One benefit of an incredibly hilly city is that the tops of those hills provide great views. In Lisbon they call these viewpoints miradouros, and every person and guidebook recommends a different one.
But the Miradouro da Graça seems to be popular with everyone. We climbed up on Monday evening, a little before sunset, hoping for perfect views. Although things were a little hazier than we expected given the blinding sunshine of the day, we were not disappointed.
In typical Lisbon style, the miradouro is set in the grounds of the Igreja e Convento da Graça, the same church we can see high on the hill from our house. Along the viewing area is an excellent terrace café where people gather to drink, snack and chat while enjoying the view.
I enjoyed both an espresso and an imperial, a small 20 cL glass of beer common throughout Lisbon. It costs around €1.30 — roughly the same as a coffee. We also enjoyed an order of batatas fritas, a more fun way of saying “a bag of Lays potato chips”.
Since my last visit to Europe smoking bans have swept across the continent, and to everyone’s surprise (okay, mostly mine) they seem to have worked. The only exception are outdoor terraces like this one where everyone is very eager to make up for lost time by chain smoking into their imperials.
The area around the miradouro has been freshly renovated creating a nice garden square. It all helps to make the long climb up Calçada da Graça worthwhile.
