Rising early, I braved the waking city to run through the shopping districts cobbled streets, avoiding the obligatory tram infrastructure upgrades under the Augusta arch, crossing the huge empty plaza to the river. I followed the river passing the naval college, the sand and stone sculptures on the river beach before heading in the opposite direction towards the cruise liner ports with the overlooking Moorish castle on the hill behind. I saw five enormous cruise liners moored up. They were huge, mini cities, unfortunately I didn’t have my phone so i couldn’t capture the moment!
We took the no 15 tram (or rather bus) to Belém, a pretty drive through the now ubiquitous cobbled streets with closely packed tiled buildings. It was really rather warm as we queued at the Jerónimos Monastery, my umbrella thank fully providing shade; copied amusingly by most other tourists of a certain age! Transported back in time, we saw the blissfully cool, traditional catholic church, and the adjoining tiered carved stone cloisters. The famous Pastéis de belém café beckoned after and we queued again for a table in the spray-cooled courtyard to sample coffee their “best-ever” pastel de nada; verdict absolutely true!
Next, we strolled across the gardens to the river, heading for the Torre de Belém, a medieval fortified tower and another hot queue. Crossing the wooden walkway to the tiny island we entered the thankfully cool cannon hall. Upstairs from the terrace we enjoyed panoramic views up and down the huge river; it’s almost like a sea or the great lakes its so wide in places. The tower itself unfortunately was closed.
Seeking refuge from the sun, we headed back to the entertaining museu de marinha, which told the story of Portugal’s dominance over the high seas with artifacts and model ships, from early fisherman, through Henry the Navigator in 14th Century to present day. As well as being wonderfully cool, it was really interesting!
From the Italian restaurant beside the doca de Belém, eating an early dinner we tried to work out where we should go to board our yacht river tour, spying no obvious vessels. Intrepidly we boarded a small privately owned yacht! The skipper soon set sail touring the Tagus between the bridges, whilst the mate plied us with wine. Eventually we braved a scramble to the brow and back, a little too exciting with the wind filling the sails and consquent heel. We sailed back upriver to the area near our hotel, with the huge 17km long vasco de gama cable bridge in the distance. On the opposite bank we saw the famous Jesus statue, santuário de Cristo Rei before passing under the ponte 25 de Abril, a 2km long Golden gate-style, humming bridge (car tyres apparently!) An outstanding sun set blessed our return, high-lighting the monument of the discoveries commemorating 500+ years since Henry the Navigator’s death. We disembarked straight into the midst of an international car rally TV line-up and photo shoot; rather lost on me sadly! So enjoyable, and such a pleasant temperature; my unused sweater remained in my bag.
Begging to take and old traditional tram 15 back, I was in trouble when upgrades to the transport system meant we stopped a mile short of our hotel!
Photos - just my snaps!
Belém
Sunset Tagus river yacht cruise
Early morning riverside run
コメント