It was finally time to head to Lisbon. In order to save some money and headache on the rental car I decided to drop the rental car off at the Lisbon airport and get a shuttle into town. There were some communication errors with our pre-booked shuttle so we ended up having to take a taxi. The Portuguese people are so helpful and they were able to quickly get us a taxi van that could hold all of us and it turned out that taxi was cheaper than the pre-booking. Also our taxi was able to drop us right at the door of our apartment. Talk about a good start to our time in Lisbon.
By the time we finished checking in and getting settled into our apartment it was time for lunch and then we hopped on a tram and headed out to Belem. Belem is in the southwestern part of Lisbon and contains many historical sites and museums. Our first stop was at the old national coach museum. Upon entering we didn't realize that the new museum was actually already open so at first we were disappointed. Then they pointed us across the street to the new museum where most of the coaches were moved to. Oops!
After the museum we made a stop for a traditional pastry "pastel de Belem". Supposedly these pastries are specific to Belem and the similar ones seen elsewhere are a different style and recipe. They were good and we enjoyed eating them in the nearby park while Jacob played on the playground.
Once we were refreshed and ready to move on we headed to
“Monument to the Discoveries” which is a monument in honor of Dom Henrique or
“Henry the Navigator”. The monument has
several explorers carved into it and a large map of the world in tile on the
ground in front. It also provided an
excellent view of Belem.
We had to make our way quickly from the tower over to the
Jeronimos Monastery before it closed. It
forced us to move quickly but since it was so close to closing we were
basically the only people there, which was nice. Hailey had a photo shoot in the cloister but
once again I don’t have those pictures yet. The monastery was beautiful and it
was interesting to think about the days that monks filled the rooms.
The next day we had a walking tour of the main part of
Lisbon. Our guide was about Micah and
I’s age and real personable and fun. She
gave lots of insight to the city and its history. We took pictures along the
way. We saw a burned out church, the
memorial and apology of the Catholic Church for when a mob went out killing
Jews, an old bar selling its very own original liquor which of course tasted at
10am. We walked through the old literary area and up to a beautiful
viewpoint. At the end we rode a
funicular down and ended at the “Time Out” market, which was where we ended up
eating lunch.
The “Time Out” market was a fun unique experience that we
wouldn’t have had without our guide. It
is a huge market hall with restaurtants all around that are just walk up and
order and then find a seat like a food court.
But most of the options are super trendy popular restaurants that can be
found elsewhere in Lisbon. I didn’t make
the best choice of food as you can see from my black fish but the experience
was still fun. There was also a
playground outside which Jacob enjoyed.
After lunch we caught a couple taxis and headed up to the
castle. The castle didn’t have lots of
information but it did have a great view of Lisbon. It really wasn’t stroller friendly, not
surprising, so we ended up taking turns exploring the castle while Hailey slept
and Jacob played.
For the final day of our vacation, we traveled by train out
to Sintra. Sintra was/is the popular
area for the royal and rich to build their summer homes. It is also the area where the Moors built a
castle in the 9th century. The
Christians conquered the castle in the 12th century but fell into
disrepair when Lisbon was chosen as the capital. There isn’t much left of the castle but the
outter walls but it was lots of fun to climb the steps and explore. It was especially fun to watch Jacob climb
the steps and jump and I was amazed at how well he did exploring the castle
without being carried. The castle
offered some great views of Sintra and we could see Lisbon in the distance.
From the castle we headed to the colorful Pena Palace. Built in the 19th century for an eccentric king this ended up being the place where Portuguese royalty spent their last night before fleeing to Brazil during the revolt in 1910. Since they left so quickly and in secret they left basically everything behind leaving a well preserved royal palace for us to tour.
