A Visitors Guide for Travelling to Lisbon, Portugal

Lisbon is the main capital of Portugal, a beautiful country in Europe visited by many tourists. Many tourists are searching for countries where you have a great chance of good weather. Lisbon offers you almost every year a summer with plenty of sunshine and you can see it as a surplus for your travel. The sunshine offers you the possibility to enjoy more of all the beautiful attractions of this city.

Good weather is not the only reason that this city is so popular in Europe. Lisbon is a popular place in Europe for many different interests. This city has many historical buildings, the food is delicious and music lovers can enjoy the well known "Fado Music".

MUSIC
Portugal is popular for its Fado Music. This genre of music is called "the heart of the Portugese soul". There are two different styles of Fado music, solo or with a group. In Lisbon Fado will always be sung solo; in Coimbra you will find a different style and often performed by groups accompanied with guitarists who play the classical guitar (viola) and the Portugese guitar.

Amalia Rodriguez is one of the most popular singers of Fado music and can be called "the queen of Fado music". She made this genre popular worldwide during the twentieth century and has been recognized defining the style of Fado music.

Even when you don't like this music, it is worthwhile to go to a Fado show. Lisbon is one of the two cities in Portugal which is associated with Fado music and a "Fado show" can't be missed. The sound is much better compared with a similar show in your hometown.

HISTORICAL BUILDINGS, MONUMENTS AND GARDENS
1. Gardens
Lisbon is a wonderful place for visiting gardens and enjoying the beauty of flowers and plants. Everyone can relax there and walk in the parks of these gardens. There is plenty of choice but I suggest visiting these two gardens:

The Ajuda Botanical Garden
This botanical garden is the first one of Portugal and built in 1768. There is a collection of more than 2500 beautiful plants you can admire. When you walk in this garden you will find the Baroque fountain decorated with serpents, fish and mythical creatures. This garden houses trees of more than a century old and you can have a breath taking view of the tagus river.

The Estufia Fria Garden
This garden, created in 1910, can be considered as one of the highlights in Lisbon and is located in Parque Eduardo VII. A beautiful collection of tropical plants is housed in the cold greenhouse. The Estufia Fria Garden is a romantic garden containing different plants of flowers from all over the world.

2. HISTORICAL BUILDINGS AND MONUMENTS
Lisbon offers you plenty of historical buildings and monuments. It is impossible to visit all of them. It is necessary to make a selection according to your interests and the time you stay there.

Estrela Basiliqua
This beautiful church is built in a neo classique and baroque style in the 18th century. This basiliqua is located on one of the many hills of Lisbon and is an eye-catching monument of Lisbon. Queen Mary I gave the order to build this church. She wanted that a church was built if she bored a son. Unfortunately her son Jose died two years before the basiliqua was finished.

Belem
This area in Lisbon is located not far from the center and contains many tourist attractions. You can spend an entire day in Belem. The tower of Belem can be called the symbol of Lisbon and almost everyone who visits Lisbon will take a picture of this beautiful monument. This monument can be considered as an art work built in late Portugese gothic style.

Some other important monuments in this area are "Padrao des Descrobimentos" (a monument with a height of 50 meters and commemorate the 500th anniversary of Henry the navigator. The Jeronimos Monastry is an amazing building in Belem and is world known and contains a beautiful achievement of the Monueline style. This monastry and the tower of Belem are classified by the Unesco as a World Heritage Site.

Important museums
Lisbon has plenty of museums. Some suggestions are:
- The Nationional Art Museum contains plenty of valuable artworks from the 14th to the 20th century.
- The Aqueduct of the Free Waters is a water museum and built in the 18th century. The aqueduct has the tallest arc with a height of 65 meters. The total length of this aqueduct is 36 miles (58km) and was made of the 109 tallest arcs in the world at that moment. This water museum gives an explanation of this complex water supply system that was used during the 18th century.
- The National Costume Museum contains a collection of more than 20.000 clothes or costumes of different centuries

FOOD AND DRINK
Fish is delicious in Portugal. They offer dishes with a high variety of fishes. Dishes with crab, shrimp, lobs, octopus, oysters and sardines are popular fish dishes. There are many fish restaurants near the heaven of Lisbon.
When you prefer eating meat, cozido a portugeso is a good alternative. This is a stew with a variety of different meats (meat, pork or chicken) and vegetables.
Wine is the most consumed drink in Portugal and almost everyone enjoys a glass of wine with their meal.

RELIGION
The religion is Portugal in catholic. When you want to enter a church in Lisbon you need to pay attention to the right dress codes. It is not allowed to wear a short and women need to cover some parts of their body. The rules are more flexible and you can enter most churches in trousers where your knees are covered.

Lisbon is a wonderful place for a city trip and offers plenty of attractions to enjoy. The Lisbon coast, the perfect climate, beautiful buildings and monuments, gardens, and last but not least the excellent food and wine are reasons enough to visit this beautiful city in Europe.

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By Erik Van Tongerloo