Portugal Trip - Belem
We started our day by walking from our apartment down to catch the bus headed to Belem.
About five miles west of downtown Lisbon, the Belem district is a stately pincushion of important sights from Portugal’s Golden Age. Belem was the sending-off point for voyages in the Age of Discovery. Before embarking, sailors would stay and pray at the Monastery of Jeronimos, and when they returned, the Belem Tower welcomed them home. The grand buildings of Belem survived the great 1755 earthquakes, so this is the best place to experience the Manueline architectural style. Rick Steves
We headed straight to the Casa Pasteis de Belem - this cafe is the birthplace of the custard tart that’s called pastel de nada throughout Portugal. You can get them all over Portugal but apparently this is THE place to get them since they make 20,000 or so a day and you can get them literally coming out of the oven. We grabbed three and walked down the street to eat them as we waited in a short line for the Monastery. They were not bad. We didn’t ever stop to get another one throughout our trip, but it was definitely fun to try!
Monastery of Jeronimos
The Monastery of Jeronimos was pretty cool. I loved the intricate carvings and archways in the cloister especially. Fun to wander around and take pictures.
The giant, white limestone church and monastery stretches for 300 impressive yards along the Belem waterfront. It was built over a hundred years and is basically a Gothic structure with Manueline ornamentation. Rick Steves
The Belem Tower
The Tower of Belem was pretty cool to see. Our Lisbon ticket got us in ‘free’ so we went inside and climbed to the top. This narrow staircase had a red light/green light system so you knew when you could go up and go down. Back in the day this white tower protected Lisbon’s harbor and maybe held a few prisoners in the dungeon. Fun to see the view of Belem and the river from the top.
Gelato at Santini’s
The lady at the counter suggested we try strawberry and it was a good recommendation. Delicious. We got some lemon to go with it and the combo was perfect. But getting the gelato was kind of a funny story. We were the only ones in the shop and the lady at the counter was helping us try some samples so we could find something we liked. Once we made up our mind we ordered but then she informed us that we needed to head over to the cash register to pay first — and then we could order. Ok. We stepped to the right and she met us there to take our orders. Then we stepped back to the left so she could dish up our gelato. She immediately asked us for our ticket — the one she just barely handed us. In the 10 seconds from purchasing and moving over to the counter, Scott had thrown his away. He had to go digging in the garbage to find his receipt so he could give it to her. Even trying to type this I’m laughing. It was so funny that she even needed the receipt to begin with — but then the image of Scott riffling through the garbage can so she could have it, just makes me laugh.
The National Coach Museum
In 1905, the last queen of Portugal saw that cars would soon obliterate horse-drawn carriages as a form of transportation. She decided to preserve her fine collection of royal coaches, which became today’s National Coach Museum.
The first coach dates from around 1600 (not sure I have a picture of that one) was used by Philip II, Kind of Spain and Portugal, to shuttle between Madrid and Lisbon. The coach had no driver’s seat - since the driver would actually ride the horses. Also if you lift up the cushion from the passenger’s seat, you’ll find a potty hole - also handy for road sickness. Imagine how slow and rough the ride would be with bad roads and a crude leather-strap suspension. Rick Steves
I’m really glad we made the decision to take a few minutes to wander through this museum. We certainly hadn’t been to one like it and it was fun to read about each individual carriage and note how decorated they were. Some of them were SO fancy. Also interesting to see how they changed from year to year. This was fun.
After seeing the sights in Belem we headed back to Lisbon on a trolley! The iconic thing to do in Lisbon!
