Lisbon by Night

We only got to see Lisbon for a few hours. We arrived at our hotel around 6pm and had to leave the following day at noon to go to Porto. Even still this time in Lisbon was amazing. The fresh sea breeze and the people around were invigorating. We spent our time in the Rossio area and just walked around. Rossio is a big square with several fountains and on two metro lines. I imagine it is the center of town (we didn’t see much else).

From what we saw on a Thursday night, Lisbon is a vibrant place. Plenty of people, both locals and tourists, were out enjoying the warm late summer night.

Teasing the Castle

From Rossio Square, you can get glimpses of the castle. It was such a tease because we knew we wouldn’t have time the next day to see it. It is really pretty all lit up at night though.

Pastries and Drinks

After dinner we just started walking and sat here for an after dinner drink. The pastelaria had a bar and poured us some massive drinks. They also had tables out in the middle of the street. We had gone down away from the square a ways. It was just a great place for people watching and talking.

Grand Architecture

The road we chose to walk down led toward the water and ended at a massive square and arch. Everywhere along and around Rossio there are grand buildings with sweeping arches and grand facades. Around that other square on the water was a colonnade. I love this picture of people walking arm in arm through the night.

Such a brief visit

This was only a few hours, but for us Lisbon grabs hold quickly. It has a relaxed feel and yet feels like stuff still gets done. We definitely need to come back and spend some more time. It seems not to do such a relaxed place justice to rush through it.

So this is just a taste of what we saw. A single area of Lisbon, around Rossio Square, for a few hours at night. Even walking in from the metro stop, I saw things down side streets and out of the corner of my eye to tell me that Lisbon definitely holds more than just this.