December 21, 2005

10:58:58 am Wednesday, December 21, 2005 - Lisbon, Portugal - Mostly Cloudy, mid 50s.  

I took another walking tour, this time of Lisbon's Old Town. Deanna sat this one out, as she is still not feeling well. I'm well on the road to recovery, still coughing, but otherwise about 90% normal. She is about four days behind me though. The Old Town guide said that about half of the homes in the area, built in the 18th Century after the 1755 earthquake, still do not have running water. Can you imagine this? There are public baths in the neighborhood where residents shower and use the toilet. Our two nights at Ayer's Rock, Australia--where the only rooms available had shared bath facilities a short walk away--taught me how different it would be to have to go outside every time you needed to use the toilet or run some water. I had not heard of a similar area like this on our trip where such a high percentage of houses in a central part of a city in a developed country did not have running water. The guide said that as owners renovate units, they install water. There is a lot of renovation, but I would have thought this would have completed a few decades ago. Portugal joined the EU in 1986 after all.

In the afternoon, I went to the city museum. It had some interesting drawings of the 1755 earthquake, but no English. I breezed through in 15-20 minutes.

Overall, I liked Lisbon. I would not necessarily want to spend more time here, although in summer more time could be called for. From the plane on the way in it looked like there are beaches close by. The city is a reasonably good bargain for Europe--like Spain, it is cheaper than the rest of Western Europe. It's a bit more expensive than Eastern Europe, but definitely more developed, so I'd have to rank it, again along with Spain, near the top in terms of European value for money.

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