We had another early morning and a sumptuous breakfast at the non-culturally immersive hotel. We jumped on the tour bus and were herded to the Jerónimos Monastery in Belém. After having beautiful weather the day before, it poured for most of this day.
On our bus, we passed the Águas Livres Aqueduct, a gothic aqueduct built between 1731 and 1799.
Nuno, our guide in Lisbon and on the bus to Porto.
Jerónimos Monastery in Belém. This is where the pastel de nata recipe may have originated.
The monastery facade.
Monastery cloister with ornate carvings
More cloister
More cloister
Even more cloister. We love cloisters.
Our guide said something about this statue, which we don’t remember.
A mason’s mark. This is how the masons signed their work.
Azulejos in the refectory.
More azulejos
Long view of the refectory, with a painting.
More azulejos
Back outside of the monastery. It was huge.
Museum plaza outside the monastery.
We were given free time after the monastery tour. While most of the people on the bus went to Pastéis de Belém, we went to the Maritime Museum. These are astrolabes used by navigators to estimate latitude.
A globe that shows the Great Lakes (connected to the northwest passage).
Ship’s figurehead of Vasco de Gama
Ship’s figurehead of Henry the Navigator. He suffered from seasickness and tended to stay on shore inventing nautical technological advances.
Outside the Maritime Museum, the children were children.
We boarded the buses and drove to the Tower of Belém. William braved the rain to catch some pictures. This is the memorial of the first aerial crossing of the south Atlantic, from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro.
The Belém Tower, built in the 16th century, was a fort and a point of embarkation for Portuguese explorers.
The Tower was built on an island in the Tagus and is a UNESCO world heritage site, along with the nearby monastery.
Lots of people were waiting to see the inside of the tower. William did not partake because he had to get back to the bus.
We boarded the bus and drove to this vantage point, where we were allowed to quickly disembark to take some pictures. On a clear day this would shown us a great view of the Tagus and the suburbs across the river.
We returned to the hotel and were set free to explore on our own, for the afternoon. We chose another restaurant from the Culinary Backstreets restaurant guide for a late lunch: Casa Nepalesa. Lisbon has a significant Nepalese and Tibetan immigrant community. The food was amazing. Elaine enjoys some naan and a samosa.
We were the last patrons to leave the lunch service; they would reopen later for dinner. We enjoyed our meal very much, and apparently one of the waiters enjoyed us too. He treated us to an after-lunch glass of port.
After lunch, we returned to the hotel, gathered our laundry, and proceeded to a nearby laundromat. We had pizza in our hotel room for dinner. We hit the sack early because we had to catch an early bus to our vessel, the Viking Torgil, in Porto the next morning. All things considered, it was a pretty good day, but we did not enjoy being herded on tour nor the insularity of the hotel. However, the chocolates on the pillow each night were quite nice.