Up early and on my way ....
Beating any crowds that might show themselves later.

First, right turn and a few paces later, am at the Santa Justa Elevator.
Only one other person there.
Straight into the lift.
Four young girls turned up and there was quite a discussion about money.
One paid and had a few queries re cost.
One other kept telling her to 'settle.'
That made me grin.

Wonderful wooden interior to this beautiful old elevator. The patina was magnificent and you could almost smell the age!
It is s very, very short trip to the top but that's not the point.
It's the journey in history.
I loved it.
I stood.
And just absorbed it all.

Wonderful view from up the top.
To the Castle and the water and the monuments!

I could see my rooftop bar from here.
Took more photos.

Then another trip in history ... Down.

OK.
The Number 28 Tram.
Apart from beating everyone else everywhere, one of the reasons I wanted to be on this tram early is because it is renowned for the pickpockets travelling the tram when it is crowded.
So I hoped they were still in bed.
Scott on our Trafalgar tour had his wallet and phone taken on this tram and he said he didn't notice a thing.
So I'm ready.
I am walking Lisbon with my black travel bag anyway.
Just a bit safer.

So only enough people on the tram for everyone to have a seat, about 15. No crowds and no one standing.
Very grumpy driver though.
Great fun rattling up the tiny narrow streets past ...
Cafes and churches.
Houses and hotels.
Statues and ... other things!
The streets are so narrow in parts that pedestrians had to press themselves back into the walls as the tram rattled past.
Up hills and down towards the water ...
Hang on, the Castle is up on the hill.
Where's the Castle Stop?
Grumpy driver was not telling anyone anything this morning!
So end of the line ... off I get.
Catch the next one.
More people on this one but still not crowded and so I opened the old wooden framed window and hung out ... just for fun.
I also asked the lovely, happy, lady driver to let me know when to get off for the Castle.
She did.
So did 2 other people I had asked as well, just to be on the safe side.
See, nothing looks the slightest bit 'Castle like' where you stop.
You still have an uphill walk on narrow, cobble stoned streets.
Pure magic!
So up I go.
Ticket office.
I am the only one there.
' One, please.'
And I'm in.

You know all those castles I have seen.
THIS is a great old fashioned castle.
Nothing fancy.
Exactly like you imagine a castle to be.
You can imagine King Arthur here ( or the Portuguese equivalent.)

Internal courtyards.
Old, old, old, old olive trees scattered about,
Growing from totally hollow trunks.
A view to see all the enemies approaching ..
And a wonderful, wonderful wall with the square towers on each corner and sentry posts positioned along the wall.
ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!

Magnificent walk around the walls.
Climbed the towers.
Ducked under archways.
Magnificent wander through the courtyards.
Magnificent time just standing gazing ... at everything.

Sat for a cake and a drink of water.
You wouldn't have liked it, Mum.
I had to fight 2 peacocks for my cake.
One was 18 inches away from me, trying to psych me out.
No chance.
That was my cake!

While I was sitting, I watched a lady wheel an old fashioned small wooden cart and start to set up a stall in the shade of a tree.
After fending off the peacocks and finishing my cake, I wandered over to have a look.
She had the most amazing display of coin necklaces.
From all different countries.
And they had been cut out.
Very hard to explain but her husband would drill a hole into a spot on the coin and then use a very, very fine saw and cut around the design on the inside of the coin.
They were magnificent.
Have a look at the photo of the one I bought for myself.
It's a 1955 coin of Portugal with a ship in the centre and he has cut the excess metal from around the ship to get this result!
I spent a lot of time looking here.
I bought an Irish coin for Emily with a single stag cut out, a reminder of the battlefields tour when we saw the magnificent stag statue guarding the old trenches of the Newfoundland soldiers in the Somme 2 years ago.
Then I bought a Portuguese ship coin for Andrew because I thought he'd like it from Sao Jorge Castle in Lisbon!
There was still so much that I liked there but I'd run out of money.
The lady and I discussed where the nearest ATM was and whether I could go out of the gate and be let back in after getting some money.
Seemed doubtful ...

