Monsanto

This week’s edition of Time Out Lisboa featured Lisbon’s wonderful green space -Monsanto. “Fifty Things you have to see or do in Monsanto Forest Park before you die" was the title of the feature. Generally, Lisbon is a pretty green city. There are all sorts of little parks and gardens tucked away down quiet side streets. But Monsanto is a vast expanse of natural woodland to literally get lost in. It covers 900 hectares, that almost 10 square kilometres. It has a motorway running through it, the A5 out to Cascais, but you can just about ignore the noise of the traffic and enjoy the birdsong.

Growing up in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, “Monsanto” meant for me a chemical plant belching out polluting smoke by the River Bann, but here it’s a green lung for an ancient capital. And it’s not far from the centre either. 5-10 minutes by car out of the city centre will bring you into quiet leafy glades. In fact, according to Time Out, you can follow a “green corridor” from the central Marques Pombal square all the way out to the Park through cycle routes in only 3 km. Must try that some time.

Anyway, with Colin home, only for one week, we decided we’d go and see how many of the fifty things we might achieve. Some we discounted immediately, such the climbing wall or adopting a dog (the Municipal Kennels are situated in the park)! But we did manage to do a few things and saw some spectacular vistas of the river and the bridge, and Lisbon’s own aqueduct, which used to carry water into the city, and is a remarkable feat of 18th Century engineering and architecture. It was a fine evening, with the sun going down in the west, kids playing in the skate park, young lovers sitting on the grass, great lolloping dogs bounding around among the trees. These are moments that family memories are made of.

www.timeout.sapo.pt