More wanderings

Firstly, an apology, I have been very lax at updating this blog. No excuses, Lynne and I have been settled into "tourist " mode and have just been mooching around Lisbon and enjoying the many attractions in between doing small but vital jobs aboard Dark tarn. So here we are just before Christmas and we decided to go and see the large domed church on the hill above Alfama, which turned out not to be a church at all but was in fact the Pantheon. A clue was the fact that Fado music was playing as we entered. Amelia Rodriquez in fact.......

The building itself apparently has only recently been finished and the time frame is a source of amusement to locals!

Its undeniably an impressive structure if a little souless . Acres of marble beneath a conglomeration of domes make for an echoing vast space.

In alcoves and separate chapels? lie the bodies or at least a memorial to the great and good.
There are the usual political figures but there are also footballers (Usebio) and performers.

Unsurprisingly perhaps Amelia is here...........quite moving listening to her soulful voice echoing around.....

A rather more light hearted exhibition was found in one of the upper galleries it was a collection of Nativity scenes created by local schoolchildren. Some were very imaginative, I was particularly taken by one which was made entirely of bread!
Very close to the Pantheon is a famous Lisbon market, the "Thieves market" this is a collection of open air stalls where its possible to by any type of junk your heart desires, there are undoubtedly some treasure to be found but as they say you need to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince! its great fun though and a great atmosphere.

Its surprisingly extensive and is very popular with locals and tourists alike.

One part seems to concentrate on antiques another on the usual market traders selling clothes shoes etc.

The more interesting items seem to be with the car boot style traders, bits of old motorcycles, musical instruments or just plain tat!

On a sunny afternoon, its a marvellous distraction. Its also not far to catch a number 28 tram which will take you to another of the famous viewpoints of Lisbon the Square and church at Graca.

It was here that we discovered a surprising exhibit a model of the local procession of Corpus Christi, showing the many trade groups and societies that march in colourful costume.

It really is a most remarkable thing, the work of one man. It is exhibited in a marvellous room just off the main church and itself is decorated with Azure tiles.

The model is certainly impressive unfortunately we wouldn't be in Lisbon for the real procession but the model gives a good impression of the scope and grandeur of the real event.

 The many panels showed scenes from Lisbon's history, in particular the defeat of the moors, some of the panels were quite gruesome!
Later in the week just before we were due to fly home for Christmas we joined the queue for a Nativity Concert at the strange circular church of Nosa senora des Navigantes, which is just upriver from the marina just before the Vasco de Gama bridge. It is a modern and completely circular building that had left us less than impressed when we first came across it.

 We joined the queue not really knowing what to expect, gradually the building filled up and we were treated to a wonderful concert by several choirs. The initial ensemble were youngsters who sang using the space and building itself as an instrument. moving around the audience and going up into the galleries to sing. The acoustic of the building itself was fantastic and later an adult choir also used innovative techniques at on point having the entire choir arranged around the outside of the circular audience seating accompanying themselves on wine glasses filled with water. as they played and sang the resulting sound was glorious and utterly ethereal.

Later the choirs would join together in certain works continuing the use of the space itself. The whole concert was extremely professional and very well received by the audience which completely filled the church.

A fabulous and memorable gift from Lisbon to us at Christmas.........
On our way to the airport we discovered that they had decorated the tube trains with a more modern Christmas interpretation, cheerful non the less!

As we flew over Portugal in bright sunshine we crossed above the Lake and Dam at Pedragoa where we had stayed earlier in the year.

On our way home for Christmas we swopped the glorious blue sky's of Portugal for the grey and overcast of Britain.