"Lisbon and the Stadium of Light" Lisbon by vichatherly

Lisbon is the the capital city of Portugal and the people there, along with the rest of the country, are very friendly.

I took the opportunity of a reasonable flight and a share of a mates hotel room for a one night stay. I have been to Lisbon a few times now, three I think in total, but it has always been for very short visits. It would be nice to go back and take a more longer view.

Estadio da Luz

My first visit, for a game of football, to Lisbon was for the UEFA Champions League Group Match game.

Manchester United played SL Benfica in the Estadio da Luz "Stadium of Light" on 7th December 2005. We needed to win, or at least draw, to qualify for the knockout stages of the competition. Unfortunately, after taking the lead with a goal from Paul Scholes, we lost 2-1.

Azulejos

As I was only here for a short while I can only give you my quick thoughts of the City. As ever the Portuguese were very friendly...always helped when their SL Benfica win!

Two things struck me most about the City. One was the architecture, and the other was the presence in some of the major squares of deformed beggars. These were REAL beggars, not like you see in London. They were the poor deformed types more likely to be seen in such films as "The Elephant Man". Unfortunately there was not much I could do to help out.

• Pros:Fantastic Football Stadium
• Cons:Getting knocked out of the Champions League at too early a stage!
• In a nutshell:Plenty of Squares and Sagres!