This is another photograph from the Alfama district of Lisbon. The neighborhood is the original center of historic Lisbon, though it later became home to lower income people. It escaped the destruction from the 18th-century earthquake that leveled large portions of the city, so it retains the narrow lanes, steep hills, and older buildings of an earlier era.
Continue reading Travessa de Sâo Miguel
Certain architectural features seem to characterize various cities. In Europe, from what I’ve seen, these include the materials available locally for construction, the types of roofs, and the color scheme. This view of the Alfama neighborhood of Lisbon is a case in point — with mostly white-walled buildings and red-tiled roofs.
Continue reading Alfama Rooftops
We walk a lot when we visit cities, and on this Lisbon day we had walked to and then through portions of Alfama. This neighborhood is full of very old streets and buildings. It is built on a hill rising above the water, so many of those lanes are quite steep. Overall it was a slow and mostly quiet walk… until we emerged on this busy street!
Continue reading Trolleys and Tuk Tuk
I know. Laundry hanging above urban homes in foreign cities is more than a bit of a cliche. I’ll try to minimize it, but sometimes I cannot resist. Here it is really more about the wild range of colors in the photograph, from that laundry to the colorful overhead streamers above the lane, and the contrast with the other less-colorful surroundings.
Continue reading Alfama Laundry