Castelo de São Jorge

For our final day in Lisbon, we finally made it to the São Jorge castle!

We started the day with some pastries at Padaria do Barrio. After picking up my passport and getting a Covid test (which was really easy and free at the Martim Moniz square!), we finally went to visit the castle.

The castle is one of those tourist attractions that are very interesting to visit. It was built in the mid-11th century to expand a small Visigoth fortress built in the fifth century. Since then, it has served as a royal palace, a military barracks, the National Archive, and a national monument and museum. In the 1940s, it underwent a major restoration. The views from there are amazing! It also hosts a camera obscura that I didn't particularly like, but people seem to do so.

We had lunch at a place nearby, Paladarium, which was excellent. I had the dish of the day, some chicken with mushrooms over rice, and it was delicious and affordable.

After lucnh we went to visit the Museu do Aljube Resistência e Liberdade (Resistance and Freedom museum).This museum covers the Portuguese dictatorship, the resistance, the anticolonial movements of liberation, the Carnation Revolution, and the dictatorship's overthrow. When we went, there was also a temporary exhibition, Women and Resistance, about women fighting for their rights and freedom from the 1930s until 25 April 1974.

I wanted to learn more about Portuguese history, and this was a great place to do it. Unfortunately, I was still dealing with my stolen debit card, and I couldn't enjoy the visit as much as I would have liked. Dean had to leave early for a zoom meeting, and I went to get a couple of gifts before heading back to the hotel.

We had dinner at Zazah. It wasn't my favorite place, but it was quite nice.Read more