Lisbon

While not the oldest attraction in the city of Lisbon, The Monument to the Discoveries located along the banks of the Tagus river is quite impressive and celebrates the great seafaring history of the Portuguese during the 15th and 16th century. It was from this shore that Vasco da Gama under the sponsorship of prince Henry the Navigator departed on his voyage around Africa and opened the trade route to India.

In contrast to the large monument, we found ourselves on the doorstep of what must be the world's smallest bookshop. So small in fact, that to enter the owner needs to step outside in order for a single customer to enter.

Lisbon also boasts the world's oldest continuously operating bookstore, according to the prominently displayed Guinness record plaque by the front door.

I’m not quite sure how we ended up visiting so many book stores, since we can’t read a word of Portuguese, but we also found ourselves at Ler Devagar, a quirky bookshop/jazz record/coffee bar/ hipster spot located in an old factory complex. This quirky shop is housed in an old newspaper printing plant with the old presses integral to the decor. Outside, other industrial spaces had become trendy shops and restaurants, which proved a great area to explore.

While I'm on the subject of books, I had to stop at the House of Beaks, so named because the facade is covered in pyramid shaped projectiles between oddly scattered windows. This building also contains the Jose Saramago foundation and museum, dedicated to my favorite Portuguese writer, well in fact, the only Portuguese writer I have read. Saramago's books are full of odd characters, political satire and philosophical questioning.

Works such as Blindness, where the entire population of a city is suddenly struck blind, throwing society into chaos, and Death with Interruptions, in which death takes a holiday, no one dies, religions reevaluate their purpose and the promise of eternal life may not be so promising. The olive tree in the square in front of the House of Beaks contains the ashes of this much admired, Nobel prize author and son of Lisbon.

Throughout our city ramblings, we hopped on the old trams travelling until we reached the end of the line, and back again. Absolutely one of the best ways to see the Lisbon.

And when it came time to make our way from the low lying districts up the hill to the Barro Alto (Upper Neighborhood) there was the Santa Justa Lift, an incredible industrial age iron tower elevator. In operation since 1902, the tower was designed by Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard, a student of Gustave Eiffel.

But for us, we traveled up the steep hillside on the Gloria Funicular, which quite honestly was so much fun even the engineer couldn't help but wear a smile.