Travel Day 812 – Belem, Lisbon, PORTUGAL
Since this was not only our fist but also our only full day in Lisbon and since we still wanted to see everything in town, we needed to get ourselves a bit organized…
UNESCO enlisted Belem Tower at the Tagus River in Lisbon, Portugal
First off we took a stroll down from Praca Dom Pedro to the nice old Praca do Comercio at the waterfront. From there we reckoned that it would make the most sense to see those things further away rather today, because tomorrow was only a half day for us. So we hopped on the next passing tram towards Belem to visit the Monastery of the Hieronymites and Tower of Belem, which were both UNESCO World Heritage enlisted sites…
As it turned out, Belem was just a short ride along the waterfront with colorfully tiled houses away from the center of Lisbon. Belem itself was not only famous for its huge monastery and the ancient defense tower, but also for its baked goods. Apparently the Pastel de Nata was invented here and Belem was still supposed to be the best place in the country to sample it. So obviously we went to see the Monastery of the Hieronymites and the Tower of Belem, but we also dedicated some time to a coffee in the sun with some amazing Pasteis de Nata…
UNESCO Hieronymites Monastery in Belem of Lisbon, Portugal
While the Pasteis were great, so were the UNESCO sites and we tacked them by staring with the huge Monastery of the Hieronymites. This Portuguese Late Gothic structure that was erected during the 15th and 16th century had been occupied by Hieronymite monks who would pray for and give spiritual assistance to the sailors leaving Lisbon harbor to explore the world. Ironically, the close by Tower of Belem on the other hand had the opposite function, while forcefully protecting the Tagus River and the harbor entrance from anything that was coming from the world towards Lisbon…
Afterwards visiting both UNESCO sites, we went back to the center of Lisbon and had a long walk through the historic Alfama area. While climbing higher and higher through the narrow cobble stone roads, we finally reached the big fortress Castle de Sao Jorge on top of the hill. As there was not too much to see, besides big defense walls and towers, at least the views over the city were simply amazing. This became especially true as the sun was setting and everything was illuminated by the warm, low light…
Evening view of Castle of Sao Jorge in Lisbon, Portugal
The last thing we ended up doing was having a nice dinner in a typical Fado restaurant in the Bairro Alto area. After the funny experience of running into an Indian restaurant yesterday, today we made sure to have a perfect recommendation for an actual Portuguese restaurant and since we had no real clue what Fado was supposed to be, we were there not only for the good food, but also for the surprise experience…
Only slowly was the restaurant filling up and musicians started playing some music, but eventually someone got up from a table and started singing as loud as he possibly could. After a few songs he sat down and someone else got up to perform a song or two. From some people seemingly eating there to the bouncer, the waiter, the chef and even the kitchen maid, everyone took turns in performing some songs. All the performers seemed to be quite good singers, although obviously some were more pleasant to listen to than others. But it was overall a really fun dinner that concluded a really great day in Lisbon…
Everyone should try a real pastel de natas at least once in their lives, absolutely delicious. Another good place so taste real Portuguese sweets is Aveiro, I think the city is also famous for them.
Thank you for your recommendation! I have actually never been to Aveiro, but I will make sure to add it to my list for the next Portugal visit and I obviously will also make sure to eat some pastries there. Agreed, everyone should try Pastel de Nata and they can actually be found in many former Portuguese colonies. I even ate some in Macau, China… : )