-Hi.
I'm Rick Steves, back with more of the best of Europe.
This time, we're going local in Portugal's capital.
It's Lisbon.
Thanks for joining us.
Like no other European capital, Lisbon, built with the riches of New World discoveries, has a rustic charm.
The city is a complex mix.
Immigrants from its former empire, a vibrant young democracy after a long period of fascism, and money from the European Union all combine to give Lisbon bounce.
We'll remember great navigators, eat lots of cod, climb castle ruins with a commanding view, savor pastries hot out of the oven, discover back lanes, marvel at an exquisite church built with spice taxes, join locals in a stylish food court, enjoy fado music... [ Woman singing in Portuguese ] ...and sip fine port.
Portugal shares the Iberian Peninsula with its neighbor, Spain.
The capital city, Lisbon, sits on the Tejo River.
We'll take a side trip to Sintra, but, first, we'll explore Lisbon's four historic districts -- the Baixa, Bairro Alto, Alfama, and Belm.
Lisbon was originally populated by Romans in ancient times, then by Moors from Africa in the Middle Ages, but the city's glory days were the 15th and 16th centuries, when explorers like Vasco da Gama opened up new trade routes to Asia, making Lisbon one of Europe's richest cities.
Today, Lisbon is a city of about 600,000 on the yawning mouth of the Tejo River.
With its iconic bridge and statue of Christ overlooking its huge port, it welcomes ships from around the globe and still feels like Europe's gateway to the world.
With its characteristic hills and trolleys, Lisbon has a San Francisco vibe.
Today, Lisbon is a ramshackle-but-charming mix of now and then.
Trolleys rattle up and down its hills.
[ Bell clangs ] Noble statues mark grand squares.
Locals enjoy venerable cafs.
And a once-neglected harbor front has been revitalized.
Lisbon's history is dominated by one cataclysmic event -- an earthquake in 1755.
It was so strong, they say candles flickered as far away as Ireland.
30,000 people died as two-thirds of the city was flattened.
It was actually three disasters in rapid succession.
After the quake, fires raged through the city.
Then, a massive tsunami slammed into the harbor front.
The scarred pillars of the Church of Sao Domingos evoke the horror of that day.
It was All Saints' Day, and most of the population was in church.
This is one of the few buildings from before 1755 that survive.
The city was reconstructed under the energetic and eventually dictatorial leadership of its prime minister, the Marqus de Pombal.
Lisbon's downtown is almost entirely post-1755.
The Baixa, or Lower Town, sits between two hills.
At the top, the Avenue of Liberty provides Lisbon with a proud Champs-Elyses-type spine.
With wide sidewalks and plenty of trees, it feels and functions like a park.
From there, a series of fine squares are in full bloom for our springtime visit.
They lead through one of Europe's first planned city centers to the harbor and the vast harbor-front square.
Before the earthquake, this square was the site of a huge royal palace.
Today, it's another wide-open public space.
The grandiose arch stands as an arch of triumph.
A statue of the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama represents Lisbon's trade-fueled Golden Age.
And a statue of the Marqus de Pombal recalls the devastated city's impressive recovery after the quake.
Pombal rebuilt the city on a grid street plan -- fast, cheap and earthquake-proof.
The spartan and utilitarian architecture, named Pombaline after Pombal, feels almost military.
That's because it is.
The Baixa we see today was reconstructed by Pombal's military engineers, whose experience was in building garrison towns in Portuguese colonies overseas.
The new Lisbon featured the architecture of conquest, economical and simple to assemble, with all the pieces easy to ship.
The 18th-century buildings you'd see in former Portuguese colonies like Mozambique and Brazil are interchangeable with the buildings here in Lisbon.
The buildings are all uniform, with the same number of floors and standard facades.
Inside, they were designed to survive the next earthquake.
Outside, decoration was limited to wrought iron and tiles.
Lisbon's churches were rebuilt, but had to fit Pombal's austere scheme.
You hardly notice their facades, but, stepping inside, Pombal's austerity is replaced with Baroque splendor.
With its distinctive sidewalks, the downtown feels cohesive.
The black-and-white cobble design is an art form and uniquely Portuguese.
To this day, patterns dating from the 19th century must be chosen from a book of traditional designs.
Wherever you stroll, don't forget to look down.
Plenty of character and color is packed into Lisbon, and much of it is edible.
