The Lisbon Botanical Garden/O Jardim Botânico de Lisboa

The Botanical Garden in Lisbon is one of its overlooked wonders. First, what it is not: It isn't Kew Gardens or the Washington Park Arboretum, and it isn't Central Park. I call it a wonder because of the atmosphere of the place.

It was built between 1873 and 1878 by a Lisbon university, and walking through it today you enter into a sort of timewarp, in which you feel as though you are walking through an estate from the turn of the century that has been long abandoned to nature. The plant specimens are still there, and the buildings are still there, but it seems as though nothing has been updated, or even used, in 50+ years. It's quite a charming effect, if also a bit eerie. The following pictures were taken on a quiet, empty weekday at the beginning of January. To any plant buffs, I apologize for not memorizing all the species I photographed. You'll just have to come look for yourself.

Large trees line a path near the entrance:

A couple of flower close-ups:

A fountain containing various aquatic plants. The fountain wasn't actually working, so it was just a pond. In the background you can see one of the abandoned buildings. It used to be a meteorological station and planetarium, apparently...

I had never seen an actual pomegranate tree before seeing this one. It was surprisingly frail despite producing such heavy fruit.

Ubiquitous in Lisbon's parks are these birds. They're roughly robin-sized, and tend to run along the ground in the same way robins do. They also seem to hate holding still, so I managed to get this bird as it was getting a drink of water from the fountain pond.

The garden sits on a hill, and it has distinctive areas. A more formal, landscaped area at the top (where the previous photos have all been taken) and a wilder area with large, shady trees below, running down the hill. The only way between areas is this stairway/path.

Looking up from that walkway towards the tops of the large palm trees looming overhead:

From huge to miniscule - on a large palm leaf I spotted this tiny insect. I include it because I'm just impressed with myself that I managed to capture a quality image of such a tiny thing. Although, it is actually pretty cool looking.

There is a little plot devoted to plants from arid climates, which contained the following two flowers. This first one reminds me of shooting stars.

More flowers from the wooded section, a giant fungus, plus the bamboo tunnel.

Finally, my biggest personal triumph of this visit. There were several birds in the garden that resembled flickers. They were crow-sized, light brown, and pretty drab except for their wings. When they flew, their wings revealed a black and white pattern with a flash of iridescent blue. They also made a lot of chattering noise. They were extremely skittish, however, and wouldn't let people get anywhere near them. I managed a few photos that turned out half-decent (and a lot of worthless blurs). When we went back to the garden a second time about a month or so later, there was no evidence of these birds. So I don't know if they were just hiding (it was more crowded when we came back) or if they were migrating. Anyway, this photo is the best one I got, and as I said, I'm proud of myself for managing to get such a good shot where the bird is clearly visible.

There isn't a very good official page for the garden, so here's a link to what exists in that regard, plus a blurb from the World Monuments Fund about the garden.

Official Page

World Monuments Fund blurb

Rossio

Here are some photos, in no particular order, from the Rossio, an area just north of the Baixa.

An accordionist serenading diners sitting outside at a cafe, along the Praça Dom Pedro IV (the larger of the two Rossio plazas).

In the middle of that square resides this statue, of Dom Pedro IV. In the background is Lison's most famous theater, Teatro Nacional Dona Maria II. This is looking north.

I think I might have posted this already, (in the Elevador de Santa Justa post) but here is one of the statues at the south end of the aforementioned plaza. There is an identical one at the north end.

This really interesting building is the front of Estação Central, one if Lisbon's train stations, and the only one located right in the middle of the city. It's commonly known as "Rossio", and the name extends to the immediate neighborhood around the station as well. (It is also home to one of the few Starbucks in Lisbon)

Here's more detail of the entry doors.

Scrolling up from the entry:

Oh yeah, the view from the station - what you see right when you walk outside of it? Surprise! It's the ubiquitous Castelo São Jorge:

North from Rossio Station is the Praça dos Restauradores. No, that doesn't mean "Restaurant Plaza"; rather it refers to the nobles who "restored" the Portuguese monarchy after a period of Spanish domination.

