After a night on the plane I feel surprisingly well and energetic. I look at the travel route on the screen map and see we are almost there. In fact the captain has already announced our descent to Maputo. Again the screen shows us the course taken: a straight line from Lisbon to the shores of the Indian Ocean. Almost eleven hours to get us there but then I remember the sixteen hours it took us back in the …
Tag: Lisbon
Queen began their European tour yesterday in Lisbon, and I was one of the very fortunate people who were at Altice Arena – Lisbon’s largest concert hall where the Eurovision song contest final was held this year – for their show. It all began when my friend Gabi, always attentive to musical happenings, called and asked me if I wanted to come to the concert. I immediately said yes, Queen being my favourite band ever together with Supertramp. In my …
Every year, as Christmas decorations appear I begin to feel nostalgic about other Christmases, of long ago. If I think about it, it seems I’ve had this feeling during most of my life, as after coming from Mozambique we missed our warm and merry Christmases out there. Only when the boys were small did I recover some of the magic of Christmas and I loved seeing the wonder in their eyes as they looked at the lights, as they expectantly …
Padua is a lovely Italian city, known worldwide as “St. Anthony’s city”. In fact, St. Anthony lived and preached there for some years, and died there, although he was born in Lisbon, Portugal. As I once heard the archbishop of Lisbon say during mass on St. Anthony’s day, 13 June: “St. Anthony from Lisbon, of Padua”. I wholeheartedly agree with him – St. Anthony, after all, belongs to us all, even if in Lisbon we are proud that he has …
Eight am of a lovely spring morning. I’m driving to work and I take the usual route. It’s barely 4 kilometres but almost every street, every corner and every building holds a souvenir of my life, of moments happy or sad, but still important all of them. And I suddenly realise – I who have always looked at Lisbon as the place I had to come to after leaving my native city in Mozambique – that I’m in love with this …
13 june is the feast of St. Anthony, and greatly celebrated in Lisbon whose patron saint he is regarded as, being a public holiday. St. Anthony is one of the most popular saints in Portugal. He was born on the castle hill, in 1195, and a church dedicated to him was built on the place where – according to tradition – stood the house where he was born, the son of a well off merchant of the city of Lisbon. …