To be sure we get the most out of our visit, I'm joined by my friend and fellow tour guide, Cristina Duarte.
-This is my favorite spot in town -- the grocery store, where you find cod.
-Take me inside?
-Yes.
-This is amazing.
-You see these fish?
This is cod -- bacalhau.
It's our national dish.
-So, your favorite place in town.
Cod.
You must like cod.
-Yes, a lot.
All the Portuguese do.
So, this is salted, as you see.
-Uh-huh.
-And it's dry.
And we can eat it, like, so many different ways.
You can find it in any restaurant in town.
-So, in the old days, they could preserve it?
-In salt and then dry it.
-And then how do you prepare it?
-Well, you have to soak it for 24 hours to 48 hours before in water and changing the water, and then you just cook it as a normal fish.
-So, if I go to a restaurant, what is the word I look for?
-Bacalhau.
-And I'll find it on menus?
-For sure.
[ Both laugh ] That's it.
-Ah, beautiful.
-This is one of the 365 ways of cooking cod that I told you.
-So, what do we have in this?
-In this, as you can see, it is codfish... -Mm-hmm.
-...potato, onion, and parsley, and then it is all deep-fried.
It's wonderful.
Bolinhos de bacalhau.
-Yeah.
-This is just the perfect snack, either in the morning or in the afternoon.
-It's like fast food in Portugal.
-Fast food in Portugal.
-Yeah.
-Mmm.
[ Bell rings ] -Cristina's favorite eating experiences take us all over town, so we're traveling by trolley.
Many of these have been clattering through town since the 1920s, somehow safely weaving within inches of parked cars as they climb Lisbon's many hills.
Lisbon's traditional market hall is our next stop and a joy to explore.
Locals still shop here for the freshest ingredients, but as is the case all over Europe, modern buying habits are forcing these old-time markets to evolve.
In order for the farmers' stalls to survive, markets are adding high-energy food courts.
Today, much of this market features branches of restaurants run by local celebrity chefs.
It's a youthful and trendy scene where you can enjoy a world of enticing dishes at great prices, and for us, it's the ideal lunch spot, mixing quality food, expedience, and fun shared tables.
The market stands at the base of another steep Lisbon hill.
It's too steep for a trolley, so we're hopping a funicular.
The Elevador da Bica funicular climbs through a rough-and-tumble neighborhood, where more tasty bites of Lisbon await.
Small, creative wine bars inject an inviting modernity into the old quarter.
Along with a warm welcome, you're sure to gain an appreciation of the local taste treats.
No visit to Lisbon is complete without sipping the favorite national drink -- port wine.
-Well, cod is the national food, but port is the national drink.
-I like that.
-And our server has complemented this nice tawny port with the right meats and cheeses.
Throughout Europe, places like this know how to combine traditional food and wine with a contemporary setting.
We're just a short trolley connection from the dessert course of our food crawl.
To save money, we're using the local transit pass.
You zap in... [ Beep ] ..and zap out.
[ Beep ] By the way, throughout Europe, pickpockets are hard at work on the buses and trolleys most popular and crowded with tourists, so enjoy the ride, but keep an eye on your belongings.
Next stop, custard pies.
This bakery is popular for their Pastis de Belm.
You'll find these treats all over Portugal, and they originated right here.
Behind the busy caf scene, a sweet sweatshop cranks out thousands of these tasty delights every day.
They tried mechanizing the process, but it just wasn't the same.
Each one is still carefully handmade.
Why are these so special?
It's a secret, proudly kept since 1837.
-No.
Get out.
-Stopping here is a ritual for me with every visit to Lisbon.
A sweet drink.
We'll cap our little food tour with a sweet drink.
Traditional hole-in-the-wall bars serve just one thing -- Ginjinha.
Let's have a drink.
-Let's have a drink.
[ Speaking Portuguese ] -You can order it with fruit or without.
I've noticed that most of the locals get it with.
What's the berry?
-The berry is a kind of cherry.
It's a sour cherry -- Ginja.
-So, the drink is Ginja?
-Ginjinha.
It's, like, a little berry in this -- -Sweet Portuguese cherry juice.
-Exactly.
It's, like, the fruit, sugar, alcohol, and then you make a sweet liqueur.
And [Speaking Portuguese] -What does that mean?
-Mmm.
"It's good, has cherries."
-So, if something is just really fantastic, you say?
-Really, really, really good.
