Lisboa - Belém and all over: 21 kms, Sunny 23

They Held A Party For Us...Again!

We enjoyed our short stay in Lisboa very much. We started yesterday and today with an excellent breakfast in one of those places where they bake the tartas. One of those 150 year old establishments.

A little tired of the many tourists in the central town and feeling in need of some exercise after two days of travel, we decided to take the longish walk to Belém, an area that we didn’t experience on our last visit. We don’t usually try to see everything on the first visit as that’s a pretty futile exercise, so we leave things for the next time. Whenever that might be. 

The walk is along the river, but one can modify it to swing into some of the city areas where folks work and live. Kind of changes things up a bit. You come across some interesting things this way.

We stopped in an interesting bar for a cold drink. The dock workers were having their lunch inside and the smell of the fresh cooked food was hard to resist. Somehow we managed to, and moved onwards past a small local park. Love trees.

We passed under the massive bridge that crosses the river north to south, or I guess the other way too?

We wandered a while before eventually finding a neat little place for lunch. One of those places that’s been around 150 years. The food was excellent.

With entertainment that rolled right on by our table!

Tummies full, very full, we walked onwards in search of our reason to walk all the way out to Belém. And there it was. The monument to all the men who sailed out into the Atlantic t search for new places, often never to be heard from again. 

Doesn’t the second guy from the right look like he’s trying to push the lead guy in? 

While we were there 7-8,000 tourists left the city on mass. Didn’t seem to make much of a difference.

Then we moved on to the next site.

A very old fortress which protected the river mouth. I don’t believe the British used it when they protected the city from Napoleon’s army. 

We might have gone in to see it, but it was already full. The buses, trams and metro bring many out here. Oh, and the tour buses too. In other words, it was pretty busy. So we climbed a bridge over the train tracks and highway to see the Cathedral. It wasn’t the best one I’ve ever seen, but it had it’s moments and won points for overall size. It was crowded, but I liked some of the lighting inside

Yesterday and today there is a huge celebration to mark St.Anthony who is apparently responsible for marriages, lost things and almost everything else. It’s a huge day in Lisboa as couples who are residence can be married without cost and the women are call St. Anthony’s brides. 

Many cool cars for the couples.

There are celebrations all night long. Believe me, we heard them, and food is served all over the city.

We honestly didn’t know about the food thing and went out to an old traditional restaurant. Yup, been around for about 150 years. The food was excellent with pork and clams. Not something I’d have guess to combine.

When we were here in 2012 we watched Portugal beat Italy 1-0 in the Euros semifinals when Ronaldo scored the only goal. The city went mad and celebrated all night. Given the state of the economy at that time, it seemed just the tonic. So Lisboa held a party for us that night, and it was just very special. While this time they did it again. After all the food everyone lined up along the main road, as all cars had been banned from the site centre. 

People were dressed to party including cod hats...don’t ask me why.

Then the dancers and bands began to pass.

This morning after another visit for breakfast and considerable hassles getting our car, we finally drove south to the small town of Aljezur. We will continue further south tomorrow...after breakfast. Seems there is a major GR walking route here, and I’ll be looking into that!