Alcântara: under the bridge, through the printworks
A printworks turned bookshop and studios, right under the great red bridge, with a marina to end on. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. LX Factory
A 19th-century textile-and-printing complex now full of studios, cafés and signwriting. Wander the main lane first without buying anything; the painted walls and the old machinery left in place are the point.

2. Ler Devagar
The bookshop inside the old print hall, presses still bolted to the floor and a paper-bird sculpture flying off a flying bicycle overhead. Go up to the gallery level for the full height of the room.

3. Pilar 7
The experience built inside the bridge's seventh pillar — a lift up into the deck where the cars roar overhead. Worth it for the glass floor and the structure up close; skip if heights aren't your thing.

4. Ponte 25 de Abril underdeck
Stand directly beneath the span where it meets the bank. The hum of traffic on the steel grating above is constant and strange. The bridge is a 1966 sibling of the one in San Francisco — same engineers, same red.

5. Doca de Santo Amaro
The little marina tucked under the bridge deck, old warehouses turned into waterside tables. A drink here with the bridge overhead and the masts in front is the reward leg of the walk.

6. Museu do Oriente
A 1940s cod-warehouse turned museum of Portugal's Asian past, east along the dock road. The building's heavy industrial bones are half the visit; go for the Chinese and Japanese rooms, stay for the river view from the café.

Alcântara: under the bridge, through the printworks