Friday 30 January
Another leisurely morning in Lisbon and our last full day in Portugal's capital will be spent seeing the city with a local. Richard and Pauline connected us up with their friend Graça who, after many years in England, returned to her home in Lisbon a few years ago. We arranged to meet her at the nearby Hotel de Chiado (Shee-ah-do) for coffee and a pastel de nata - and the city views from the rooftop cafe.
We left the apartment at little before 11 am and walked the two or three minutes to the hotel where Graça was waiting for us in the lobby. We had a few minutes to chat there before the rooftop restaurant opened which gave us an opportunity to reintroduce ourselves. (We had met Graça at Richard and Pauline's home in West Hampstead many years ago.)
After getting caught up a bit the three of us took the elevator to the top floor where we savored incredible views of the city before sitting and enjoyed a coffee and pastry.
After enjoying the cafe and sweets we took a taxi to another hotel, the Macam located a bit west of the city center.
But this hotel had a unique twist: originally a school for children, today besides being a five-star hotel it is also a museum with several galleries of modern and contemporary art.
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| Graça and Susan in front of two Untitled pieces by José de Almada de Negreiros |
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| detail |
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| detail of Seascape by João Vaz |
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| gallery 1 |
We especially enjoyed the works in Gallery 1, such as:
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Muted Music by Amadeo de Souza-Cardosa
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| The Crockery Man by Eduardo Viana |
After spending a little time in one of the galleries it was of course time for lunch. The museum/hotel had a lovely little cafe overlooking an interior garden. Susan and I each had a delicious chicken salad and Graça had a hamburger.
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| Untitled (White Deer) by Miguel Branco |
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| the poinsettas -- live! -- were still in place from last Christmas |
After a leisurely lunch we took a taxi -- they are so inexpensive in Lisbon as are the Ubers -- toward the Belem district. Home to some of the city's important monuments and museums, it is located along the waterfront and includes the Jeronimos monastery which we had visited early in our stay.
We had hoped to spend more time in this part of the city -- I especially wanted to see the Monument to the Discoveries -- when we visited the monastery, but it was pouring rain that day and we opted to head back to our apartment instead. Today was very sunny but windy and Graça wanted us to see the Cultural Center which was just across the street from the Monument, our first stop.
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| Monument to the Discoveries |
There is an observation deck at the top of the monument which can be accessed by an elevator. It was so terribly windy we opted to skip that however.
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| Prince Henry the Navigator in the lead |
In the open space in front of the monument is a large map showing the places and years of discoveries by the Portuguese.
From the monument it was a very short walk across the street to the massive Cultural Center of Belem. Home to numerous cultural events it also houses a museum of modern art as well as a bookshop and cafe, which we made use of. We also enjoyed the garden overlooking the Monument and riverfront.
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| my favorite navigatrix |
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| The Thumb by César Baldichini - a huge copy is in La Defense in Paris |
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| cafe |
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| a machine to rent a power bank to charge your phone |
After coffee in the bookshop we headed off across a lovely park to the taxi stand across from the monastery.
The taxi dropped us in the Campo Ourique, Graça's neighborhood where she showed us around a lovely little park and past several shops selling sweet treats.
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| Az de Comer shop |
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| just one of many examples of local architecture from Art Deco to modern |
At the Mantegaria shop we could watch one of the staff filling the tins for
pastel de nata, so many tins!
It was just a few steps to the entrance to Graça's building and we were soon comfortably ensconced in her living room. After an aperitif we removed to the dining room for a delicious light supper of egg salad, meat croquettes, chicken pie, and greens.
We chatted a while after dinner but there was no mistaking the reality - we had to get back to the apartment and pack up for our train to Porto the next morning.
Graça kindly walked us to the taxi stand just around the corner from her apartment and along the park where we said goodnight and promised to give her regards to Richard and Pauline on Saturday.
The taxi ride was short but circuitous, like the city of course, and before long we were back home. It didn't take Susie long to pack us up and ready ourselves for our departure to Porto Saturday morning.
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