Travelling not soliciting: London--Lisbon

I started my travels in East London ---appropriately enough since it was from East London that Britain's mercantile empire was run for hundreds of years with ships coming and going to the far corners of Empire. After its many years of decline and its destruction during the last world war its regeneration is beginning with the Olympic Games next year.
I went on one of the daily walks run by Blue Badge guides ( from Bromley by Bow station at 11 am every day if you are interested-- http://www.tourguides2012.co.uk/tours.php) which starts with a visit to one of the old mills which supplied grain to feed London and provide its beer and which dotted the whole area in the 1700 and 1800s.

mill built 1762. East London

The walk then passes through the areas which have begun to recover, with the impetus given by the Olympic infrastructure money, and then visits the perimeter of the 250 acre Olympic site with the huge new Westfield shopping centre beyond. Apparently the Olympic bid was won not only on the strength of the promises to regenerate East London but also to observe the best environmentally friendly practices in building. And so there are new locks on the cleaned-up canals which crisscross the whole area (I didn't know there was so many in east London!) since the Olympic bid promised that 50% of all goods moving to the site would be transported by rail or water rather than road. And the various stadia on the site are heated and lit by a specially constructed biomass heating plant. Even the Olympic Stadium itself is constructed in part from used pipes from the north of England! Really very impressive even for a environment sceptic like me.

My first stop from London is Lisbon. I first visited a couple of times in the 1980s even before it joined the EU, but not since. Then, I was charmed by its tiny shops in the Baixa and Chiado each specialising in its own handiwork--buttons, gloves, lace tablecloths--and the black and white patterned cobbles of the squares and pavements, the colourful azulejos tiles on the walls of the houses, the Castelo Sao Jorge, the single carriage trams, the funiculars to take you up and down the hills, and the ancient Alfama district . But one of the benefits of revisiting places after a long time is that you can see it all again, but the times will have moved on and the place will be different and you will be different so you will see it all differently.

the 28 tram

Much in Lisbon is still the same but not everything and not all change is for the better. Many many more cars clogging the streets (although Smart cars abound). And mobile phones at every ear. You do not need to speak Portuguese to know that they are saying "Hello it's me. I'm on a train/bus/tram...". But the trams are still there clanging through the narrow streets.

The Alfama is much the same--steep stairways winding right and left down the slope of the steep hillside between the humble crumbling houses and churches. Tiny alleys, tiny doorways opening into tiny bars, cafes, and greengrocers. Washing hanging from the little balconies, canaries singing in their cages, men smoking, women gossiping, lazy cats sunning themselves. Everyone ignoring the oggling tourists and their cameras.

It strikes me as remarkable that every continental European city has a similar --what shall I call it --aura whether it is in Spain or Italy or Belgium or France, quite different from any UK city. Is it the grand boulevards, the self-important statues, the cobbled streets and pavements, the tiled roofs? or is it the pastel-washed crumbling plaster of the town-house walls, or the iron balconies? But you will find some or all of those in UK cities too. But somehow you can always tell that you are on the Continent.

the medieval Se

The Praca do Comercio--the main square

view over the Rossio with the Castelo on the hill

Times seem hard in Portugal--it shows all the signs of recession and financial crisis that I noticed in Dublin a few weeks ago. My old favourite restaurant Tavares, still beautiful but empty. The designer shops which line the Avenida da Liberdade see very little footfall. Plenty of beggars and homeless. Few tourists. But the ladies are still elegantly dressed, the sun shines, the Tagus is blue, the palm trees and tamarind trees are green and the medieval cathdral and the Castelo Sao Jorge still preside with dignity over it all.