The Highs and Lows of Lisbon.....Literally
Trip Start
Nov 11, 2007
1
4
31
Trip End
Dec 23, 2007
Lisbon,
Portugal
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
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Castle Sao Jorge was built in the 8th century by the Moors and was then a royal residence after King Afonso Henriques beat the Moors in the 12th century. The views of the Tejo River are wonderful. You can see the April 25th bridge in the background as well as the Christ Statue across the river. You may remember those from our visit last April 25th to Lisbon. We wandered around the gardens of the castle and then proceeded inside where we climbed some really steep steps, not thinking that we would have to go down those steps later, for some more spectacular views - The rooftops of the city - the plazas down below and the churches in the distance. Upon leaving the Castle we walked a bit through the old Islamic district where laundry was hanging out to dry and the streets were very narrow and quaint. The tiles encasing the buildings are beautiful and in this district, which was not damaged in the great Earthquake of 1755, one really gets a feel for the old flavor of Lisbon. Due to the fact that we walked up to this castle we decided that we owed it to ourselves to take a little trolley back down. We hadn't realized just how steep the 'little' jaunt up to the castle would be when we ventured out and by this time it was also quite warm in the sun. The trolley dropped us right around the corner from our flat - so we ducked in to refill water bottles - use the bathroom and give our hands a good scrubbing. We decided to grab a quick lunch at a restaurant we ate at the last time we were here. We both had a grilled beef sandwich and it really hit the spot
Lisbon 02
. We then took the trolley about 4 miles away from the center of Lisbon to Belem. We had two goals in mind for Belem. First stop - the Monastery of Jeronimos (St. Jerome) - 300 yards long, made of Limestone to honor the Portuguese sailors that were out conquering the world. The tomb of Vasco de Gama is here as well as the memorial tomb of a famous Portuguese poet, Luis Vaz de Camoes. The choir alter was accessible and had a very nice view of the main alter below. Stained glass was also beautiful but not original as it did not survive the earthquake in 1755. The Cloisters were very peaceful - further enhanced by the fact that there were only a small number of people there when we visited. A beautiful plaza between the Monastery and the Tejo River provided Jim with the perfect place to smoke a cigar and read while I was out taking photos. We then made our way across to the Monument to the Discoveries and the 170 foot concrete structure honoring Price Henry the Navigator. (1394-1460) I thought the monument was beautiful when we saw it last April - but that was from our cruise ship as we entered the Tejo River - I was very happy to be able to see it up close and personal. I took many photos - (Actually you will see I had a hard time deciding what to include in the photo section - so there are MANY - some of my favorites - which are of this monument are at the end of the photo spread) and you will see the close up photo of Prince Henry holding a replica of the Caravel ships that they sailed while exploring new lands
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. One side of the monument was catching the sun as it set in the West and the other side shows the shadow from that - but also the sunset view as the backdrop to Prince Henry. It is possible to go to the top of this monument - but I had had enough heights today and Jim was happy to view it from below. When we were walking away, we noticed a girl standing on the top of the monument. Ken, you were up at the top - was it possible to stand where she is standing? All day today we could not get over the safety violations - at the castle - this monument - the riverside - etc. It makes Costa Rica look safe in a lot of respects. There also seemed to be a lack of supervision and guards at many of these sites. Regardless - this girl standing on top looked like she was going to jump as you will notice in the photos. We walked down the boardwalk for a while - there were men fishing - and catching some pretty nice looking fish. We were headed for the Belem Tower - but oops - there was a marina in the way and no way to cross - we zoomed in with the camera for a photo - but then decided we should head back. As we were walking back to catch the trolley, we noticed a large crowd of people, could it be Pinks - like in L.A.?!?! Lisbon's answer to famous food - in the form of a custard filled pastry - hot out of the oven - we muscled our way to the counter and ordered up a couple of these wonderful little tarts. I notice a web site on the box - check it out. www.pasteisdebelem.pt They were great! This is a famous dessert here in Portugal, but supposedly this pastry shop has the best in town. Now it was time to head back to our flat - rest up a bit - get the photos downloaded - and think about dinner. We walked Up, up, up to the Chiado district and after climbing what seemed like 300 stairs at least, we found a very charming little restaurant - dark with a lot of candles - people drinking wine and eating good food. The name was Café Buenos Aires, there was a Reserved sign on every one of the tables - but they told us if we weren't planning on staying long -we could have one table. We went for it and had a great meal - Jim had beef with a fig and port wine reduction and I had a sesame and herb encrusted cheese dish, which was excellent - a couple of drinks rounded out the meal and then we had to battle the stairs on the way back down to the Baixa district where we are staying. It was a very long day - but a good day. We have changed our plans a bit for tomorrow - but we had some free time built into the schedule - so we are swapping tomorrows plan for one that was planned for a few days later.....stay tuned. 
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WOW am I glad my new internet is running!!! Haven't had time to study them all right now but will later.
Mom