Updated May 2024
The time has come for my visit to the Saramago Museum Lisbon. A few days have passed since I have come to the city. I didn’t even notice it.
I had a feeling of having been walking for days. And I did, considering all that walking around Barcelona lengthwise and crosswise for five days before coming to Lisbon. And I was doing it all over again.
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Lisbon is also quite demanding, since it is so hilly, always going up and down, curving to one side or the other.
I remember reaching a sharp corner, after walking up a small crossroad. The street continued to the left and curved to the right at a sharp angle. While standing at the corner you can see a part of the street tumbling downhill but also going steeply up. I looked down then up again…
“I might just sit right here without having to choose whether to go up or down anymore“, it crossed my mind.
But I did, of course, it’s just another hill. I have to say though that I was glad to have bought my lovely boots and flamenco shoes in Barcelona. They were so soft, just perfect for Lisbon’s cobblestone streets.
Lisbon Tourist Attractions, Casa dos Bicos
This was another beautiful day to walk for hours. After all, that is the best way to get to know the city. And I finally got to the building I wanted to visit – the famous Casa dos Bicos Lisbon built in 1523 as the headquarters of the India Trading Company.
You will immediately notice its interesting façade with stone “peaks” coming out of the wall. It was fully renovated in the 1980s, housing various cultural events on the ground floor. So, the initial building was erected when Vasco da Gama was still alive. (If you read my Explorers of Portugal post, you will understand the thrill.)
The thing that makes it even more attractive is its today’s purpose.
Saramago Museum Lisbon
Casa dos Bicos now houses the Saramago Museum Lisbon dedicated to a Nobel-prized Portuguese writer who died in 2010. The olive tree in front of the building is brought from Jose Saramago‘s birthplace Azinhaga. They say that his ashes are placed under that tree.
While walking around the city, I often evoked parts of his novel “Embargo” with descriptions of cars lined up in the narrow streets of Lisbon.
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There is a nice fish restaurant nearby, just perfect for a lunch break. While waiting for my meal, sipping wine, I checked the photos I took that day. Such a nice day I had! I glanced over to one of my new boots’ heels. It got peeled off by the endless cobblestone cubes. Oh well, that was going to be my Lisbon “scar”, a joint souvenir from my Barcelona Lisbon adventure.
Next: STRICT, YET MISCHIEVOUS
The full series about my BARCELONA – LISBON JOURNEY
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Glad you’re enjoying Lisbon! Walking is definitely the best way to visit the city, although at the expense of getting your shoes mutilated by the cobblestones 🙂 Saramago’s ashes are indeed under that olive tree. They used soil from Lanzarote, where he lived his last years, to bury them. -Verne
Thanks for that, nice detail. 🙂 Love Saramago’s work, so the place had huge impact on me. Thanks, Verne.
Oh the sharp corners. The one next to the church in the square especially makes me so nostalgic.
Next to the Cathedral? That’s the famous curve, I guess. 🙂
Yes, for me special because I used to pause here to wonder whether I would stay down wandering the alleys there or climb up. I would give into the latter, always 😉
Hehehe, I can so relate to that, you just have to pause and breath in and out, before going… well, up again! 😀
Ha ha ha. Oh yes. I loved all that climbing because it meant I could eat with real passion after while dousing my insides with cherry liqueur in between 😉
Oh, how the city has spoiled you! 😉 😀
You bet 🙂