Touring Lisbon by Tuk Tuk

A little bumpy but a cool way to get around town was taking a Tuk Tuk. The Tuk Tuk driver became our tour guide, too. He had a wealth of knowledge about Lisbon. Throughout the city, artists created murals out of trash. Often, these murals depicted animals. They were quite amazing. Out towards the Atlantic Ocean, there were several impressive monuments. One of those monuments built on the banks of the Tagus River was the Belem Tower. This Tower, officially, the Tower of Saint Vincent, is a 16th-century fortification located in Lisbon that served as a point of embarkation and and disembarkation for Portuguese explorers and as a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon. The Monument of the Discoveries is a monument on the northern bank of the Tagus River. It's located along the river where ships departed to explore and trade with India and the Orient. The monument celebrates the Portuguese Age of Discovery during the 15th and 16th centuries. At 170 feet tall, Lisbon's Monument to the Discoveries commemorates the five hundredth anniversary of the death of Henry the Navigator, who discovered the Azores, Medeira and Cape Verde. The building of the Monument started in the 1940s but found its final resting place in 1960. My friend Grace and I are standing outside the Lisbon Cathedral, which celebrated an anniversary this year and is the oldest and most important church in the city. Its construction dates back to the 12th century and is predominantly Romanesque in style.Read more