You say [Speaking Portuguese] -Ah.
Crowning the hill overlooking the Lower Town is the Castle of St. George.
Lisbon's castle was first built by the Muslim Moors, who swept in from North Africa and conquered this region in the eighth century.
After Portugal beat the Moors in the 12th century, the castle became a royal palace.
While, today, the castle is just a barren shell, it's surrounded by a peaceful and inviting park with the city's best viewpoint.
Just outside the walls, Lisbon's salty sailors' quarter tumbles from the castle down to the river.
A popular terrace provides a captivating overview.
This is the Alfama, and it dates back over 1,000 years.
Its tangled street plan survived the great quake of 1755, making this neighborhood a cobbled playground of Old World color.
While new affluence and tourism is bringing inevitable change, bits of old character hang on.
And people who've lived here all their lives witnessing that change seem happy to chat.
-[ Speaking Portuguese ] -84 years old, she is.
-Nice.
How long has she lived in Alfama?
-[ Translating in Portuguese ] 80 years old... -[ Speaking Portuguese ] -Yeah.
She was born here.
-She was born here?
-Yes.
-On the other side of the Baixa stands the High Town, or Bairro Alto.
It's another characteristic and charming district.
To save a few steps, we're riding the Santa Justa Elevator.
Built to connect the Lower Town with the Bairro Alto, it was constructed in 1902, just a few years after its inspiration, the Eiffel Tower.
The Bairro Alto was laid out in the 16th century to house ship workers back when Lisbon was a maritime power, and its ships planted the Portuguese flag all over the globe.
Five centuries later, its character survives, as families who call the Bairro Alto home go back generations.
A popular stop nearby is the grand old A Brasileira Caf.
This caf retains the ambience it had back in the 1920s and '30s when it caffeinated the literary soul of Lisbon, and it's still a good place for a coffee break.
In the evening, the Bairro Alto buzzes with a thriving restaurant scene, and various restaurants serenade diners with the folk music of Lisbon's backstreets.
[ Woman singing Portuguese ] Traditionally, simple family-run restaurants entertained guests with fado music.
Since the mid-1800s, fado has been Portugal's blues -- mournful ballads about lost sailors, broken hearts, and bittersweet romance.
It's impromptu, informal.
Sometimes, the singer is just taking a break from the kitchen.
She's accompanied by a couple of musicians, one playing a 12-string Portuguese guitar.
We're dining a little more upscale with just the right seat for this intimate music.
These are songs of sadness, love, and hope.
[ Singing continues ] It's a distinctly Portuguese emotion called saudade, a kind of yearning or nostalgia.
[ Woman singing in Portuguese ] [ Music ends, applause ] Like industrial harbor fronts all across Europe, Lisbon's has recently been transformed into a people-friendly waterfront promenade, and from here, a trolley takes us farther along the waterfront to the district of Belm.
Belm survived the big earthquake of 1755.
Because of that, great buildings from Lisbon's pre-earthquake glory days, like the Belm Tower, still stand.
Back then, this tower protected Lisbon's harbor.
Today, it symbolizes the voyages that made Portugal so powerful five centuries ago.
This was the last sight sailors saw as they headed out into the unknown and the first they saw when they returned, bearing gold and spices.
The nearby Monument to the Discoveries, built in 1960 on the 500th anniversary of Henry the Navigator's death, is shaped like the ship that made it all possible -- the caravel.
It celebrates how exploring the world was a team effort.
Leading the charge is Prince Henry the Navigator, holding a model of his ship and a chart, followed by kneeling knights and soldiers who Christianized foreign lands with the sword.
Vasco da Gama stands tall, eyes on the horizon and hand on his weapon.
Magellan holds a circle representing the earth his ship famously circumnavigated.
Across the way is a naval museum, which shows how this little country once built a mighty empire.
Exhibits show the technology that Portugal used to become a leader in exploration and trade in the 15th and 16th centuries.
The caravel, the ultimate ship for exploring and trading, was Portugal's secret to success.
It was fast, small, and light, with sails that could pivot quickly.
Nimble and able to sail into the wind, it was ideal for sailing along coastlines.
The Portuguese became experts at navigating by the stars.
With ingenious tools like these, they could now sail away from the coast.
Equipped with this technology and his caravel, Vasco da Gama sailed around Africa to India.
Portugal's mastery of the sea had a huge impact.
