Day 3 - A Day in Belém

Despite going to bed ridiculously early, we still both had a decent night’s sleep. I woke just after 6am and I woke a still snoring (she will deny it) Jackie up at 8am.

At 9am we went down to breakfast and ordered fresh scrambled and fried eggs, followed by a selection of cakes, cheese and god knows what. We weren’t really in the mood for it and we ended up picking at bits and pieces.

Just after 10am, we headed out for the day. A short distance up the road we caught the 24E tram to Praça de Luís de Camões. We then sauntered down the hill to the river front, where we waited for an 18E tram. After 20 minutes an 18E tram had not materialised so in a fit of petulance we boarded the next tram, a 25E, but hurriedly jumped off at the next stop when I realised we were heading north instead of west.

We then walked to Santos Railway Station and caught the westbound train to Belém. It hadn’t been my intention to start at Belém so we waited around for another 20-30 minutes for the 729 bus to take us uphill to the Palácio Nacional da Ajuda

Our first stop up the hill was the Royal Treasure Museum, which was free to enter with our Lisboa cards after a thorough security check to ensure we had nothing on us to enable us to steal or damage the exhibits.

Opened on June 1, 2022, the Royal Treasure Museum is located in the west wing of the Ajuda National Palace, in Lisbon, and displays a collection of more than a thousand items forming the Crown jewels and items of Portuguese royal jewellery.

The priceless collection exhibited at the Royal Treasure Museum consists of rare and valuable jewels, insignia and decorations, coins and items of civil and religious jewellery. These symbols of power and personal luxury objects represent one of the most important collections in the world, due to their size, rarity and quality. They tell the story of Portugal experienced from the Ajuda National Palace, the home of the last kings of Portugal. The Royal Treasure Museum is housed in one of the largest vaults in the world.

It was well presented in a very dark rooms with just the treasures, the Portuguese equivalent of our Crown Jewels, lit up and the occasional replica available for us visitors to touch. The highlight / surprise, no shock, was the Queen’s golden vibrator and housing which was actually named the ‘Queen’s Pleasure’. It didn’t specify which Queen it belonged to. I presume it wasn’t passed down from generation to generation. Imagine being gifted granny’s vibrator in her will!!

Our next stop was the Ajuda National Palace next door. Again we had free entry and it was a magical mystery tour through the decorated royal rooms. It was the highlight of our trip so far and it is described on their website as:-

Former royal palace and National Monument, it's a magnificent museum and the only palace of public access in Lisbon that still preserves, in a reliable way, the layout and decoration of the rooms dating back to the 19th century, namely the monarchs' quarters and the Throne Room.

Located at the top of Ajuda hill, with a breathtaking view of the Tagus River, the Palace includes collections of decorative arts from the 18th and 19th centuries: jewellery, tapestry, furniture, glass and ceramics, and engraving, sculpture and painting collections, with works by authors such as El Greco, Géricault or Moroni.

A neoclassical building from the first half of the 19th century, it was the official residence of the Portuguese royal family after the reign of D. Luís I (1861-89) up until the end of the Monarchy, in 1910. After 1862, the Palace gained a new life with Queen Maria Pia of Savoy (1847-1911). The layout and decoration of the rooms, by architect Joaquim Possidónio da Silva (1806-96), followed the new standards of comfort and hygiene of the second half of the nineteenth century. Prince D. Carlos (1863-1908) and D. Afonso (1865-1920) were born in this palace; the Council of State gathered here and court ceremonies, balls and banquets were also held here.

In 1910, when the Republic was established and the royal family went into exile, the Palace was closed. The palace opened as a museum in 1968 and still preserves the layout and decoration of the typically nineteenth-century rooms.

Instead of waiting for the 729 bus to take us back to Belém, we decided to walk. My iPhone was destined for the National Palace of Belém, but halfway down we came across a busy locals restaurant, Restaurant O Sossego, that took our fancy.

We ordered a half litre carafe of white wine followed by a second. Jackie was keen to eat but the portions looked way too big to eat following our heavy sitting breakfast. Jackie paid for our litre of house white costing €7.50 with a €10 note and was pleasantly surprised to receive €12.50 in change.

We walked on to The Belém Palace, or alternately National Palace of Belém, has, over time, been the official residence of Portuguese monarchs and, after the installation of the First Republic, the Presidents of the Portuguese Republic. Located in the civil parish of Santa Maria de Belém, the palace is located on a small hill that fronts the Praça Afonso de Albuquerque, near the historical centre of Belém and the Monastery of the Jeronimos, close to the waterfront of the Tagus River.

Next we located the Silent Duck, which is an alleged unique attraction in Lisbon known for its stunning ceramic tile panel.