Finally, a chestnut roaster. Roasted chestnuts are very popular here, and are sold by the dozen from these carts located on every busy sidewalk. However, they are considered a winter-time only treat. Even now, at the beginning of March, they're pretty much gone.

Lisbon by night/Lisboa à noite

Here's some pictures I took of various sights at night. I've posted pretty much all of these in more or less the same locations at daytime, but it's always nice to see a different perspective.

Here's the parliament building at night, looking west down Travessa da Peixeira.

This is Castelo de São Jorge from the Miradouro São Pedro de Alcântara.

Here's a shot encompassing the Castelo, Alfama, Rossio, and Baixa, from the same viewpoint.

On New Year's Eve, we went down to the Praça do Comercio in the Baixa. It was fun, but it wasn't until afterwards that we found out the city's main festivities had been relocated at the last minute to the Parque das Naçoes. Oh well. Here's a few shots from that night.

This is looking down Rua Augusta (a large pedestrian-only thoroughfare) towards the Praça. That glowing red thing in the middle of the street was an art installation which was only there for a few days.

And here's the same view looking the opposite direction, north down Rua Augusta from the Praça.

In case you're curious, here's a close up of the top of the arch:

And looking up from underneath:

With the river behind me, here's a view encompassing the Praça, with the Castelo in the background.

A day at the Lisbon Oceanarium/Um dia no Oceanário de Lisboa

According to one guidebook, the Lisbon Oceanarium (don't call it an aquarium!) is the second-largest aquarium in the world. I suspect that information might be slightly out of date, but nonetheless it is quite large and rightfully occupies a position of pride among Lisboetas who care about such things. It is located in the Parque das Nações, which is a large former industrial wasteland which was redeveloped to host Expo '98 in Lisbon. For my fellow Seattlites, it's kind of like the Seattle Center. Along with the Oceanarium, it houses plazas and pavilions, a marina, a concert hall, a shopping mall, fancy residential complexes, a new train station, and nearby, a casino. There's also a cable car traversing from one end to the other so you can take the whole thing from above.

Arrival: Here is the Gare do Oriente (East Train Station), which is the location both of trains to Europe and the last Metro stop on the Red Line (Linha Vermelha). It was designed by Santiago Calatrava, who is a very famous architect from Spain.

We walked through the mall (named after Vasco da Gama) and out the other side, then you are immediately confronted with this:

On the way to the Oceanarium, you pass a lot of different stuff. Here is another cool statue. In the background, you can see the cable cars I mentioned. There's also a pedestrian causeway with numerous runners and bikers. I should mention that's the Rio Tejo in the distance.

Here's a view of the Oceanário from distance. It's built right into the water.

Here's a more close-up view of the Oceanário. I've read that people think it looks like an aircraft carrier, but I think it looks like a evil movie villain's futuristc lair.

Mrs. Nojo with Vasco, the Oceanário's "mascot".

The main attraction of the Oceanário is its large central tank, which houses many many different fish species. The rest of the exhibits are built around this tank, meaning as you wind your way through the aquarium, you come back to it multiple times and get different angles and see lots of different fish. It was hard to photograph into the tank well, so this is the only picture of it I'll post, but needless to say this photo doesn't really do justice to its size. There are some enormous fish in there, including whale sharks, manta rays, and sunfish, but none of them are visible in this photo. (Silhouette belongs to Mrs. Nojo).

OK, let's move on to animals I was able to photograph decently. One cool thing about the Oceanário is that it isn't just fish. There are some cool bird exhibits as well. Here are some South American terns:

Pacific Sea Otters! Gah, so cute!

This is a Turaco, which I believe is an Indian Ocean bird.

This little bird looks like an oriole, but it was in the same exhibit as the turaco, so I think it was also native to the Indian Ocean. I didn't record its name, unfortunately.

Here's a fish I managed to get an ok picture of. It's not very pretty or exciting, but it was big.

Sea anenome:

Here's some kind of salamander or newt or something:

This is a small Australian shark:

That's all for now. An enjoyable place to visit, if kind of expensive. And packed with children. Animals!