Most of us have mental pictures in our heads about cities which we have never visited. Usually when we arrive there we discover something quite different and so it proved for me with Lisbon. Most people I know who had been there spoke glowingly about it - and in that I was not disappointed. But where, fuelled by all that history of seafaring and discovery, I had expected the city to have the ocean lapping at its streets, it turned out to be some five miles inland. However, the sea still seems to imbue its very core. Situated near the broad mouth of the river Tagus and flanked by two huge bridges, its waterfront is alive with boats of every kind, from seagoing cruise liners to dozens of ferries, crossing to the other side. Even the local cuisine (which is very good) is heavily dominated by fish, though the dried cod which seems one of the staples now comes from Norway.
The city is, for the most part, relatively modern, dating from the 18th century. That was when the Great Earthquake of 1755, a catastrophe similar to the ones which recently struck Turkey and Greece, erupted at sea, just off the city. Fires, spread by candles in the churches, swept the streets and a huge tidal wave overwhelmed the waterfront, where people had been taking shelter. When it was over, some 40,000 of the population had been killed and the greater part of Lisbon was flattened. With its destruction ended finally the era when Portugal, with the aid of its great explorers and navigators and of the colonies they founded, was one of the western world's great powers. The old city, dating back to Roman times, with its churches and palaces, was gone, with the exception of a few districts, which the earthquake had not affected. In its place, a new centre was created on a grid pattern in less than a decade by one of Portugal's heroes, the Marquis de Pombal. This is the heart of the modern city, although of course it has spread far beyond its 18th-century confines, an elegant area full of chic shops, restaurants and all the other appurtenances of a European capital.
Glimpses of an older, colourful Lisbon aren't hard to find, however. Small 19th-century trams, packed with people, rattle through the streets and are well worth taking, being extremely cheap. Some of them, indeed, are more funiculars than trams, climbing up vertiginous streets. They will take you to Alfama, the oldest part of the city, a wonderful hilly warren of old buildings so close together that it's almost possible to reach out from an upper storey and touch the house across the street. Here again, the flavour of the sea seems everywhere, with intriguing little seafood restaurants and open air stalls selling everything from prawns to great sea monsters whose names are only for the expert, while in the evenings the locals come out and grill their fresh sardines on the cobblestones. The steep, rocky mass is crowned by the Castelo de Sao Jorge, once the palace of the Portuguese kings, but now only a shell, though it offers a fine view over the city.
Another glimpse of old Lisbon can be found in the fascinating district of Belem with its magnificent 16th-century Monastery of Jeronimos, Portugal's finest monument and one of the great gothic buildings of Europe, built in the highly decorated local Manueline style. It was from near here that Vasco de Gama set out on his voyage of discovery to India, that was to bring vast wealth to his country from the spice trade. Erected in 1960, a striking modern monument in the shape of a ship's prow stands by the waterside at his point of embarkation. Henry the Navigator, the great instigator of so many discoveries, stands at the summit, together with Da Gama, Portugal's national poet Camoes and others from the heroic age.
Situated as it is, so near the ocean, Lisbon offers a range of seaside resorts to the visitor, ranging from the sophistication of Estoril, once the home of deposed royalty, to family-style places, with a faintly old-fashioned air that reminds one of parts of the west of Ireland. (Swimmers beware, though. The sun may be blazing and the air baking, but the sea is the Atlantic, unheated by the Gulf Stream and surprisingly chilly). It is a green, beautiful countryside, with mountains coming down to the ocean, a land of vineyards and greenery, with old convents and fortresses and a friendly people. Again, the restaurants and places to stay range from the most basic to de luxe.
Venturing inland, most visitors to Lisbon will find themselves going by road or rail to Sintra, a sort of Portuguese hill station, where the country's royal family and their entourages would retire to avoid the worst heat of the summer. Byron came here in 1809 and called it the most delightful village in Europe, uniting the best of the Scottish Highlands and the south of France, neither of which he had visited. The place has an almost alpine air. Magnificent villas stand among the trees which clothe its slopes and it's well worth driving, taking a bus or even, if you're very energetic, walking to the topmost summit and the fairytale palace built by the last royal family of Portugal. Left as it was in their day, it's a monument to 19th-century opulence, clutter and, if one may say so, bad taste. Over the top, too, is the Quinta da Regaleira, another grand house in the gothic revival style with intriguing grounds. Built by a millionaire Brazilian coffee baron, it seems like a kind of turn-of-the-century Disneyland. Grottoes, fountains and winding staircases jostle with chapels, underground passages and a vast well into which one descends by a huge spiral stair. All this comes replete with a lot of mumbo-jumbo about how it was connected with ancient rites of the Knights Templar and Freemasonry and the sum total is amusingly over the top.
For most Irish people, Portugal means the beaches and golf courses of the Algarve. With only one scheduled flight a week from Dublin and no packages Lisbon is harder to reach, but this unique, colourful city, modern yet ancient and full of things to do and see is well worth the effort. Who knows, someone might even put together some city break holidays to it. It's not even very far away.