I enjoyed very much this journey in Lisbon: beautiful landscapes and nice encounters.
There are so many interesting aspects of Portugal: first of all the fado: Liliana Macedo, a young fado singer is singing in a "tasca", a typical tavern where Portuguese people and tourist enjoy the fado: we can appreciate the urban art in Lisbon (paintings of Amalia Rodrigues, the most famous fado singer. After the death of Amalia Rodrigues her house was open to the visitors and Antonio Campos shows the living room where the singer received artists and intellectuals, we see also her stage dresses and jewels. Amalia Rodriguez was in Paris in 1955 and sang in the Olympia Theater. Now a new generation of singers gives a renewal to the fado.
In Lisbon we see the Portuguese School, of Equestrian Art; Carlos Manuel Sabido tells about the Lusitanian horse and the hard training in the school: each month the School organizes a great gala of equestrian art. Then we travel to the stud farm " La Couderia del Alte in the Alentejo region where Francisco Beja takes care for 75 mares of the Lusitanian breed.
In Lisbon we see also the amphibious bus managed by Franck Alvarez: a new way to discover Lisbon from the Tagus river and the Atlantic Ocean. Later we visit the Tower of Belem (Unesco world heritage site) and Isabel Cruz Almeida, the curator of the tower speaks about the the great Portuguese navigators who started theirs travels in this point.
Besides the docks of Lisbons have been transformed into pedrestrian areas. The Portuese people discover again the sea: Jean-Edouard Graca, a entrepreneur makes surfing in the beaches near of the town.
Ana Cunha , the guide at "Lisbonne à pied" is showing the town to the tourist: she is interested in the old professions: she meets often with their visitors the shoeshiner Manuel Duarte who is happy to speak with her and her visitors for a while. We meet also Manuela Cutiltero who is in charge of the doll hospital of Lisbon and Bruno Oliveira, a barber who has recovered some barbershops and gives a new life to the historical center of Lisbon.
Lisbon is also famous for its markets: in the market of Alvalade Norte we meet Nuno Queiroz Ribeiro, a chef who has studied in London and came back to Lisbon with the idea of combining ecology, cuisine and health: Nuno visit often the organic farmers in the suburbs of Lisbon to get fresh vegetables and will prepare for Luisa Ferreira de Almeida (owner of the "Quinta do Arneiro") a vegetarian menu: besides he goes to schools and explains the virtues of simple and healthy food.
Then we travel to Sintra: in the nature park there are great granit cliffs: Tomas Oliveira is training young people to make abseiling, mountain climbers are coming to climb these cliffs. We see also the romantic gardens created by the King Ferdinando II who are now restored, a great collection of exotic plants. Then there is the Palace of the Pena in Sintra (now Unesco heritage world site) , built on the site of a monastery: Antonio Nunes Pereira, the historian and director of the Palace tells about the King Ferdinando II and the influence of the German romanticism and we see some rooms of the palace (the poet Byron said that the palace was the glorious Eden).
I enjoyed the encounters of Sophie with Beatriz Noronha (the walk through Lisbon), with Antonio Mota ( the Santa Justa elevator), with Paulo Fernando Gomes de Almeida (the Portuese pavement), with Joana Silva ( the auto rickshaw travel), with Miguel Castro Silva (the chef at the market of Ribeira), with Carlos Ruiz the guide of the nature reserve of the estuary of the Sado river and with Celia Rodrigues (the oyster farm and the oysters diner): very nice encounters with very kind Portuguese men and women.