It was then on to Pastéis de Belém:-

The famous custard tart shop is Pastéis de Belém, located at Rua de Belém 84-92, 1300-085 Lisbon, Portugal. Established in 1837, it is known as the original birthplace of the custard tart, a secret recipe still made today. It's a popular spot, often with long lines, but visitors can either get the tarts to take away or eat them inside the vast, tile-adorned cafe.

Portuguese Custard tarts are available worldwide but to really try the best in the world (and there's very little debate about it once you try one), you need to pay a visit to Lisbon. The most famous place to buy them is Pastéis de Belém.

We ordered 2 coffees and 2 custard tarts from their takeaway shop and ate them at a vacant table and bench in the window. The warm custard tarts were to die for. Even sceptical Jackie who doesn’t really like them had to agree.

Next was Jerónimos Monastery or Hieronymites Monastery, a former monastery of the Order of Saint Jerome near the Tagus river in the parish of Belém, in the Lisbon Municipality, Portugal. It became the necropolis of the Portuguese royal dynasty of Aviz in the 16th century but was secularized on 28 December 1833 by state decree and its ownership transferred to the charitable institution, Real Casa Pia de Lisboa.

It was a popular attraction but visitors were only allowed to walk around the courtyard on two levels. We also popped into the church next door, Igreja dos Jerónimos, where Jackie lit another candle for her mum.

It was then a stroll through a park to the impressive Monument of the Discoveries, where Jackie sat on the riverbank whilst I used my Lisboa card to take a lift to top.

The Monument of the Discoveries is a monument on the northern bank of the Tagus River. 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.

We then strolled along the riverbank to Belém Tower, officially the Tower of Saint Vincent which is a 16th-century fortification that served as a point of embarkation and disembarkation for Portuguese explorers and as a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon. This tower symbolizes Portugal's maritime and colonial power in early modern Europe.

Sadly it was wrapped in scaffolding and netting and closed to the public, so we did an about turn and found a little riverside cart selling beer in ice cold glasses. We had a large one each and people watched. I also got deliberately shat on by a swooping seagull leaving an ugly brown stain on both legs of my jeans.

The afternoon was coming to an end, so we decided to head back to our hotel to chill for an hour before going out to dinner. We walked back to Belém railway station and as we were crossing the bridge to the platform our train pulled in. We started to run down the steps for it when Jackie declared “Let’s get the next one”. I slowed up, when all of a sudden Jackie inexplicably sprinted for the train and jumped in the carriage as the doors were closing.

The doors closed before I could react and refused to open again. As the train pulled out of the station, I shouted at Jackie through the window to get off at Centro. Unfortunately I meant Sodré.

It was at least another 20 minutes before another train finally decided to stop at Belém station. I considered ringing Jackie, but didn’t want to activate her phone roaming charge of £2.50 per day. As it happened, I got a panicked phone call from Jackie rambling on about a fight, the train had turned round and she was at Alcantara.

I alighted my train at Alcantara-Mar and found Jackie standing on the opposite platform. It transpired that a fight had broken out with blood everywhere between a policeman and the person he was trying to arrest right beside her on the train as it pulled into Cais do Sodre station. Jackie didn’t get off because she was looking for Centro station. The next thing she knew was that the train was going back the way she had just come, but she thought it was something to do with the fight. In a panic, she jumped off at the next stop Alcantara-Mar where I found her.

We caught the next train TOGETHER to Cais do Sodre, then walked up the hill to Praça de Luís de Camões to catch a 24E tram home. We waited 30 minutes for a 24E, as dozens of 28E trams rattled past us. We even considered walking but Jackie was already moaning that her feet hurt.

Eventually a 24E tram pulled, only for the driver to change the sign to Reservado. It was becoming beyond a joke, when not one but two 24E trams suddenly appeared. It seems it’s not just buses!

Back at the hotel, I showered and cleaned my jeans, then we relaxed with a €5 bottle of red from the Douro Valley that we had visited on a previous trip to Portugal.

It was a 4 minute walk to Tascardoso, the restaurant Joana recommended that specialised in traditional Portuguese cuisine. The waiter spoke hardly any English and the Portuguese only menu when translated on our phones gave only scant clue as to what the dishes were. After lots of consideration over a jug of house red, we finally ordered the octopus for Jackie and for me the breaded escalopes.

The plates were huge and the food excellent. I was served up, not one, but three pork escalopes with a pile of chips, whilst Jackie had the tentacle from what must have been a giant octopus dripping in garlic butter.

We finished the night with an ice cream and finally got to bed around 10.30pm. What a day!

Song of the Day - Hanging Around by The Stranglers.Read more