Day 3 in Lisbon
Tuesday 27 January
A little orientation to where we are and where you might be if you ever come to Lisbon.
The city center is broken up into (and I'm going to simplify here so bear with me) four neighborhoods running from east to west: Alfama, Baixa, Chiado and Bairro Alto, the first two generally fronting the river. Our apartment is located in the Baixa. Anyway, they are all easily walkable aside from being somewhat hilly (Baixa is the exception). Still, getting around to many of the most prominent attractions is easy and public transport readily accessible.
We had originally scheduled a day trip tour to Sintra and the coast but with the persistent rain and a coastal warning for Portugal we decided to cancel that excursion. Instead we opted to visit the Jeronimos Monastery. Plus we'd be inside.
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| photo Wikimedia |
While entry to the church is free of course, to visit the cloister requires timed tickets and these are only available online. But by using the official monastery website instead of a third-party guarantees access to the senior pricing (half off thank you very much).
Our timed tickets were entry at 10:30 and since the monastery is located in the Belem district west of the city center, the tram would take about 30 minutes. So our morning was semi-leisurely. We scooted out of the apartment a little before 9 am and quickly made our way to the Praça Comercio where we found the no. 15 tram waiting for us.
The tram dropped us off right on time and no rain (yet). We queued to get into the cloister but realized that we were in the wrong queue (for the church only) and with our timed tickets we learned from a security guard that we could go right in. And so we did.
We had no sooner gotten inside than it commenced to pour the proverbial cats and dogs. And I don't mean the kind of rain that lightly passes on but holds tight and becomes a deluge. But we were inside walking the marble and stone halls that for centuries had been the haunts of serious clerics.
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| no queue at the moment |
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| the visit begins on the upper level |
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| praying is the penance for using your phone too much |
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| how many monks walked down these stairs |
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| and up |
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| ground level |
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| tomb of Alexandre Herculano (1810-1877), poet and historian |
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| tomb of Fernand Pessoa (1888-1935), poet |
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| the refectory was full of biblical stories told in tile |
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| feeding the 5,000 |
From the cloister we walked inside the church. Large, imposing and generally sterile in appearance it didn't help that there was quite a bit of restoration work underway as well. But we did get to pay our respects to one of Portugal's greatest poets and a man who literally put Portugal on the map.
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| tomb of Luis Camões (1524-1580), poet |
Upon leaving the church we were hoping to walk across the street to the large park fronting the river. This area is quite a popular destination with several museums and a lovely stroll along the river. Plus I wanted us to see the enormous Monument to the Discoveries, celebrating de Gama, Prince Henry the Navigator, Pedro Cabral and Magellan, which reportedly has a superb observation deck at its top. But the weather turned on us once again, cold rain, and so much wind and a general unpleasantness forced us to reconsider.
So we hurried over to the tram stop and took the no. 15 back to the Praça Comercio. From there we walked home to dry out.
After relaxing for just a short while -- we're prone to do that now -- we set off up our street the two blocks to the Armazens de Chiado shopping center. Located above the Metro stop the center consists of six floors at the top of which was a food court. We had an idea to find a bite to eat there but we found nothing to appeal to us. Since we were now near the top of the Bairro Alto (the "high neighborhood") we thought we'd stroll and look for a place for lunch.
We soon found a place to settle in: Benard's Tea House. The place has been around since 1868 and seemed very popular with the locals. We thought the food was fairly pedestrian, but the wine cold and after-dinner coffee delicious as was the pasteis del nata. We were also impressed with a sign noting that (a) everything was made fresh every day and (b) all leftover food was given to charity each evening.
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| Susie had the quiche of the day |
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| I had an omelet |
There's still more to come about these luscious little custard tarts. . . stay tuned! We strolled home and relaxed the rest of the afternoon until supper.
A little before 7pm we left our apartment and walked 10 feet to the Crossroad Asia Fusion Bistro. Located next door to our building it has to be one of the smallest restaurants in Lisbon with maybe six two-top tables plus a couple of seats at the bar. A quick aside - when we returned from our dinner last evening we had noticed that it was packed at 10 pm. Anyway, the food sounded good - as indeed it was.
I cannot emphasize enough how truly SMALL this place is. And staff seemed to consist of one or maybe two women working the kitchen and a man handling the front of the house. The service was very friendly and all the tables were full but one - ours. Sitting cheek-by-jowl is not for everyone but one does get a sense of intimacy without speaking which is a bit odd but also fascinating. While noodle bowls seemed to be the bulk of their menu we each had a rice-based dish washed down by the house red wine. We enjoyed it all very much and the price was right as well.
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| Minced beef, potato, egg over rice |
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| stir fried veggies and rice |
Tomorrow is Susan's baking class and we have scheduled a Tuk Tuk tour of the Alfama neighborhood for later in the afternoon.
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