Andrew wanted me to name this post ‘Lisbon – You Had Me at Ginja’ because Lisbon is his favorite city so far and they have a popular aperitif that is cherry flavored which he really likes too. But I named it ‘the Twin City of San Fran’ because the two cities have so much in common. They both are on the water, Lisbon has a bridge that looks like the Golden Gate, both cities have daunting hills and they both have old timey cable cars.
Before I continue with stories, the above photo of Drew and I reminded me that I wanted to especially thank Darcie for her great photos of us on this leg of our trip. We were starting to get pretty creative since a selfie-stick didn’t make the cut in our packing list. Thanks for taking a lot of memorable photos and I know you and Drew had fun sharing photos and editing tips.
We took the train to the Belem neighborhood of Lisbon in the morning. There we saw the famous Jeronimos Monastery which took over 100 years to build and the architecture of it is called Manueline after the king who had it built. The Belem Tower is also done in this architectural style and we saw that after lunch. The Belem Tower used to be on a island in the Tagus river but the large earthquake in 1755 changed that and it now looks like it is in the water by the shore.
We walked along the beautiful shore until we got to Pradoa das Descobrimentos which is an incredibly large monument to the Portuguese Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries that was built for the 1940 World Fair. It is quit impressive and can be seen from many places in Lisbon. After all of our walking we needed a rest and a treat so we went to the bakery which made the original pastel de nata.
We weren’t quite done site seeing so we took the train back to our neighborhood but then trekked up the hill to the Saint George Castle where we were rewarded with absolutely breathtaking views of Lisbon. The castle itself is in excellent condition and is absolutely massive. There were also some beautiful peacocks roaming the grounds and several people performing a Fado show.
For dinner we went to this restaurant which is a fusion of Portuguese and African cuisine. It was recommended to us and the food was really great – thanks Vicky! After dinner we explored the Lisbon night life – we walked to the famous outdoor elevator where there were still long lines to experience the view. Then we went to this street that had an old cable car and several bars lining the streets. There were lots of people out enjoying drinks in the street so we decided to join into the experience and grabbed a drink. After Darcie made friends with a group of German dudes we decided to go to another spot which was more of a club but it was on the rooftop of a parking structure. Had we not known where we were going (thanks again Vicky and Hector!) there would have been no way we could have found this place but again it had fantastic views!
Clapp Radical Sabbatical 