Lisbon, our last day of vacation

Happy Birthday Craig!!! How does my sister have a 16 year old son!!

Tried to sleep in this morning as we had nothing that needed to be done right away today, made it until about 8AM then time to get up and get moving. Breakfast at the hotel and we were on the road again for our last full day in Portugal by 10AM.

Today our plan was to spend a good part of the day in Belem. We started off by catching the metro to the end of the line in front of our hotel, then transferring to a bus to get to Belem. I must say that all of the metros I have been on in major cities like Paris, Montreal, London, Madrid, this is by far the easiest to figure out, and the cleanest we have ever been on. We had no worries traveling this way at all.

In Belem we started off by walking to the Ages of Discovery monument, a monument that was built in 1960 along the Tejo River to commemorate the discovery by sea of the Portuguese. From here we then walked along the riverfront to the Belem Tower. Of course we decided to go into the tower and walk up to the top, figured this would be our last tower walk while in Portugal. Some nice views from here, but a quick visit was all that was required.

Ages of discovery monument

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tower of Belem

Tower of Belem

Following the Belem Tower tour we got back on the hop on hop off bus tour for Belem. The tickets we purchased yesterday were for 2 days, and you could use the bus, tram, tour bus, really anything except the metro. This tour took us about 40 minutes. It was a little disappointing as the regular open air bus was all covered in plastic, I guess because they were calling for rain, but it sure didn't make for nice picture taking.

We got off this tour at the Monastery dos Jeronimos. Another beautiful Church with a very pretty cloister. Lots of details here that we haven't seen in other examples. The view from the second floor onto the sanctuary is very pretty, though after yesterday in the Basilica looking down from the dome balcony I don't think anything will beat that.

Monestary

Cloister in Monestary

After all this touring it was time for something to eat. We went to the Pasties de Belem for their famous Pasties, they have been in business since 1837 and serve 10.000 of these Pasties a day. Ours were served warm with cinnamon and icing sugar on top, very yummy, kind of like a custard in a filo pastry shell, really different and good.

10.000 pasties a day sold!!

Yummy!

Next it is time for some lunch and found a place that was advertising tomato soup as their soup of the day for 2 Euro, we decided to go here and it turns out this is a very nice wine bar. We were not the best customers, we still had lots of touring to do so had bread, soup and a litre of water, needless to say we were not offered free port at the end that others were! Anyway it was good soup and enough to keep us going for the rest of the day.

We walked by the palace next with the guards out then next stop was at the carriage museum. Amazing that this is the most visited museum in Lisbon. We decided to go in and it was really nice. Lots of carriages on display. When the queen that was in power when the first cars came out in Lisbon she decided that the carriages needed to be preserved, so started this museum, guess she knew that carriages would not be in fashion much longer! 

Guards on duty at the Royal Palace

Carriage museum

Next we got on a bus back from Belem into downtown Lisbon. Here we could hear a lot of commotion and a large stage set up, we think it was gov't workers doing some kind of protest, I told Andre he could join in for practice when he goes home...On the next block over we went to the Santa Justa Elevator from the early 1900's that was included in our bus ticket. After about .5 hour wait in line we did get up and saw some nice views of the city.

Protest downtown

Town square from the top of the elevator

Elevator from street

From here we walked up to the Cathedral. I was about churched out but since this is the most important church in Lisbon one more visit was in order, and we were not disappointed. Probably the most impressive was you could pay an extra 2.50 to go back to the cloister. They have been doing excavation here for over 10 years and have found some amazing things, dating back as for as 5BC. Lots of thing still under tarp, so confusing how they can dig up something and decide whether it is old or not, definitely not our specialties! There also was another paper mache creche back here, just as beautiful as the one we saw yesterday, but a little smaller, spent lots of time looking at the details again here.

Organ in Cathedral

Cloiser be excavated, ruins found from BC

Amazing creche in Cathedral

Doors within doors

From the Cathedral we caught a tram up the hill to St. George Castle. Looked around a little at the views, but decided not to go in since we have done so much already today, and have seen our fair share of castles and climbed castle walls lately.

Interesting urinal in street outside castle wall, Andre said it was too bad he didn't need to go as he would have used it!!

Caught a bus back downtown again and decide it is time for supper. It is early, only 6:30, but we are done for the day and have to get packed up tonight. We know we will probably be the only clientele, and actually a couple of restaurants we looked into only had the staff eating at this time. Decided to pick a restaurant that the guy outside told me they would make me Piri Piri chicken, we have not seen this on a menu since we left Albufeira, so I am happy. After dinner the cook asks me if we are American, corrected her on that, she is very happy to talk to us as she now lives in Toronto and has come home to Portugal to look after her Mom for 6 months. Fun to talk to her, she said she misses the snow, find that a little hard to believe!

Learingi to ice scate, so much older than in Canada!  Check out how wet the ice is...

After dinner we head out and see another square around the block that we haven't seen yet. There was a line up for something. They are serving Ginjinha, which is the cherry liquor. The line up is because this is the first place in London to see it, you just buy it then drink it on the street. We of course say we should participate and get in line, the server adds cherries soaked in brandy to the liquor to make it even stronger, just what I need at this point!

Line up to buy cherry brandy

Now we head off to find another bottle of Port to bring home. Andre makes his selection, and we are off for our last metro ride home.

Back in the room, try to reach Craig to wish him happy birthday, and find out what kind of car his parents bought him for his 16^th birthday like our parents did for us (ha ha). We can't reach him so figure they have gone out to support him while he tries to pass his drivers license.

View from our hotel room, maybe our last picture of Porgugal???