Throughout the Middle Ages, Italy dominated European trade with the East, but within 10 years of Vasco da Gama's voyage around Africa to India, Italy's trade plummeted, and the seafaring nations on the Atlantic coast -- England, Holland, Spain, and Portugal -- emerged as Europe's economic powerhouses.
Next to the museum is the Jernimos Monastery with Lisbon's most impressive church.
King Manuel ruled during Portugal's Age of Discovery, around the year 1500.
He built this church and monastery as a thanks to God for the trade and wealth that resulted.
Manuel financed the construction by taxing spices brought back from Asia.
He built all of this on the site of a humble chapel where seafarers prayed before leaving on their frightening voyages.
The style of Manuel's church -- Manueline.
This style, while medieval, is on the cusp of the Renaissance.
Unlike earlier medieval churches, the interior is open and airy.
Palm-tree-like columns are slender rather than massive.
This uniquely Portuguese style reflects the wealth of the times and the many cultural influences of that age.
Manueline decoration is both ornate and symbolic, featuring motifs from the sea.
Monsters evoke the mystery of undiscovered lands.
A totem pole of indigenous faces celebrates Portuguese conquests.
And the ceiling, a Boy Scout handbook of knots, trumpets Portugal's nautical know-how.
This is Vasco da Gama's tomb.
In 1497, he spent an evening praying here for a safe voyage.
The next morning, he set sail with 4 state-of-the-art caravels like this and 150 men.
These lacy Manueline cloisters, my favorite in all of Europe, are the architectural highlight of Belm.
The sheer size of this monastic complex is a testament to the religious zeal that, along with money, propelled the Age of Discovery.
From Lisbon's ornate Rossio Station, we're popping out of town for a short side trip.
The station's busy with commuters coming and going.
We're venturing about 15 miles out, to the royal town of Sintra.
For centuries, Portugal's royals considered Sintra the perfect place to escape from Lisbon.
Now tourists do, as well.
Sintra is a mix of natural and man-made beauty -- fabulous mansions set amid luxurious gardens under craggy hilltops with grand views.
Aristocrats with money and a desire to be close to royalty built their extravagant homes in the same neighborhood.
Lord Byron called this bundle of royal fancies and aristocratic dreams a "glorious Eden."
A handy shuttle bus loops through town from the station, making Sintra's sights easy to reach.
Our first stop -- the Moorish Castle.
The approach is a gentle hike through an enchanted forest.
As you emerge from the forest, you see the first sign of the medieval fortifications.
Then we come upon the 1,000-year-old ruins.
These ramparts are a castle lover's dream come true.
Built by the Muslim Moors, the castle was taken by Christian Reconquista forces in the 1100s.
And what you'll climb on today, while dramatic, was significantly restored in more modern times.
Still, with a little imagination... [ Indistinct shouting, swords clanking ] ...I'm under attack 1,000 years ago.
Capping the hill, even higher than the Moorish Castle, is the fanciful Pena Palace.
Like other fanciful castles from the late 1800s scattered around Europe, this has nothing to do with defense and everything to do with the king's ego.
This is the world of Portugal's very romantic German-born Prince Ferdinand.
Ferdinand, whose cousins ruled England and Bavaria, was a royal typical of that age.
He took the ruins of a centuries-old monastery and built upon it the palace of his romantic dreams.
He ended up with a whimsical and eclectic mix of styles -- Gothic towers, Renaissance domes, Moorish arches, Manueline ornamentation, and playful fantasies.
The interior, with family portraits, dining-room table still set, and the king's cutting-edge technology, like a then-state-of-the-art telephone exchange, is an attempt to freeze-frame the day in 1910 that the royal family fled Portugal.
That was during a popular revolt that eventually led to today's modern republic.
The king would hardly recognize his realm today.
Portugal's capital city, while honoring its past, is embracing its future, and it's understandably an ever-more popular stop on any Iberian itinerary.
I hope you've enjoyed our look at Lisbon, from its days as a maritime superpower, to its relaxed and easy vitality today.
Thanks for joining us.
I'm Rick Steves.
Until next time, keep on travelin'.
-Over there.
-[ Speaking indistinctly ] ...and built upon it, the palace of his romantic dreams!
-Hey, hey, hey.
Hey.
-Calm down.
-[ Laughing ] Calm down.
-Okay.
-Keep it seemly.
-Okay.
-[ Laughs ] "Keep it seemly" travels.
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