Saturday, March 26 – Lisbon, Portugal

We decided to buy 2-day tickets for the Hop-On-Hop-Off tourist buses in Lisbon.  Stop #1 for all 4 tourist bus lines is very close to our hotel – extremely handy.  We decided to first go to the Belem area of Lisbon to visit St Jerome Monastery as it is not open on Sunday.  We hope to see a lot of Lisbon is two days as we have plans to rent a car on Monday to go to nearby areas – outside of Lisbon.  We are not “big city” people!  Yes, you need to spend time in the cities, especially the Capital City of a country, but often the more authentic life in the smaller villages. 

Easter Pastry

Avenue da Liberdade

Cobblestone design in sidewalk

It was a cloudy day and after we finished seeing the Monastery we walked to the Monument to Discovery.  Portugal has built a monument to all the explorers who defied the idea that the “world was flat”.  The Portuguese were the first real naval explorer.  We took an elevator to the top of the monument to view the whole area, after which we found a shop for lunch.  Hind sight would suggest we should have gone to the Tower of Belem before we had lunch, but we were tired and needed a moment to rest and re-fuel!  However, when we left the restaurant it began to rain and there was a strong wind.

Monastery of St Jerome

Lady with her carriage - Anyone for a ride?

St Jerome Cloister

Tile design

St Jerome Chapel

Cloister and Tower

Entrance to St Jerome

There was an extremely long line at the Tower of Belem – waiting in the rain!  After a long wait and getting soaked from our waist down from the rain as well as the waves crashing into the tower under the bridge that leads into the tower we had enough, thank goodness we each had an umbrella. The view of the area would have been much nicer had it not been for the pouring rain.

Monument of the Discoveries

Tower of Belem

By the time we reached the hotel, we were soaked from our waist down, and very chilled.  A hot shower was definitely at the top of the order!

This evening we ate at a restaurant where performers sang “Fado” style music.  The show was very nice.  Returning to the hotel, after 12:00am, we are off to bed.

Portuguese Fedo Show

Tomorrow, Easter Sunday, Day Light Savings time begins in Portugal so we lose an hour of sleep tonight.