H2O and Oh No

 

I was determined today to experience the Museum of Water at its old pumping station location and at the Roman aqueduct.  The hotel concierge was a little surprised, but he told me that the exhibit at the pumping station was interesting and that there was nothing to see at the aqueduct.  I did not listen to him.

The walk to the Museum of Water on a beautiful morning took me back up to the Miradouro at Saint Luzia.  I sat on the tiled wall and sketched with my colored pencils -- I remembered to bring the sharpener -- and loved the view, which I shared with a few people having breakfast and coffee there and along the other terraces.

That very large church at the top of that view is the National Pantheon or the Church of Santa Engratia.  I headed there on my walk to see the church.  There, I learned the proverb "obras de Santa Engracia," which refers to the troubles that took 300 years to overcome in order to finish building the church (no idea why the spelling of the church name has two variations in the one plaque on the subject), which was finally completed in 1966.  It's a huge church with many different marbles and you can climb up to the terrace level for more views of the city and to be grateful those troubles resulted in a reasonably airy staircase, built to more modern staircase standards than in the older churches I've been in.

And this is where the day started to take a strange turn.  First, the Museu de Agua is interesting, and sure, seeing the big iron boilers and huge wheels powered by steam to pump water to a thirsty Lisbon is impressive.  Until they figured out the pumping, gravity was the only way to get water to the city and so it made a huge difference to the pace and way the city evolved. I like this stuff, I'm just the kind of person whom the place is made for (well, me and school-age future engineers).  While convenient to the Atlantic Ocean, Lisbon is on a river too brackish to provide drinking water.  The building of the Roman aqueduct in the early 1700s not only provided water but also withstood the earthquake of 1755, so impressive all around.  Not a lot of new information, though, and aside from conversation with a very nice guy working there, I'm not sure I'd recommend it to others.   I was sure, however, after my drawing above, and seeing the sketchbook below with this great cover on sale in their little gift area, that it was a sign I needed to go to the aqueduct, Aqueduct das Aguas Livres, which is a ways from the historic center of Lisbon.

I'm just going to be honest.  The aqueduct is gorgeous, even as it soars above highways and houses.  You can get a great view of it from the Campolide train station, you don't even need to leave the station. What was not immediately obvious to me was that experiencing the walk across the top of the aqueduct would be grim.  Really, really grim.  You are just on a concrete walkway for 2 km, unrelieved by anything, just concrete.  Well, and barbed wire.

Even as I walked it, thinking, well, you experience it and there's value in that... I had to admit to myself that the best experience of the aqueduct is to see it from afar, enjoy its beauty and the story of how it brought water to the city which you can read on the Internet and keep the 4 euros it cost to take that walk for some other purpose.  

It is close to the end of the day and you might be wondering if I took it easy after yesterday's climbs and step counts.  Today I'm over 20,000 steps and 30 floors climbed.  I think tomorrow I may get up for breakfast and then go back to bed.