Lisbon Day 2

We awoke to thunderstorms and the prospect of sightseeing in the rain, which is just how the day turned out.  We started in the Belem area, at the mouth of the River Targus, where in the past the Portuguese ships set sail on their voyages of discovery.  Our first stop (luckily indoors) was the Museu Nacional de Arqueologia where we visited exhibits on recoveries from underwater archaeology projects, Egyptian artifacts, and a room of Greco-Roman finds.  After that, we toured the Moisteiro do Jeonimos, a beautiful monastery built in 1500 that was financed by tax monies leveed against spices, stones, and golds brought back after Vasco de Gama's return from historic voyage to India.  The monastery and adjoining Church of Santa Maria were built in the Manueline style of architecture, an ornate late Gothic style.  Our next stop was the Museu Nacional de Coches (Coach Museum) which houses a beautiful collection of 17th to 19th century European coaches.  Seeing them close up was amazing.  Each is really a piece of art, decorated with fine sculptures that reflect a  particular theme, such as the birth of an aristocratic child or commemorating the coronation of a king or even the Pope.  The rain thwarted our afternoon sightseeing, which was to outdoor venues such as the Monument to the Discoveries, a prominent waterfront built in 1960 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of Henry the Navigator.  The monument depicts various Portuguese navigators standing on a caravel, as well as the Portuguese coat of arms.  After snapping a few quick pictures in the rain, we walked to the Torre de Belem, a tower built as a fortress in the middle of the Tagus River in 1514-1520.  By this time the rain was heavy and unrelenting, so we didn't get a chance to visit the inside of the Torre, since the entrance line was long and outside.  Instead we headed for a neighboring coffee shop for coffee.  We then headed back to the city center where we visited the church built over the reported location of the house where St. Anthony of Padua was born, as well as a small museum with Anthonian items.  After dinner, we returned to the hotel where Sierra had her first glass of port wine.

The weather was far kinder on our final day in Lisbon, although we did get occasional light showers.  We spent the morning in the Alfama District at the Castelo de Sao Jorge (St. George's Castle) which was built following the recapture of Lisbon from the Moors in 1147.  Its position atop the highest hill in Lisbon offers a  beautiful panorama of the city.  A small archeological area within the castle has the ruins of settlements dating from the Moorish period back to the 7th century B.C., as well a later 16th century palace .  After that we did some souvenir shopping
and spent a leisurely afternoon walking around the Baixa district.  Before dinner, we stopped for some wine tasting along the waterfront area.  We paid 2 euros each for the tasting, which allowed us 0.50 euro shots of various Portuguese wines. Our final dinner was at an outdoor restaurant, where we all had grilled fish dishes that were quite tasty.

We leave Lisbon today, heading back home to Berzo.  Next Wednesday, we head to Venezia (!!!!!) and then Padova.  There probably won't be many posts between now and then but I will try to upload some house photos.