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LISBON PDF, EPUB, EBOOK DK | 192 pages | 07 Apr 2015 | DK Eyewitness Travel | 9781465426468 | English | New York, United States Lisboa OFFICIAL Site | Visit Lisboa This is Lisbon. World's Leading City Break Destination Sleep In a hostel or a top chain hotel, Lisbon welcomes you to a good night sleep. Trip Planner. Create your perfect Lisbon Experience Add your dates to get personalized suggestions. Start at. End at. Information for travellers StaySafe. Museu da Marioneta Puppet Museum This very particular world is worth discovering, a place where the art of storytelling and acting, one of the first popular art forms, is told like a tale. National Museum of Contemporary Art - Museu do Chiado Mandatory visit for the understanding of Portuguese art from until the present day. Lisboa - Castelo de S. Lisbon is a dream destination for foodies! Parts of the town will always be surprisingly hilly, however. Some of these streets have tram lines, potholes and an absence of designated bicycle lanes, so if you plan to cycle, you should be used to urban riding. Car drivers are now more often weekend cyclists and careful with cyclists, more than before. Riding on the footpaths is not recommended. Get advice at local bikeshops. There are nice and safe stretches from Baixa to Belem along the beautiful river Tejo water front known as the Poetry Bike Lane. Good spots for anyone to cycle safe are along the flat riverfront area streching from Parque das Nacoes, to the central area of Cais Sodre, where you can rent bikes. Just outside of Lisbon, you can take a free bike but often in poor condition and limited offer on trains or ferries along the coast from Estoril towards the beautiful beach of Guincho, reach Sintra , Cascais or Costa da Caparica. If travelling from Lisbon and back you should consider renting a bike there as there are no restrictions, nor additional charges, on travelling with bicycles on commuting trains. Bike shops in Lisbon town center are rare. You can find a SportZone near Rossio or in major shopping malls. Ask there for specialist shops, shop assistants are usually very helpful. Think twice before using a car in the city unless you are prepared to spend hours in traffic jams and looking for parking space. The busy traffic and narrow streets with blind corners can be overwhelming to tourists. Also, due to lack of space and overcrowding, parking is difficult and annoying, as well as potentially dangerous - check the "Stay Safe" section below, regarding potential problems with criminals and homeless people who stand near parking spaces to "help" you park your car and then attempt to extort money from you. In case you decide to travel around Portugal by car, it makes life easier to obtain a prepaid via verde vehicle transponder device, to avoid the hassle and delays of paying for toll charges every time. The procedure to become a via verde "utilizador" is straight forward if one speaks Portuguese; if not, get a local friend to tag along. You need to bring the vehicle's papers, drivers licence and ID. Local people should be able to direct you to the nearest one; if not, try the internet. On entering the Citizen Shop, be sure to get, from the machines by the doors, a numbered next-in-line ticket for the correct service provider. Without it, you'll not be attended to. When inside with ticket in hand, find out where the Via Verde help desk is, and keep your eye on the TV monitors to see where you are in the queue. Once you are given a device, it must be attached to the interior of the windscreen. Easy-to-follow instructions and a special double sided tape are provided in the kit. If your accommodation is in the center of the city, walking is a great alternative. Many of the attractions of the city, such as the Castelo and the Alfama and Bairro Alto districts, are within easy walking distance of the Baixa. Central Lisbon is very intimate and walking is very nice way to get around. However, the city is very hilly, a constant up and down everywhere, and streets and sidewalks are largely covered in cobblestone some slippery when wet. For visitors with mobility issues, central Lisbon can be challenging. If you become lost or cannot find the location you are looking for, try to locate the nearest Carris bus or tram stop. Most of these stops not all have a very good map of the city with your current location clearly marked on the map. All the prominent tourist sites in Lisbon are also shown along with an index at the bottom of the map. A quick consultation with one of these Carris maps should point you back in the right direction. You may also use the funiculars and elevadores. Day passes for public transportation are also valid for those. Tuk tuks are becoming a popular alternative to visit Lisbon. The hills and the narrow streets make them a good option to explore the city. They're easy to find near the points of interest but booking is advisable. As with the rest of Portugal, Portuguese is the main language in Lisbon. However, most younger people know English, and it is possible to get by speaking only English. Spanish is widely understood, though few are fluent in it, and many locals will respond more readily to English than to Spanish. Nevertheless, any attempt to speak Portuguese is always appreciated, and even simple things like basic greetings will often draw smiles and encouragement from locals. Portuguese, while similar in writing to Spanish or Italian, has very peculiar pronunciation. In most cases, the letter "j" is pronounced as "zh", thus e. Portuguese is also very "soft", with a peculiar accent - some linguists have described it as "windsurfing between the vowels" - and many vowel-consonant combinations are pronounced very differently from other European languages. It may be good to memorize the proper spelling and pronunciation of some destinations you intend to visit to avoid misunderstandings or misreading directions. Take bus 28 to the west direction Restelo , which follows the coast line and provides an express service with few stops. After the Expo, many of the impressive constructions and decorations were kept, while new residential, commercial and office buildings were added to form a thriving, mixed-use district consisting exclusively of modern architecture and making the most of its river-facing location by offering a number of leisure facilities. Look for stops and stations named "Oriente", for the spectacular Gare do Oriente train station in the middle of the district. Go out at night to the central Bairro Alto, or 'High Neighborhood'. Just up the hill from Chiado, this is the place to go out in town. In the early evening, go to a fado-themed restaurant near the Praca Camoes, and head upwards as the evening goes on. If you're in Lisbon on the night preceding a Feriado or public holiday, you have to check this out. Tiny little streets which are empty in the daytime become crammed walkways which are difficult to get through. For more of a clubbing or disco experience, try the Docas district along the marina overlooking the Ponte 25 de Abril. The Lisbon stage events calendar is a full one all year round. The city presents good quality productions in ballet, modern dance, chamber music, opera and theatre. English-language productions are staged. It's one of the local culture favourite live entertainment shows to see when you visit the city but you can only find it in the Parque Mayer. Due to high demand, you should buy tickets in advance. Lisbon is home to some famous sport clubs. Scheduled sporting events take place throughout the year with football dominating proceedings, however indoor sports like, basketball, futsal, roller hockey, handball, etc, also take place, as well as most Olympic codes. Football ie soccer: Lisbon has three teams playing in Primeira Liga, the top tier of Portuguese football. These are:. The atmosphere on match days is mostly friendly and safe. Check club websites for fixtures and tickets. Shops are open a little later than other places in Europe, usually around , and the lunch breaks can be quite long, usually from to While most stores are closed on Sundays, many malls are open 7 days a week. They usually open around and close by or , although the film theaters within them usually run a late session starting after Portugal is the largest producer of cork in the world, and there is a vast range of souvenir cork items for sale in Lisbon. Another typical Lisbon item is the "Azulejo" glazed tile, which dresses many local buildings to protect them from fires. Locals advise against buying old azulejo tiles at flea markets, as they may have been stolen from buildings across the city. Portuguese dining rituals tend to follow the Mediterranean siesta body clock. Most restaurants are very small, family-run and generally cheap. Some of them have a sheet on the door with the pratos do dia dishes of the day written on it — these dishes are usually cheaper and fresher than the rest of menu there, and unless you're looking for something specific, they're the right choice. During the dinner the waiter will probably bring you some unrequested starter dishes called couvert ; as those are not free, don't feel obliged to touch them and they will not be charged on your bill but check it! Traditional Portuguese restaurants are in Bairro Alto , scattered abundantly through its quirky narrow streets, and for Portuguese traditional cuisine at its finest, head to the area of Chiado.