Yesterday we rode the Metro to/from the Lisbon waterfront, today we walked to Baxia, ate lunch at an Indian restaurant, climbed to Bario Alto, walked around up there, enjoyed a neat park and, walked down to Baxia again to catch the Metro home.

We started walking west towards the Meseu Calouste Gulbenkian which is about two miles from our hotel. We didn't make it because we got distracted by the new Campo Pequeno which opened today. Campo Pequeno is the bull fighting ring in Lisbon. The new version has three levels of shops, theaters, restaurants and stores uner the ring. It is quite a spectacular structure with, of all things, a Moorish theme, which it inherited from the old ring.

Campo Pequeno

An 'artist' cow near Campo Pequeno

Campo Pequeno was not the first stunning building we saw on today's walk. There is an absolutly incredible new building only half a mile west of here. It is huge, has beautiful grounds and a stunning interior atrium, and there is no indication anywhere around it what it is for. It looks like somebody spend a great deal of money building it!

Another bank building in north Lisbon

There are also a lot of beautiful old buildings still left in Lisbon, despite an obvious construction boom and a number of striking new buildings. Unfortunately, there are even more boring new buildings, but still, it is an interesting city to walk around in. And we walked a lot of it today!

A monument to M. Pombal who restored Lisbon after the big earthquake

After exploring some neat buildings west of Campo Pequeno, we headed south west on Av. de Republica to the bottom of Parque Edwardo VII, and then southeast down Av. de Liberade to Baixa. This walk took several hours, but we saw, and photographed a lot of Lisbon.

Walking down the Av. da Liberdade towards Baixa

When we reached Baixa, we were hungry so we stopped for a good meal at an Indian restaurant. Then we climbed to Bario Alto. The Funiculator - cable car built to climb the steep hill - was not running so we walked up a steep hill for several blocks. One of my favorite parks in Lisbon is at the top of that climb, but it was closed for major renovation ;-{, so we walked on through Bario Alto's narrow streets to another park.

A building next to the park we rested in in Bario Alto

A neat shade tree in a park in Bario Alto

This park has a great shade tree with benches all aoround, a large fountain, lots of places to sit and watch or visit or play cards, and the Museu da Aqua which shows the history of Lisbon's water supply. We sat and watched and enjoyed the peace and beauty of the park.

Looking south to the river

When we left the park, we wandered around Bario Alto then headed abck for the steep climb down.

A flat street in Bario Alta

Tile on the front of the yellow building

Looking from Bario Atlto, across Baixa, to Alfama

Although the park was closed, a street heading down beside it offers almost as good a view of Baixa and Alfama, so we stopped there to take pictures before going down to Catch the Metro back to our hotel.