first full day in Lisbon

After sleeping in a bit, we began with a hearty breakfast of bread and butter, eggs, pastries and espresso.  Farrar was happy.  Then, again under the sage advice of Ricardo, we ventured to Belem, by way of the metro and the tram.

It was an exciting way to travel, and our efforts were rewarded when we got to Belem.  The first stop was the Mosteiro Dos Jeronimos, a monastery built in the early 1500s.  It was remarkably peaceful and a nice place to take some pictures:

This was the fountain in the courtyard in the center of the monastery.  Bishop said it would be a good place to throw the football.  

Farrar was particularly taken with this school group organizing themselves in a circle to play a game.  As a 5th grade teacher, she prefers to exist with her students in a circle whenever possible.  This photo is for her 5th grade Griffins back home.

This is the sanctuary....500 years old.  No way to reproduce that with a little snap, but here it is.  It put us in the mind of Sewanee, which is a fine mind to be put into, but nothing else I have ever seen even begins to approach its magnificence.  We lingered.

Farrar was also taken with these little confessional nooks that lined the square of the courtyard.  We saw a custodian pull a mop and other cleaning supplies from one of them, and we noted the practical impulse to keep using the space for something.

Then we went to the Pasteis de Belem, a pastry shop founded in 1837 for "the best cookies in the world" according to Ricardo, who by the way is going to Austria tomorrow, so we have no idea what we will do next.

This place was pretty cool; we got our treat to go, a six-pack, and ate them on the street.  They were more like little custard filled pies and they were delicious.  Zelle put one away and Bishop ate the crust of his then passed it to me(Alex).  I was happy to complete the job.  I think I had 4...but whose counting?

Then we grabbed some coffee to go and headed to the Torre de Belem, a tower built in the 1400s that sits in the brackish waters near the mouth of the Tagus River.  

It was 119 steps to the top (thanks Zelle) and the views were pretty amazing.  

...even if Farrar weren't in the picture.  The tower came with a park in front of it that had lots of climbing trees and plenty of green grass for soccer, er, futbol.

Next, we walked to the Berardo Museum, part of the Cultural Center of Belem, which contained modern and contemporary art and a particularly interesting collection from Joaquin Torres-Gracia.  It was a free museum and despite the general fatigue, we took it all in before heading back, via tram, to catch the metro back to our hotel's neighborhood.

While waiting on the correct tram, Bishop impatiently suggested that we simply "get on that one" and I suppose go wherever.  We waited instead and got on the correct tram, but we got off one stop too soon, so got to walk and additional 1,000 meters or so to the metro.  Nice work, Dad.

Then it was easy.  Took the blue line back to Pombal and scooted up to the street where we were very hungry and only a couple of blocks from the hotel.  The only problem is the way we got out of the metro was not the way we got in, so when we emerged onto the circle of Pombal, we were a bit confused.  We walked in circles for an additional 30 minutes until we found our way, a hotel where I had asked for directions earlier.  We have been preaching to the kids to take it all in, to soak up the scenery, and Zelle said we got to soak up the same scenery for half an hour. 

After that, we enjoyed dinner (and some Portuguese futbol on the tube) around the corner from the hotel.  Like everything else we have tasted, it was delicious. 

Boa noite.