Free tour of Lisbon

Today we spent an interesting morning on a free tour of the inner city of Lisbon. As our guide told us Lisbon was the first capital established within defined boundaries under the Roman occupation. The Roman's called it safe harbour.
Oporto was the first capital but it was moved to Lisbon and it be became the centre of exploration during the Age of the Discoveries.
My head is spinning a bit with all the facts and figures given plus the names of generals, kings etc who fought what and when, it was like Victor all over again!!!
However it was a great walk through the older parts of the city.We are right in the heart of the old city as it turns out,the nightlife capital and red light district!!!

We began the walk at 10.00am up the top of Alecrim Street where there is a notable Square the centre of which is dedicated to the first major poet of Portugal( I saw his sarcophagus yesterday lying beside Vasco de Gama),this is in the Barrio Alton area or a place of non stop street drinking at night for locals and tourists.

The story about the poet was a good cop bad cop story as he started life as a nobleman who refused to pay his taxes so was ordered by the King to go to jail or to fight in Africa. He fought bravely and distinguished himself  but on his return he made the mistake of falling in love with the Kings sister so he was banished to the colonies to bring order to Macaw and India. Here he read the Iliad and the Odyssey and determined to write his own epic novel about the voyages of the Discoveries. It took him many years to write and eventually he returned to Portugal with his transcript for publication. Unfortunately the ship was wrecked close to the coast of Portugal and he set out to swim to shore holding his book above his head.Too late he remembered the love of his life, a Chinese women accompanying him could not swim and was in difficulties. What a dilemma! Readers I have to tell you that the book won!
It was published and bought the poet and author great fame and fortune plus being the largest book published.

We went on to visit the first coffee coffee house established in Lisbon in 1902 and the hang out of literary figures,one who used multiple pseudonyms to write under, indeed today they are still publishing his work because on his death they found thousands of unpublished manuscripts in a suitcase under the bed.

We visited the oldest book shop in the world in Chiado and our guide said if we bought a book there we could have it stamped with that fact on it.
We heard about the carnation revolution too which marked the end of the dictatorship after 66 years.On 25th April they celebrate the day with red carnations because  a flower women gave a revolutionary a carnation and he put it in his role instead of firing iIt be ame a symbol of the Revolution.
We saw The convent of the Camalite order  and heard about dictators like Salazar, linked to Harry Potter as JK Rowling lived in Porto and drew on the links to myths like dead Valley and such tales.
We heard about the great earthquake and the devastation caused withholding thousands kind, led and rubble metres high in the streets. The king was useless so the mayor of the town rebuilt it. He said the dead needed burying but the future was the living.He ran foul of the Catholic Church because he ordered the burial of all,  the bodies in a mass grave without any religious ceremony.