed in 1779 when the Jesuits were suppressed. It was only reopened as a university almost 200 years later in 1973. (It seems that the buildings were used for educational purposes in the interim.) The main building has a rather severe look from the outside ...

... but the main entrance at the far end is rather lovely and inside is a beautiful Renaissance cloister.

From here we headed towards the Cathedral or Sé. It was begun 20 years after the Christians defeated the Moors in 1165. The facade is similar in appearance to the Sé of Coimbra.

The great surprise is that you can climb a steep staircase and walk on the roof.

It was a bit hazy for views of the city, but there was an interesting view of the cloister - we thiought it rather heavy-handed.

On the way down there was this fantastic view of a a series of finials.

From the Cathedral we wandered through the narrow streets to reach the 16th century Square of the Moura Gate. It was difficult to appreciate it properly because the central fountain was under restoration and part of the square was cordoned off to store materials. The central fountain was intriguing.

To conclude our exploration found our way through more narrow streets to the Praca de Giraldo, the city's main square. It is a large a spacious area surrounded by pale coloured buildings.

At the far end is the attractive 16th century church of Santa Antao with its fountain. The square is effectively a monument to Fearless Geraldo Geraldes, the man who conquered Evora from the Moors in 1165.

We had by no means exhausted Évora's charms at this point, but we felt that we had gained a good sense of the city. It was time to head to Lisbon to see how it compared to our visit of 1993.

Conditions: sunny at first, but quickly clouding over.

Rating: five stars.

Nottingham

Nottingham Council House (City Hall)

We are visiting our friends Sally and Malcolm near Nottingham which, in an unplanned way, offered a wonderful opportunity to progress my City Walks project. My goal is to take a walk in all of England's 51 cities (I have managed 38 so far). We based our walk on an excellent post on a blog called My Lifelong Holiday.

We started at the Nottingham playhouse. The current building was opened in 1963 and was the work of the architect Peter Moro. Its modernist style was controversial and in 1985 it was "refurbished" to be less brutalist. However, in 2005 it was restored in its original style.

On the left of the theatre is Anish Kapoor's astonishing sky mirror. It was installed in 2001 and voted the city's favourite landmark in 2007. It offers a rather wonderful upside-down view ... but of what?

The answer is the nearby Albert Hall. It was built as a concert hall, but from 1909 (when it was rebuilt) until 1984 it functioned as a Methodist Mission. Since then it has been a Conference Hall.

We turned left into Derby Road to see one of Nottingham's best sights (strangely not mentioned in the My Lifelong Holiday post): the (Roman Catholic) Cathedral of St Barnabas (1841-44), by the great Victorian architect A W N Pugin. Because of the position of the sun, this was the only viable angle to photograph the outside: you can deduce the existence of several chapels at the east end.

The nave is plainer than we expected. Most of Pugin's decorative scheme was destroyed in the upheaval that surrounded the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65 (which can very briefly be summarised as a drive to modernise the Catholic church - Mass was now celebrated in English for example) when the old high altar was discarded, and most of the elaborate decorative scheme was painted over. To be honest, we thought the result was still quite attractive in its understated way.

However, when we visited the one part of the Cathedral which survives in its original state, the Blessed Sacrament chapel, we realised just how much had been lost. The chapel is an exquisite example of Pugin's style. It could of course equally be described as a bit over the top.

Leaving the Cathedral we continued up the road and then followed the surprising instruction to walk through a car park and into a dark entrance way. We emerged into the Park Tunnel - a seemingly little-known route, dating from 1855, to the area of Nottingham known as The Park which once the hunting grounds of the Castle.

We didn't go all the way through, but instead climbed some steps which brought us to Park Terrace, a fine residential street, which marks one side of The Park. Directly in front was this handsome Victorian house.

The rest of the street had large mansions on the right and this handsome group of uniform semis on the left hand side. (There are more out of shot.)

At the end we veered away from The Park, which was a shame as it would surely have repaid a gentle stroll, and headed towards Nottingham Castle, currently under restoration. The original castle was largely demolished after the Civil War and was set on fire in 1831 by rioters protesting against poor living standards. It was later rebuilt as a museum, which remains its role. This picture was taken through the protective wire mesh fence and into the sun, hence its poor quality.

We walked along Castle Road, passing a statue of Robin Hood dating from 1951. A bit of a cliché really.

Further along there was a fine view of Castle Rock (not to be confused with Casterly Rock in GoT).

Just beyond the rock is the celebrated Trip to Jerusalem pub, built in 1189 and famous as the oldest pub in England.

I took a small detour to the right soon after this to catch a glimpse of Fitzroy House, Castle Meadow Road, an HM Revenue and Customs Office which I often visited in my management consulting days. It was well-regarded as a piece of architecture in its day, but I always felt that the circular towers (which I think only contained staircases) had the character of a high security prison in the US. According to the Nottingham Post, it seems that that whole operation is to move into the city centre by 2021.

We now headed along Castle Gate and across Maid Marian Way, passing another old pub, The Royal Children (James I's children, that is). In the continuation of this street there was a wonderful Congregational Church.

At the cross-roads of Albert Street and Listergate I admired this wonderful building, although I have found out nothing about it.

We continued along the unusually named Low Pavement (Chesterfield is the only other town to have a street with the same name), passing  this lovely building, again name unknown. (You will have realised that by now we have departed from the My Lifelong Holiday post - time was running short.)

WE continued ahead to reach the majestic Adams Building, a former lace mill dating from the 1800’s now Nottingham (FE) College.

Continuing to the right we reached St Mary's church on our left, in the Lace Market district. It is the oldest religious foundation in the City (dating in its present form from the late 15th century), the largest church after St Barnabas RC Cathedral and the largest medieval building in the city.

We turned right into High Pavement passing, on our left, the National Justice Museum, established in 1995 and located in the former Shire Hall and County Gaol.

Further down on the left in the continuation of High Pavement, the wonderfully named Weekday Cross, is the Nottingham Contemporary art gallery which opened in 2009. The building, by Caruso St John Architects, was given a RIBA Award. I wasn't totally impressed, but it doubtless requires a visit before making a judgement.

Now up Fletchergate and into Victoria Street where we spotted this wonderful art nouveau shop on the right. A passerby very kindly informed us that the building was designed by Florence Boot, wife of Jessie Boot, founder of the Boots company. The top section of the ground floor windows is sublime.

Further down on the right, opposite the arcade which surprisingly runs through the middle of the Council House (i.e. City Hall) is Ye Flying Horse, established as a pub in the late 15th century. It is now (sadly) the entrance to a shopping mall, but still a splendid sight.

We emerged into the vast square which stands in front of the Council House, Old Market Square. The Council House (see photo at the head of this post) The Council House was designed by Thomas Howitt and built between 1927 and 1929.

In case you are wondering, the six-metre tall sculpture of a giant red and white hand (it is is catching an ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 ball) is a temporary advertisement. It will remain in place for the duration of Trent Bridge’s Cricket World Cup fixtures. It also features a wristband with the emblems of the nations who are playing in Nottingham during the tournament; England, Australia, Pakistan, West Indies and Bangladesh.

Over to the left of the Council House, as you look at, was this fine late Victorian building.

We unfortunately failed to see the statue of Brian Clough.

Conditions: warm and sunny.

Distance: maybe 3 miles.

Rating: five stars. Thoroughly enjoyable and interesting.