Lisbon - Day 4

---

Today it was Belém, Take II. Having missed things on our Belém list yesterday we resolved to rise earlier today to be near the head of the queue for the monastery this morning.

We repeated our rail journeys of yesterday and, once again, the train didn’t stop at Belém this morning. Hmmn, obviously you need to have access to a full timetable to know what stations the train is (and isn’t!) going to stop at. The information board at the station only gave the destination and time of departure for the train.

Soooooo, we alighted at the same stop as yesterday morning which wasn’t so bad for going to the Torre de Belém but was not so great for the monastery. We were looking at a 30-minute walk back to the monastery until we realised that we might be able to cross to the opposite platform to take a train back towards the city that would, hopefully, stop at Belém. Phew, we just made the next city-bound train and, hallelujah, it stopped at Belém Station. It is so weird that trains from the city don’t stop at the station that is closest to the monastery which is a major attraction??

Leaving the station, we made our way through Praça Afonso de Alburquerque. The square features a bronze statue of Afonso, the Second Governor of Portuguese India, atop a column. The square also featured a loose cobble that was nearly my undoing. Not looking where I was putting my feet I stood right on the cobble and almost had a fall. Maybe it was just as well I opted for shoes rather than sandals today?? I think proper shoes may just have saved me from a turned ankle?!

Crossing the street from the square we found ourselves at the front of Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. Thank goodness we didn’t spend half an hour walking back here as the queue was already really long well before the 10.00am opening time! We secured ourselves a place in the queue which I then held while Bernie wandered along the street taking photos of the façade. While I waited I made conversation with the English woman in the queue behind me while her husband was off trying to buy a hat. They are on a cruise that has spent two nights in Lisbon.

Yay, the queue started moving well before 10.00am which meant that we were actually being admitted to the monastery at the advertised opening time. A much better experience than our ridiculous wait at the Torre de Belém yesterday! I decided to visit the Ladies before we started looking around. It was a good thing I did because while Bernie was waiting for me he realised that we should start in the cloisters rather than end there because very few people were in the cloisters yet. Good thinking. Despite the fact that 100s of people had already been admitted we managed to take photos of the spectacular Manueline cloisters without other pesky tourists in them!

Mosteiro dos Jerónimos was founded in 1501 to celebrate the return of Vasco da Gama after his voyage which discovered a sea route to India. The monastery’s design was conceived by Diogo de Boitaca and bankrolled by Dom Manuel I. For four centuries the monks who populated Jerónimos comforted sailors and prayed for the king’s soul. The monastery was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.

After thoroughly exploring the monastery from the cloisters to the chapter house and refectory we exited and joined the end of the queue to enter Igreja Santa Maria de Belém outside the elaborate South Portal. As we waited we were able to admire the handiwork of 16^th-century architect, João de Castilho. Once again the queue was moving along steadily and we were into the church quite quickly. The church features some impressive stained glass windows and is the final resting place of Vasco da Gama and the 16^th-century poet Luis Vaz de Camões who wrote the epic poem The Lusiad in 1572 to celebrate da Gama’s first voyage. Oh, a couple of Kings are interred there too: Manuel I and John III.

Our next stop was at Antigua Confeitaria de Belém for Pastéis de Belém. Since 1837 this patisserie has been baking what we know as Portuguese tarts, but the Portuguese call Pastéis de Belém. It doesn’t matter what you call them, the custard encased in crispy, layered pastry treats are delicious! The offerings at Antigua Confeitaria are supposed to be the original and the best and we polished off three each!!

Next on our agenda for today was Palácio Nacional da Ajuda. Bernie puts great stead in Google Maps and told me it was only a couple of minutes away from the tart shop. Hmmn, we walked along the street and Bernie’s like it’s the pink palace. Yeah right, the one with the armed guards in their guardhouses and no sign of a ticket office, I’m not sure about that. Well, maybe the entrance is around the corner? Approaching and rounding the corner what we did find was the Antigo Picadeiro Real (more on that later) but still no obvious tourist entrance to the palace.

