Lisbon: Castle and Alfama

Gateway to the castle grounds.

The last neighborhood to write about is the Alfama. This neighborhood is the oldest and is a labyrinth of narrow streets, alleys and steps wrapped around the hills below the Moorish castle. Barry and I got lost going up the hill and back down again but being lost doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t know where you are.

We headed up one morning but when we got to the castle, there was a long line to get in. We decided to explore the Alfama instead.

Castle walls

Old wall near the castle

We wound our way through small streets and eventually found signs for a mirador which in these parts is a viewpoint. Here we had refreshments in the courtyard which was surrounded by 2 churches. One was nothing more than tiled rooms so I didn’t stay. The other, more beautiful one was busy that day doing baptisms and the church was full of families dressed very formally. No photo ops there. However, we did have nice views to look at.

View to the south

View to the north

We did go into a church that was just outside the castle grounds and it was lovely.

We went back to the Alfama a second time since we passed so many interesting restaurants. There was one in particular that caught our eye and we thought we had remembered how to find it. After several attempts on the narrow streets, we did indeed find it and had a nice meal. Our waiter spoke 6 languages and it was interesting to hear him speak to others in Portuguese, some in French and also German in addition to his impeccable English.

The Alfama is also home to Fado which you may know is a famous Portuguese entertainment style with a guitar and sorrowful singing. Although many tourists like to see this, it is not our cup of tea although we could hear it down the street while we were having dinner.

There are not a lot of photos in this section. It is hard to capture the narrow streets and to be frank, they are often not very nice to look at.