Bairro Alto is a wonderful district with
multiple personalities making it worthy
of several visits during the day it's a
local working class place with
inexpensive small restaurants and many
fine shops and boutiques ranging from
the funky to the elegant and in the
evening it becomes the entertainment
center of Lisbon pulsating with
nightclubs and bars and this is the
place to come for fado the plaintive
mournful music of Portugal pour it out
in sad ballads until the wee hours a
really lovely time to be visiting viral
Alto is just about Twilight just before
dinner perhaps six o'clock seven eight
o'clock depending on the season and here
the section is beginning to come alive
the locals are out there walking their
dogs the laundry's hanging there
chatting they're drinking out on the
sidewalk the restaurants are just
getting started just opening up waiting
for customers you want to spend enough
time up here to see it right which means
having a walk during the day and then
coming back in the evening and have
another stroll it goes for only about
half a mile by half a mile so it's
really quite easy to get around and
thoroughly explore the streets are
arranged in a grid pattern and so the
best way to explore the Bairro Alto is
walk along one Street enjoy the views up
and down some of the side lanes do a
little bit of detouring
and then go over to the next major long
street walk along its length
do the same thing have a look left and
right as you're walking along and up and
down
and so forth back and forth back and
forth it's very easy to navigate here in
Bairro Alto as you're walking around
because there are four main streets and
they all run parallel to each other each
just one block apart those streets are
Atalaya
Baraka diario de noticias and Norte so
it's really quite simple and the little
side streets that connect them are
fascinating as well there's traverse'
doe poco de da da da there's feast ideas
traverse' das para some of them four
staircases some of them are just narrow
pedestrian lanes and they are almost
enjoyable your remaining walk through
this upper part of town the Bairro Alto
could take anywhere from an hour to the
rest of the day and evening depending on
your interests have a look at the
legendary service area Trinidad a it's a
huge restaurant and beer hall with 400
seats sprawling indoors and out through
many rooms and terraces and this beer
hall serves up excellent food and lots
of fun a lot of room here
sit down anytime mid-afternoon non-stop
it's open all day long and there's
numerous family operated tiny Tusker
scattered throughout Bairro Alto each
with just a few tables and maybe some
patient lines of folks waiting outside
the most popular spots some of Lisbon's
finest restaurants are in this
neighborhood
there's a wonderful terrace on the edge
of viral alto for looking out across the
city
it's the terrace of San Pedro de
alcântara
and you certainly want to walk over
there it's just a few blocks to get over
to see this Terrace you can sit down and
relax and have a beautiful view this
Terrace is a great spot to hang out
spend some time
watching the other people taking their
pictures everybody is angling to get
that perfect shot and in the afternoon
you'll find the lighting is ideal with
the sun shining all across the downtown
and onto the hill on the other side of
the Alfama you can't help but notice the
view of the impressive castle of st.
George up on top of the Alfama Hill this
too is one of the major attractions of
the city around the corner from the
viewing Terrace you'll find the Church
of st. Roco with one of the country's
most magnificent baroque interiors
featuring an illusionist acceding mural
many statues and an outstanding altar
the extremely detailed Chapel of st.
John the Baptist is an eye-popping
extravaganza of marble gold silver and
precious stones that was actually built
at the Vatican in Rome and then shipped
here in pieces and carefully reassembled
making it the most expensive Chapel of
its kind when you're finished with your
visit to Bairro Alto there are several
different ways that you can get down the
hill you could simply walk down this
staircase street this staircase in front
of the church is a especially lovely way
to walk down because halfway down there
is this charming restaurant with a view
I don't know what the food tastes like
here but it looks pretty good and
everybody look very happy and they're
enjoying a splendid view looking across
the town over to the Alfama on the other
side with the castle on top of the hill
even if you're not eating here it makes
a nice route for walking back down from
barrio alto down into pie shop there's
something like 25 major named staircase
streets criss crossing through the heart
of Lisbon so that's another route down
into the bike show back to the center of
town or you could take the funicular
down
hildie elevador Gloria it's the busiest
funicular in town and you just pay for
your ticket right there from the
conductor he's the driver who's going to
be driving you down there's a tram that
just goes up and down the hill it's a
short ride but it saves you walking this
strange-looking vehicle is a little bit
reminiscent of the cable cars in San
Francisco in fact there's a lot of
similarities between Lisbon and San
Francisco they're often compared and
equaled as wonderful cities to live in
and to visit Lisbon is a city on the
hills in to city on the water on a bay
they even have a golden gate type bridge
with the same design as the famous
bridge in San Francisco and especially
reminded now by these trams this
particular that goes up and down the
hill something like those famous cable
cars in San Francisco it's a comfortable
ride you can usually find a place to sit
they just go up and down back and forth
all day and into the evening
now this funicular is an ancient rail
line it first opened in 1885 making it
one of the earliest rail transit systems
to be found in the world or if you'd
rather you can walk down on that same
street that the tram goes on it's
certainly a public street and it's
perfectly safe and really quite easy to
walk especially when you're walking
downhill so take your pick it's real
easy to get back down into the center of
town from viral alto
you