All of a sudden I remembered that I had our Lisbon pocket guide in my bag. I whipped that out and checked the actual, hard-copy map in there and we worked out that Bernie was asking Google for a palace and it was giving him Palácio de Belém (the President’s residence!) when what we actually wanted was Palácio Nacional da Ajuda, the former royal residence. Palaces are thick on the ground here!

Now the only problem was that the guide said ‘It’s a long uphill walk from Belém’. Great, that’s going to be a bit more strenuous than the couple of minutes walk that Bernie had promised me!!? Crossing to the shady side of the street we started our trek up the hill.

With sweat pouring off us we finally made it to the right palace and used our Lisboa Cards to enter. The palace was built in the early 19^th-century in the neoclassical style and served as the royal residence from the 1860s until the end of the monarchy in 1910. The private apartments and staterooms were staggeringly sumptuous and worth the effort to get there. The best thing about this destination, no queues, now crowds. We had the palace almost to ourselves! I guess not many tourists can face that long uphill walk??

As we were leaving the palace we noticed the Museu do Tesoro Real, a museum that had not featured in any of our research. Basically the Royal Treasures Museum. What the heck, we’re right here we might as well check out the Crown Jewels and other royal riches. As we made to enter we were told that it’s a high security building and Bernie would have to leave his camera bag in a locker. No problem, we took the bag over to the lockers and returned to the entrance.

We were escorted inside where we had to walk through a metal detector and everything else we still had on us –cameras, my small bag – was put through the X-ray scanner. Security clearance done, we handed over our Lisboa Cards to be issued with our ‘keys to the vault’ well, actually, paper tickets with QR codes on them. Once again this destination is obviously a bit under the average tourist’s radar and there were very few people joining us to marvel over the jewels, crowns and silverware. The truly astonishing thing about the collection is that it is a very small fraction of the treasures that the royal family held before they were deposed in 1910. When the monarchy fell, most of their wealth was spirited away to other royal houses in Europe.

After a late lunch in the cafeteria at the Museu do Tesoro Real we started to make our way back down the hill. As we were walking right past the Jardim Botânico da Ajuda we decided we might as well have a quick look. Not covered by our Lisboa Cards we had to pay €2.00 each to enter. The oldest botanical garden in Portugal this garden, laid out over two levels in 1768, originally formed part of the palace gardens. With a very formal layout featuring box hedges, centuries old trees and a baroque fountain decorated with serpents, fish, seahorses and mythical creatures it couldn’t be more different from the garden we visited on Wednesday.

Back at the bottom of the hill we used our Lisboa Cards again to visit Antigo Picadeiro Real. This building is the old Royal Riding School and the original coach museum before they built the new home for old coaches across the road. There are still eight coaches housed in the building, but really this place is about the building itself rather than the small number of coaches it still has on display. The building features an elaborately stuccoed and frescoed ceiling and artworks around an upstairs gallery. In a side hall it also featured a tribute to the history of the firefighting service in Lisbon. It was definitely worth a look.

With the afternoon getting away from us it was time to catch the train back into the city. I mean, for goodness sake, it was nearly gelato o’clock and we needed to get back to our favourite gelato shop for our daily fix! Our gelato lady told us she is going on holidays at the end of today so we are going to have to train a new person that yes, we really do want two scoops of the one flavour in our cones. The lady who has been serving us has finally got her head around the idea that we don’t do mixed flavours!

Tonight we decided to try Bamboo Ramen for dinner. Great reviews on Google and we weren’t disappointed with our (dry) pork ramen bowls.



Steps: 16,292 (11.01 kms)

---

Comments

[Caroline Brunner]

Sharing is caring.
Another AMAZING adventure. Thanks so much for sharing, Tracey & Bernie. Your commentary is fabulous, Tracey; it brings so much life to your story. I LOVE it. Cheers.

[Trabern]

Thank you
I write from the heart and often refer back to our travel diaries to help recall the memories. Photos are great at reminding us what we SAW, but the diary is a must for helping us to recall how we FELT. Happy to share and great to hear that you are enjoying Spain along with us. What’s next on your list?