This next post sort of gives you an overall glimpse of how you can spend one full day in Lisbon Portugal. We stayed in Lisbon for two nights but explored the surrounding area on day two, seeing the town of Sintra, the National Palace of Pena and then the Belém district.
We actually had to take an Uber from Sintra to Belém in the afternoon which is funny because in a previous post I stated that we almost never take Ubers while on Vacation. In this case we had to though because it was about a 30 minute drive, which is way too far to walk.
The main draw to Belém is its 16th century Tower located on the edge of the Tagus River. It was originally built to protect the city of Lisbon and then later converted into a lighthouse (Source).
A giant square structure accessed by a wooden bridge, standing alone at the edge of the water surrounded by a small sandy beach - it was quite a unique looking monument.
There was also a grassy park located behind it and a promanade that followed the river for some distance which made for a nice little walk in the late afternoon.
The promanade took us passed the harbor
to another large monument called Padrão dos Descobrimentos.
It's original construction was completed in 1940 and commemorates the early Portugese explorers (Source)
It was a nice looking monument and I really liked the detail work of the statued figures.
We saw some interesting means of transportation in town starting with these little yellow, three wheeled carts that could be rented to tour the area.
We saw a young couple having fun driving one in the downtown Lisbon area. It was hilarious when they passed. They're so tiny, like a little go cart of sorts.
On the complete opposite end of the spectrum were the horse drawn carriages that we saw clip clopping through the streets.
Two modes of transportation marketted for two very different types of people, but equally fun looking in their own way.
Part cathedral and part museum, the Jeronimos Monestary was also worth checking out in Belém. It was a massive structure built like a palace and was absolutely beautiful inside. I would say that it's a must see monument of the district.
The last thing on our list of things to do was of course to eat Pasteis de Nata from the location in which they were born.
Pasteis de Nata were originally created in the 1830's in what was then, the small town of Belem. Specifically they were invented by nuns at the Jeronimos Monestary and shortly thereafter the bakery seen in the photos above and below, which is located a little ways away from the Monestary, opened up and began to sell the world renowned dessert. (Source)
The line up outside the location was quite long, but it moved very fast and we really couldn't go to Belém without stopping in for the delicious and quintessential treat of Portugal. It was one of those few times that we waited in a line up, but under 10 minutes wasn'ttoo long and it was worth it. The workers inside moved like an assembly line, continuously packing boxes with their warm pasteis.
We walked across the street and sat on a park bench to eat them.
A part of me was thinking that they wouldn't be very good. I thought that the bakery would be like many other famous locations that start out as something special and then over time turn out to be crap as the business pursues greater and greater profits by using cheaper and cheaper ingredients. Places often use their famous name to continue to produce sales it seems. Maybe I'm just cynical that way though, because I was quite wrong in my assessment. The pasteis were delicious and I dare say that they were probably the best that we had in the country during our vacation.
The park we sat in was a nice little green space and had one last statue and monument for us to admire.
After that we tried walking back to our hotel in Lisbon but eventually realized that it was way too far for us given how much walking we had done already. We walked for around 45 minutes and still had an hour left to go. We walked a little further and then called for another Uber that took 7 minutes and only cost 5 euros. I don't know how many kilometers we walked that day but I was in pain by the end and my fitbit stated that I had walked for 37 thousand steps!
Though I was almost hobbling that night, I would do it all again to eat another one of those delicious Pasteis de natas.