Wrapping up some of the sights of Lisbon…
We happened to be there on the evening of June 12, i.e., the night before the Festas de Santo António, patron saint of the city and of marriages. A massive parade assembles on the main avenue around 8 pm and goes until after midnight. Here is a smartphone video of one group:
It’s a respectful peaceful crowd (not “mostly peaceful”, American-style!) and if you’re 6′ tall you can get a decent view without paying for a seat in the grandstands, but you’d probably want to buy a ticket if you were serious about watching the entire event.
We hit our third botanical garden of the trip, this one right in the middle of the city: Estufa Fria. The main section is a “lath house” that enables shade-and-water-loving plants to thrive in Lisbon’s sunny dry climate. These would be great for people with big Florida back yards, though making them strong enough to get through hurricanes is likely a challenge.
After strolling through Lisbon’s monthlong book fair…
… the next stop was the Calouste Gulbenkian museum, left behind by the guy who sowed the seeds for a lot of wars by setting up what became the Arab oil industry.
![](https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024-06-13-13.32.19-1520x1140.jpg)
![](https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024-06-13-13.47.27-1520x1140.jpg)
![](https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024-06-13-13.53.18-1520x1140.jpg)
After that, we went to the bullfighting ring, which wasn’t too exciting because the museum listed in Google Maps no longer exists, the ring itself can’t be seen except during bullfights, and the underground shopping mall isn’t too exciting.
Next stop: the most expensive grocery store in Portugal, which is inside the Spanish department store El Corte Inglés. One could very happily live inside this department store, which features a variety of restaurants on the top floor, many with outdoor terrace seating. I paid about $5 for a sandwich, coffee, and mineral water at the most basic of these restaurants (advertised as a “cafeteria” but you sit down and a waitress takes the order and brings the food and drink to your table).
Even when you try to waste money on groceries in Portugal, the final bill always seems to be half of what you’d expect to pay at Whole Foods back in Palm Beach County. Below are some priced items. Note that gourmet-ish coffee is about $5 for 220g (7.7 ounces).
![](https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024-06-13-15.31.28-1520x1140.jpg)
![](https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024-06-13-15.36.50-1140x1520.jpg)
![](https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024-06-13-15.45.54-1520x1140.jpg)
![](https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024-06-13-15.47.04-1520x1140.jpg)
Not everything in the store was a bargain. Here’s a 600-euro toaster:
![](https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024-06-13-16.24.55-1520x1140.jpg)
![](https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024-06-13-16.25.35-1140x1520.jpg)
For the Formula 1 fans, a 5000-euro Bluetooth speaker that weighs less than 10 lbs.:
![](https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024-06-13-16.31.01-1520x1140.jpg)
![](https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024-06-13-16.31.10-1520x1140.jpg)
I would rather have this 700-euro Sony MHC-V73D that looks like a Lost in Space robot and surely can provide much richer sound:
I checked out the specs and it looks as though this 47 lb. splash-proof (vomit-proof?) device is intended for parties and also can support karaoke.
Less beautiful, but more durable and utilitarian than a lath garden: photovoltaic shading
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=lgZBlD-TCFE
https://www.wired.com/story/growing-crops-under-solar-panels-now-theres-a-bright-idea/
“… sunny dry climate …” ? Maybe in July and August.
I took a girlfriend who spent quite a lot of her life straightening her hair to Lisbon. As we travelled from the airport to the hotel, we could watch her hair morph from straight to curly in the damp atmosphere.
Geographically and weather-wise I thought Lisbon was a lot like SF, and the graphics on the linked pages don’t disagree. Hey, earthquakes too.
Hmm… two months would a long time for a plant to go without water! Let’s check the average rainfall in Lisbon: 30 inches. Supposedly we get an average of over 60 inches here in Jupiter, but it is still sunny and dry for months at a time so there is extensive use of irrigation and a lot of plants can grow only if shaded, e.g., orchids hung on trees.