Ride on Tram 28 in Lisbon

When thinking about the most photographed attractions of Lisbon those charming old trams definitely come to mind. The most popular of the lot must be those trams driving on the track #28.

Tram 28 (or elétrico 28, as locals refer to it) is one of ‘must-do’ Lisbon attractions and at the same time a cheap way to visit most old town tourist attractions and Tagus River viewpoints. You can also conveniently hop on and off it.

I guess all that popularity has a lot to do with its tracks running from square Praça Martim Moniz to Campo Ourique (Prazeres). The whole ride takes approximately 40 minutes.

This tram line tends to be pretty touristy and during the peak tourist season I think I would rather skip it and instead do a walk along a part of its tracks. During our visit at the end of November it was not very busy and rather nice. There is however one thing that kept us from having an even better ride...

Tram 28 is unfortunately as popular with pickpockets as it is with tourists. There are even stickers on the tram alerting its users of this unfortunate thing. During our ride we watched a group of pickpockets on their work. There were five or six of them cornering their unfortunate victim on one part of the tram and trying to get to the contents of that old guy's pockets.

In the end everything turned out fine and it seemed the guy came out of the event with nothing being taken from him. The group of no-goods left the tram on the very next stop to avoid any possible confrontation. At the moment of the event it was pretty hard to tell who was who. Only when I saw the whole group walk away, I realized they were all in it together.

I advise you to secure all of your belongings before going on the ride. It also helps if you are not alone and someone can watch your back. I guess if you take reasonable precautions, you should be OK.

Read more...

A Window into Ocean Life

For ocean-life enthusiasts there is definitely a thing worth checking out when near the capital of Portugal. Lisbon Oceanarium (Oceanário de Lisboa) is actually one of the most popular Lisbon's tourist attractions.

I have visited a few Aquariums around the world before, but the Lisbon Oceanarium has left the biggest impression so far. After all it is supposed to be the largest indoor aquarium in Europe.
I visited the Berlin Aquarium a year ago, featuring the AquaDom - the World’s Largest Cylindrical Aquarium. You can read a little something about that trip and the aquarium in one of these posts.

The Oceanarium is located in the NE part of the city, near the Parque das Nações (you can check out the map here). You can easily get there by city metro (you will have to walk the last few hundred meters) or using other means of transport.

Besides a large permanent setup there is usually also an additional temporary exhibit - during my visit it was dedicated to turtles. In all parts of the large building an environmental note was always present. This is especially great for educational purposes since there are many young visitors.

There are four water-tanks placed around the large central tank, each housing a different habitat. The idea is to have a separate water tank representing wildlife from world's four different oceans (North Atlantic, Antarctic sea, Pacific and Tropical Indian ocean).

One of the most interesting species there is definitely sunfish, rarely seen in aquarium environment. Also very popular with visitors of all age is a pair of playful sea otters (Eusébio and Amália). In total there are 450 species represented by about 16,000 individual animals.

Apart from various marine species there are also some other animals housed there, for instance quite a few species of jungle frogs.

The entrance fee is quite high but in my opinion still worth it (if I remember correctly it was 16 euros). Family tickets with discounts are also available. You should reserve enough time for this - if you take it easy it might take you most of the afternoon to see it all. The Oceanarium is open 10:00 - 19:00.

Read more...

Wordless Wednesday: Sunset on river Tagus, Lisbon

Read more...