Thursday February 1, 2007: Lisbon
The lost bag was delivered at about 9:00 – yay!
A relaxed start to the morning and then breakfast at the local café. Managed to get 2 bread rolls and 2 espressos. Andrew decided to test his Portuguese and got a cappuccino. Did well in the understanding stakes, but managed to get 2 instead of one. The goal for the morning was to find a supermarket and according to the guidebook there was a Pingo store near Rossio, but no exact address.
On the way down visited the cathedral. It is quite an austere building but quite lovely inside. Built in 1150 it was damaged in the 1755 earthquake and extensively restored in the 1930’s. The ceiling was painted a salmon pink and interesting to see the tiles in the crypts, particularly one showing a saint and many fishes. Simple blue tiles, quite stunning.
We were unable to locate the supermarket and asked a policeman. He was lovely and unsure of the answer called his partner over. Both tried to answer us in English. Mission accomplished at the supermarket we headed back toward the apartment. We stopped at a bakery on the way and got cheese and ham rolls and a rock cake each. Both were delicious.
Later we headed up to the Castelo de São Jorge and stopped on the way at the Miradoura Santa Luzia which is an area with excellent views over the whole Lisboa. We then wandered over to the castle and walked around admiring the views.E5 admittance. We then headed down to town to check the email and the only place Paula knew with WIFI was McDonalds so we had a beer there.
For dinner we wandered to the local café we had breakfast at. Andrew, with a bit of quick tutelage tried out his Portuguese. Only failed once when he said Garcias instead of Obrigado. Got a short lesson about that from the owner. E22 for a meal of soup and a pork chop and coffee. Nice little local place, where the policemen were dining and other locals were coming in.
Friday February 2, 2007: Lisbon
This morning started at 3:00am. I think Andrew had a touch of jetlag as suspect he thought it was a little later.
At more ‘normal’ time we got up and another clear sunny day awaited. Walked through Rossio and up the Avenue Liberdade in order to go to the Spanish store we had visited last year El Corte Ingles. Eventually got to a café and had a coffee each and a Pastel da Nata, a custard tart famous in this area. Some sales on and Andrew purchased another shirt from the brand he had purchased last year. We popped down to the supermarket floor to get a takeaway bread and chorizo which we ate in the Gulbenkian Park.
We headed for the Gulbenkian Museum E3. Gulbenkian of Armenian descent had bequeathed his collection to the city and his collecting motto had been ‘only the best will do for me’ It was a lovely eclectic collection of Egyptian, Tapestries, Statues, French furniture, Paintings and Lalique items. 250 year old clocks, operational and showing the correct time. Some stunning paintings, not necessarily superstars, but worthwhile in their own right. The best quality everywhere. Purpose built gallery built in the 1960’s designed around garden courtyards. Very extensive and comprehensive in it’s coverage. Wandered back to the supermarket to provision for the evenings cooking. On the way back to the apartment we checked with Tourist information about the train to Sintra as the Rossio train station was closed to get an alternative. When then took the tram up the hill.
Saturday February 3, 2007: Lisbon
We were on the road by 8:30 to head for Sintra. The metro was easy to understand and at 0.75c per ride good value. We headed from Baixa-Chiado to Zoologischer Garden where we could change for the above ground train to Sintra. It was a commuter type train that had many stops but the journey only took 30 minutes. Annoyingly there was a reflective type coating on the windows that made viewing outside too hard. Can only presume the purpose of this was to could down heat in summer. Got to Sintra, grabbed some tourist information and sat down for a coffee and a pastry. We decided to take the bus up to Castel Nacional da Pena. We paid E7 for the garden and castle so started wandering through the green grounds and found a small Alter to St Antonio.
From there we could see the castle and headed in its direction. It was only built in 1840 on the site of a 16th ruined cloister. The exteriors and interiors are described as kitsch and extravagant, but the place has enormous character and is very appealing. The detail of decoration in every room is outstanding and every room is very different. The exterior looks like a mish-mash of styles from Arabic to Gothic. There is a delightful centre courtyard, beautifully tiled. We walked around the edge of the castle and it provided excellent views in all directions.
We then began our walk through the park again and only saw 2 other couples in half an hour of walking. There were water features and stone seats. The Queen’s fern garden contained ferns from Australia and NZ. There was an Arabic styled temple and a series of ponds with multiple swans in. Different birds for each pond including some unusual white swans with black necks. Very lovely and a shame other people missed out on this.
We caught the circular bus and headed back to the town itself. It was mass tourism down there. We popped into a café for lunch (AJ quiche! PR Cod Fish Cakes). Of average quality.
