Discoverer’s and pastries

Our last day in Lisbon was devoted to crossing a couple of boxes on our ‘must see’ list.

Lisbon’s iconic (postcard shot) Monument to the Discoveries is located on the bank of the Targus River and celebrates Portugal’s Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries.

I had seen it on someone else’s Facebook (!) and couldn’t wait to see it in the stone, so to speak. It was magnificent, quite awe inspiring and we also went to the top for panoramic views of Belém, the suburb in which it is situated.

The other key monument here is the Torre de Belém (Belém Tower.)

 

This fortified tower was built in the 16th century and classified a Unesco World Heritage site in 1983.

We had fun climbing the claustrophobic stairs and visiting the dungeons (for very short people) before heading back to the commercial strip to sample the other item that Belém is famous for….

 

That item is the Delicious Pasteis de Belém – a custard tart that was developed by the nearby monastery in the 18th century and has become a culinary institution – one that we had to try! And then try another one, just to make sure the first one wasn’t a fluke……

They were gorgeous and the café was absolutely packed, a rabbit warren of little rooms to eat with fabulous decorative tiled walls and scrumptious offerings on the front counter. There is often a queue to get in here. You could even see into the actual bakery where they were churning the tarts out at a great rate – in fact ours were still warm.

I’m sure we climbed enough stairs to deal with those extra calories …didn’t we?

Moving somewhat slowly, we ambled down to the Maritime Museum which held Russell’s and my interest for the first room but we soon found our interest waning whilst Sam was clearly absorbed. We decided to digress and we trotted down to the Royal Coaches Museum, arranging to meet him back at the apartment.

 

A stunning collection of more than 40 royal coaches from throughout the ages, it left me feeling very sorry for the horses who had to pull some of them!

 

 

The other highlight of the day was the ingenuity of one of the young buskers angling for donations near a road underpass. We saw many busker/beggars on our trip and this young lad was playing the accordion (like so any others we saw) but with a difference…. Check out his tiny accomplice holding the paper cup for donations – too cute to resist! A very cool point of differentiation.

Ready to put our up feet by now, we headed back onto the tram toward our apartment and as we were disembarking we were tapped on the shoulder by Sam, coincidentally he had been sitting at the back of our tram all along.

For our last dinner in Lisbon, we dined at a lovely tapas bar overlooking the city as the late evening sun bathed the terra cotta roofs – just stunning.

 

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