So off I wandered again, looking at views and the magnificent statue of Alfonso 1, the first King of Portugal, in the huge forecourt.

But those coins were calling me back, so off to talk to the lovely guard at the entrance ...
' Can I go out and come back in again?'
' Five minutes.'
' I just have to find an ATM.'
He points, and there on the wall behind me, exactly 5 steps from the gates is an ATM ... with no queue.
He grins.
I grin.
Off I go.
Get money.
Grin at the guard again.
And I'm back.
This time I bought a set of coin earrings that are Knights on horseback.
Wow.
This was so much fun.

I arrived here about 8.45am.
( Would have been earlier except I took the tram twice!)
And didn't leave till nearly 1pm.
I absolutely loved this.
Didn't want to leave.

But I started the walk, along magnificent cobblestone roads ...

There are tall steel bollards blocking the roads near the Castle.
When a car approaches, if all is clear, I think it automatically drops.
There was a young woman striking really dramatic poses on one of these as her friends took photos.
A taxi drove up and this metal cylinder just dropped from beneath her.
Bystanders, shopkeepers and the taxi driver just broke up.
I think it made the taxi driver's day.
We all just grinned at each other.
The girl made a rather hasty exit.

This castle and surrounds are magnificent.
I really didn't want to leave.
But you should have seen the queue for tickets when I did!
Never go anywhere ticketed after 9am!!
I wandered that castle almost by myself for the first hour.
You could hear the whispers from the walls.
Loved it.

I bought a gargoyle from a lady with a tiny stall.
She had a large board on a pretty wobbly steel easel.
Into the board were a whole heap of screws and each gargoyle was displayed by being hooked onto these screws.
They looked magnificent.
Bit hard to choose.
But I settled on the first one I saw.
He is a replica of one from the Jeronimos Monastery.
Love it.

A bit of history about Castelo de Sao Jorge ....

The castle is in the centre of Lisbon, on an escarpment, while many of its walls extend around the citadel into the civil parishes that surround it to the east and south.

Although the first fortifications on this hilltop date from the 2nd century BC, archaeological excavations have identified a human presence in the Tagus valley as far back as the 6th century BC.

The Castle and the city of Lisbon were freed from Moorish rule in 1147.
According to an oft-repeated legend, the knight Martim Moniz, noticing that one of the doors to the castle was open, prevented the Moors from closing it by throwing his own body into the breach, thus allowing Christian soldiers to enter at the cost of his own life. With the taking of the castle Christian forces were able to maintain the defense of Lisbon until the end of the 12th century.

Between 1373 and 1375, King Ferdinand I ordered the building of the Cerca Nova or Cerca Fernandina, the walled compound that enclosed the entirety of the castle.
This wall, which partially replaced the old Moorish walls, was designed to encircle previously unprotected parts of the city.
Completed in two years, it had 77 towers and a perimeter of 5,400 metres (17,700 ft).

During the late 14th Century, the castle was dedicated to Saint George by King John I, who had married the English princess Philippa of Lancaster.
Saint George, the warrior-saint, was normally represented slaying a dragon, and very was popular in both countries.

As the royal palace, the castle was the setting for the reception by King Manuel I of the navigator Vasco da Gama when he returned from discovering the maritime route to India in 1498.

During the sixty years of Spanish rule beginning after the presumed death of King Sebastian 1 in the Battle of Ksar El Kebir in 1578, the castle was converted into military barracks and a prison.

The 1755 Lisbon earthquake severely damaged the castle and contributed to its continuing decay: apart from the walls of the old castle, the soldier's hospital and the Recolhimento were left in ruins.

In the 1940s, extensive restoration work was done on the Castle.

On 22 August 2006, a special protection zone was declared, that included the Castle of São Jorge and the rest of the walls of Lisbon, the Baixa Pombalina and various properties that were already classified as cultural heritage.