Saturday in the Park (2)

It’s the morning of New Year’s Eve. Sometime after 22:00, I’ll walk a couple hundred meters down the street to the Terreiro do Paço to ring in 2023 but otherwise I planned an ordinary Saturday probably much like a day I might experience as a transplant to Lisboa. Among my grocery purchases I’d included half a dozen eggs, a red onion, some mushrooms, and a red bell pepper that I turned into an omelet. Together with the pão de Mafra,

[Image of pão de Mafra from Pão Real]

it made an excellent breakfast.

The day was cloudy but the temperature was pleasant enough that I thought I’d walk up the Avenida da Liberdade to Parque Eduardo VII – a section of the city that I hoped I’d remember from my visit in May. (You can find a brief explanation of how the park came to be named for the UK’s King Edward VII in my post from that trip called When will you realize.) I also planned to visit the Estufa Fria – the accidental Cold Greenhouse on the west side of the park.

However, after breakfast, I decided that since the detour would be minimal, I’d stop at A Ginjinha for a Portuguese-ish tradition – a morning ginjinha and, in my case, com elas – or with cherries. (This turned out to be a bit of a smart choice because when I stopped there was a very short line. I’d make several stops during my stay at A Ginjinha and its nearby competitor Ginjinha Sem Rival because you have to determine which you prefer. The lines outside both “bars” can get long. Here’s a picture I took at about 15:00 on Monday 2 January.

The choice, by the way, boils down to whether you prefer the slightly sweeter taste at A Ginjinha or the somewhat spicier flavor of Ginjinha sem Rival.) 

Estufa Fria o Ombro frio?

Had I taken a direct route to the park, I’d have had a flat walk over the first 750 meters through the Praça Dom Pedro to the Avenida where, over the next 1,500 meters, I’d ascend about 39 meters – a walk Google Maps considers “mostly flat” – before reaching the southern end of Parque Eduardo VII. The nearly equal ascent to react the Estufa Fria covers about half that distance.

When I reached the Marquês de Pombal statue at the park’s southern end, I was greeted by the sight of Lisbon’s Winter Wonderland –

an annual (as Ana would tell me later in the trip) midway of rides, food booths, and activities for the whole family. I moseyed up the hill tempted by many of the sweets on display but I’d had mine in liquid form just a bit earlier so temptation didn’t end in indulgence.

The above photo is looking more or less toward the north so about two thirds of the way up the hill, you need to leave the main western promenade to find the Estufa Fria. (It’s a bit past the building you see on the left of the photo.) The exterior was calm and inviting but

when I reached the entrance, despite the sign indicating it was open, the greenhouse was closed. Hence, the header for this section that translates to “Cold Greenhouse or cold shoulder?”

Unable to consummate this visit, I returned to the main promenade and, since I’d been strolling for awhile, made an energetic walk to the top of the park. Unlike my May visit, I didn’t cross into the Jardim Amália Rodrigues but instead simply passed the monument to the 25th of April and walked down the park’s eastern promenade.

[Satellite view from Google Maps].

Believe it or not, by the time I made my way back down the hill through the park it was mid afternoon, I’d planned on a late (for me) homemade dinner so this seemed like a good time to have lunch. By taking only a minor detour on my way back to the flat I could revisit what had been one of my favorite lunches from the spring – piri piri chicken at Bonjardim – the restaurant that bills itself as el rei dos frangos – the king of chickens.

I went a little overboard ordering half a chicken with fries, a salad and a Sagres. The chicken was considerably saltier than it had been on my first visit but the salad was one of the best I had in Lisboa. I had enough chicken and fries leftover to carry home for a snack or light lunch. Sérgio even had piri piri sauce among his condiments.

Calling Gloria.

Since today seemed to be a day to revisit (with some variation) some of the places I went in May, I deposited my leftover chicken in the fridge and set off back toward the Praça dos Restauradores. It was here Ana and I began our walk to and through Bairro Alto (and I first used my Viva Viagem card) by riding the Ascensor da Glória – the funicular that connects the Avenida with Bairro Alto.

However, rather than ride the funicular, this time I walked up the Calçada da Gloria. You see, this passage is one of the city’s sanctioned outdoor art galleries and I’d missed much of that art on the crowded first ride in May. This isn’t an easy walk. It’s a nearly seven degree incline over 400 meters. But

the art makes the walk easier.

Once at the top, I walked into the Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara which is where I took this photo

that I use as my desktop background.

I returned the way I came around Restauradores Square and into the area called Rossio. It’s interesting how, while walking through the same place but from a different direction, you see some thing or things that had escaped your notice before. This was the case as I approached the Largo São Domingos – which happens to be the location of A Ginjinha. In the morning, I’d approached from the south, had my drink, and continued north toward the park. In the afternoon, I came from the west and saw a small memorial in the middle of the plaza.

Installed on the 500th anniversary of the slaughter of Jews, the memorial is the work of Graça Bachmann. The truncated stone sphere is intended to symbolize a world beset by violence and chaos. The inscription within the Star of David reads, “In memory of the thousands of Jews, victims of intolerance and religious fanaticism, murdered in the massacre that began on 19 April 1506 in this square”. The rectangular base on which the sculpture stands has a phrase from the Book of Job, “O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.”

Knowing that I’d be on my feet and walking – albeit slowly – from the time I left the apartment after dinner until sometime in the new year, and having walked nine or ten kilometers already, I meandered back to the flat where I planned to rest until it was time to prepare dinner.