Next morning we were eager to reboard Tram 28 and circle around to explore Alfama.  The oldest district of the city, its name comes from the period of Arabic rule from 714 AD to 1147 AD.

Alfama rises on the mountainside from the Tagus estuary in a  network of steep narrow streets which the tram winds through, sometimes inches from the walls on either side.

(photo credit)

At Escolas Gerais, we got off and wandered downhill.

At the bottom we found ourselves at the Museo de Fado, where we learned about the traditions of the splendid music I’d discovered when we first planned the trip and had been  listening regularly to sweeten my morning PT exercises.

This was a crowded, souvenir-shop-dominated part of the downtown where the cruise ship in the harbor had just disgorged its ten thousand passengers.

Traffic was so thick that Tram 28 couldn’t get through to take us back to Mouraria, so we traipsed through crowds to the metro and rode back underground for lunch and nap.

In late afternoon, indulging in a Bolt ride to the mountaintop, I led Jan to the viewpoint just above the hotel I had discovered the previous day.

After gazing at the river and the cathedrals and castles draped over the City’s seven hills, we noticed a little gap in the retaining wall. Somebody walked through it down a steep stairway from which live music was filtering, and we followed.

At the base of the stairs there was an opening in the greenery leading to a platform supporting a crowded bar, bandstand and dance floor. Below that hung more terraces looking out over the city.

We elbowed through the joyous crowd to the lowest one and found chairs.  Off to the right I saw people emerging through the greenery. I pushed through and found another bar with a small art gallery where I bought drinks and returned to Jan.

We sat enjoying the atmosphere, the prospect of the city directly below and the surprise of discovery. Someone told us the name of the place was The Secret Garden.  No signage, no way to find it but down those stairs.

On the way out  we danced to the hot band.

We found dinner at a café down a street leading away from the viewpoint to another one, where we watched the sunset over the Atlantic.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 27th, 2026 and is filed under Miscellaneous, Portugal 2026, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.