Day 1 Lisbon

I was awake before 5 - so not a huge amount of sleep - but after fiddling around sorting out a few things, it was well worth getting out early for a tramp up and down the hills of our neighbourhood.

I walked up to the Miradoura da Graça with its views over Lisbon, but what was lovely were the glimpses of early morning colours in the sky as one looked down narrow (steep!) streets or across to the Panteão de Santa Engracia (I think) past a lovely garden (jardim) in the Graça area - being tended to early by council employees: an early watering and tidy up. 

Temperatures were cool but by the time I returned, via the Castelo de São Jorge, I had a sense the day was likely to be a warm one (which turned out to be the case!).

When I got back, we left to walk back down to Martim Moniz station - marvelling at how on earth we managed to climb the steep street the night before - towing our suitcases!

Today our focus is doing the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos and the Torre de Belém. These are must-sees in Lisbon and I had bought the tickets online so we needed to get there early as per the scheduled times on the tickets.

It was metro then tram to Belém and we thought we had plenty of time, but the Tower was quite a walk from the tram stop. Still, we were early and first to go in when it opened.

It was built between 1514 and 1520 in a Manuelino style and classified as a World Heritage Site in 1983 by UNESCO. Constructed on the northern bank of the Tagus River, this tower was used to defend the city. Years later, it was transformed into a lighthouse and customs house. We climbed up the 5 floors and got some nice views over the river.

We walked back to the Monastery - an absolutely enormous building. The queues were also enormous and proceeding at snail’s pace; there was no way we were going to make our allotted time of 10:30 am (we had joined the queue at about 10:10) but it appeared to not matter - no-one was going to get in according to their allocated ticket time slot. 

It was very hot in the now fully burning sun. We passed some time talking in a mix of English and Italian to 4 Italians travelling together - from Bologna.

Finally we got in about 11 a.m. and the cloisters were really beautiful. They are of a honey-stone Manueline-style, dripping with detail in their scalloped arches, twisting turrets and columns intertwined with leaves, vines and knots. It was very ‘wow’.

After nearly an hour here, we found we had to re-queue (!!) to enter the church itself. We nearly decided to pass but the queue moved at a reasonable pace and we got in. The famous explorer Vasco da Gama is interred in the lower chancel.

Next, we had a much awaited ‘lunch’ at the famous Pasteis de Belem Café: 2 Portuguese tarts each and a coffee. Yum!

We took a bus back to Cais de Sodre station and I noticed the TimeOut Market (Mercado da Ribeira) was opposite. I had read about this so we called in. It looks wonderful but it was so crowded, so we left after walking around it and took the train to Martim Moniz.

Our next task was to find Av. de Liberdade as we meet here tomorrow for a tour and I don’t want to stuff around in the morning looking for it. So more walking and we located it. More walking and more hills followed. I am told by MF that today we walked 16000 steps including 41 flights of steps (definition: 10 per flight). My app says 18.7 kms!

We were hot and tired by the time we got back to our apartment - up the very steep and narrow road (again), past hidden courtyards, pitched rooftops and labyrinthine alleyways.

Time for a rest!