Portugal - LISBON BOTANICAL GARDEN and RANDOM WALK - MyShadowProductions #197

Olá again, I am back in Aurora, IL.

Thankfully, Thursday February 6 was uneventful, just filled with a lot of walking, waiting, sitting, checking the United App, etc., aka a Travel Day. Lisbon to Newark was about 7.5 hrs in the air and Newark to Chicago about 135 minutes :)

As expected, back to much colder temperatures, different kinds of precipitation (snow, sleet, freezing rain) and  cloudy skies, but I regained the 6 hours “of my life” that I lost on the time change going :)

Before I share more about Portugal there are a few little things I want to put out there.

I guess I flew on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner on the Newark/Lisbon flights because the planes had “dimmable windows” not the pull down/up shades. It seems like a good idea, but either design I wish the person sitting at the window seat would keep the shades open so I can look over from my aisle seat and get a few glimpses of “the outside” :) 

Because of the long flight times from Newark/Lisbon there was a meal service. On the way there the Flight Attendant said the choices were Chicken or Pasta, a passenger in front of me asked what kind of pasta, the Flight Attendant said he wasn’t sure but it was “curly”, really?? I chose chicken :)

There are more things I could “get off my chest” but life goes on :)

Ok, back to Portugal. Sunday, Jan 26 was probably my least active day, it just turned out that way. It was less active but still interesting.

Lisbon has several “botanical gardens” and I chose the Lisbon Botanical Garden (also called University of Lisbon Botanical Garden?) because it seemed less “formal” than the others and worked out well logistically with my hotel location and walkability towards older sections of Lisbon after the visit.

Click Here for a Video created from my photos on the Botanical Gardens adventure. It was a windy day and some of those very tall palm trees were shedding some of their dead palms :), it all worked out though, just added to the adventure. It also turned out that Admission was free that day, a nice little treat even though their regular admission fee of 4 euros for seniors seemed very reasonable.

After the Gardens I chose to just meander my way through Bairro Alto, the Bica Funicular, the Miradouro do Adamastor, underwhelming Green Street and plenty of Street Art ending up at my favorite Metro Subway Station (Baixa Chiado) with its series of 4 long escalator sections to get to the “underground” :)

Bica Funicular

Green Street

Fixer Upper??

CLICK HERE for a Video created from my photos on that little trek.

Maybe you noticed the Street Art with the blue and white tiles? Like these:

The artist is O Gringo (click for his website) and I just thought his art was cool, sometimes taking a few minutes to focus on and see what was being represented.

Here are some photos from my next Post:

Have a great day, raise your hand when you have digested this Post, more to come !!