One of the nicest features of the little house we rented in Lisbon is the patio balcony, which opens directly from the bedroom. I went out of my way to find a place with a bit of outdoor space since we don’t have that at home.
So even it though it was a few degrees cooler this morning than I would have liked, I still made sure to drink my coffee on the balcony. But my coffee ended up forgotten as I became distracted and began taking photos of all the interesting details I noticed.
Looking to the lower left, there’s a vast old building that’s been covered in greenery. The house owner told me she’s asked the city to make them cut it back, but I think it looks pretty nice. Beyond the trees are typical Lisbon houses with red tile roofs.
A little more to the right there’s a fairly non-descript old building, but each window is unique, and there is usually some drying laundry hanging from a few of them. At the very top, you can see a tree peeking through: that’s the top of a hill, which illustrates how steep the hills are in Lisbon.
Directly across from us is a much more interesting derelict house with a dangerously crooked dormer window. There are plenty of buildings like this sprinkled throughout Alfama, just waiting to be purchased by someone with a bit of money and given some love. What a contrast to Toronto.
Slightly to the right is a view straight up the hill to the Igreja e Convento da Graça, a church and lookout point (miradouro) that we’ve yet to visit. Although it’s very close as the crow flies, we are not crows and will have to wend our way up through a series of confusing streets.
Looking even further to the right there is a glimpse of the face of another old church just a few doors down from our house called Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Socorro. It seems to still be functioning but the doors are always closed and locked.
Later, once I began zooming in on various details, I found a number of things that look so much like paintings they don’t really need to be painted. But we might try, anyway.
Finally, I spotted one of the many neighbourhood cats patrolling his or her territory in the vacant yard immediately below. Although you can’t see it in this photo, the cat is wearing a collar and seems well cared for.