After lunch we went National Palace de Sintra. This was not as appealing as the 1st place, it seemed to lack character but there were some interesting rooms with ornate decoration. The Swan room with swans on the ceiling and the Coat of Arms tower. This had ornate decoration on the ceiling showing 74 of the leading 16th century families crests and an enormous wooden table. This room had multiple deer pictures. The kitchen was interesting with the unusual double conical chimneys. Huge ovens would have produced plenty of heat and smoke needing to be drawn out. Had a brief walk around the old town centre then back to the railway station as it provides good views of the castle on the hillside and the town centre. Some interesting architecture. Went to the butcher and supermarket and on returning to the station found there was a line problem and we were delayed about half and hour.
Had a beer on the Miradauora St Lucia – very expensive relatively speaking.
Sunday February 4, 2007: Lisbon
Today there was heavy mist over the river, which didn’t clear until the afternoon. We went down to the Parça da Comércio to catch tram 15 to Belém. The trams on this line were new and had ticketing facilities on board. The trip to the seaside suburb took about 15 minutes and there were obviously lots of tourists on the tram. On Sunday most museums in Belém, but not all are free.
Once there we headed to the Monsteiro dos Jerónimos. The monastery is in the Manueline style, white and ornate. It was commissioned in 1501 and apparently mainly financed by spice taxes of 5%. The church is where most of the Royal family are buried. There was an excellent display showing the Church, Lisbon and World history and events concurrently. This worked well and was very interesting. The tomb of Vasco da Gama is also here.
We went to a cafeteria for a coffee and a sausage in pastry, before heading to the Museu da Marinha. This is in a wing of the Jerónimos and is very large and had many models of Portuguese maritime history.
The display ends with a pavilion of the Royal barges (gondolas). One of the displays showed a marvelous 18th Century ship captured and taken and displayed in England where its size stunned the British public. From the Museum we headed back to the Museum Nacional dos Coches, which had a huge display of coaches. The earliest was from the 17th century and progressed through. There were many sumptuous vehicles, with decoration of gold. It was interesting to see how little suspension there was in the early days and can only imagine how uncomfortable this would have been.
We then headed for the seashore and watched some yachts sailing in the river with very little breeze. The monument to the Discoveries was built in the 1960’s which was interesting if a bit ostentatious. People where on the top of the monument but with the bad visibility we didn’t think this was worthwhile.
So we headed straight for the Torre de Belém, which was the only museum we had to pay for today. It was originally built as a fortress in the middle of the Tagus River, but changes in the path of the river have moved it close to the shore. It is elaborately decorated, with 5 levels. It has been used as a fortress, a prison and a storehouse. Canons placed around could deal with an enemy from any direction. Finishing here we headed back to Alfama for a casual evening.
Monday February 5, 2007: Lisbon
Went to city centre to check the internet. We purchased a couple more tram rides and then took the metro to Sao Sebastian and El Cortes Ingles. Andrew purchased a red swatch watch as his watch battery was flat and needs an overhaul. We went down to the Supermarket and amongst other things purchased some lovely cured ham for sandwiches for our lunch. At lunch we has a bottle of Vinho Verde, the Portuguese young wine, which was refreshing and pleasant. In the afternoon we went for a walk in the neighbourhood. Some of the churches and theatres were closed on Mondays. Having a relaxing day we sat at the lookout and read the paper while having a beer. In the evening we cooked a lovely veal roast. There was heavy mist in the morning but it had burnt off in the afternoon, but a cool breeze kept the temperature down. We noticed lots of little cafes in the neighbourhoods and interestingly a number of shops selling wool!
Tuesday February 6, 2007: Lisbon
We took tram 15 to go to the Lapa district and see the Museu Nacional de Atingua Art but when we got there the museum was closed until 14:00 on Tuesdays. We decided to go for a walk first instead. After a coffee we walked up the hill to Basilica da Estrela. The church looked very big from the outside but was surprising small inside. It was baroque inside and there was an interesting Crib which was decorated with skulls.
We had a walk through the park across the road where we saw a tree with interesting pink flowers. From the park we headed down the hill toward the Portuguese parliament Palacio da Assemblia da republic which had been occupied since 1833. Large well maintained building of classical design. There were some guards outside but little other activity there. The area had some nice shops and a particularly a nice glass shop.
We walked down in the Chiado area where we had an excellent lunch in a non-descript café. It was packed inside and cost E18. From there we wandered in the district and found a mall where there was a shop where part of the current line used “New Zealand, Wairarapa” Otago Beach and other NZ locations. There were other international locations, but it was interesting to see NZ names. Andrew bought a couple more shirts and we got a lotto ticket – E100 million jackpot J.
We saw the small funicular tram Elavador da Bica, tiny. We then headed back to the museum, where there were a large number of paintings donated by Gulbenkian. He had given these before his death, and were some of the best paintings there. Of all the paintings there were virtually no landscapes, and a lot of typical religious Iconography. Interesting museum, but not stunning. Bought some more Bajancas wine. Back to the apartment to cook a chicken for dinner (nice moist chicken) and then packed in anticipation for leaving. There was a local dog “bobby” whose name was shouted many, many, many times over the length of our stay by a local resident, who wasn’t all there.