Lisboa – Belem

Day 4 we decided to head out to Lisbon’s iconic landmark, the Torre de Belem.  It’s probably the most touristo thing to see here, so why not.  It was a bit of a hike to the appropriate train station to take you out to Belem, and then another hike from there to the Tower.   On the way, we passed a festival of sorts at the Lisbon Welcome Center Plaza right on the waterfront.  It’s called Eurovision, which is a yearly music event to find the best musical acts in Europe.  Google tells me that it’s the longest-running annual international TV song competition, starting back in 1956, and the 1^st time being held in Portugal.  There were not huge crowds in the plaza as the main event is over by the old expo site and this was more for rehearsals, prelim-competition, and  info area.  Big police presence though.  Not too many international household names competing or winning over the years, but you may have heard of ABBA and Celine Dion.   Lots of cool stuff going on here.

 

 

It’s been hot here in Lisbon and we were already wilting before we got to Belem.  Fortunately, it’s right on the water so we got a little cooling breeze.  And on the way we passed a couple of other landmarks, the Monastery of Jeronimos and the Monument to the Discoveries.

The Belem Tower and the Jeronimos monastery were built by King Manuel I in the early 1500’s as an inspiration and thank you to the brave souls leading the age of exploration.  His architectural style, ‘ornate, elaborate, and intertwined’ (I’m quoting here) is known as Manueline.  The Tower is small, standing on the edge of the river, but back then, it was the last sight sailors saw as they left and the first as they returned, loaded with treasures.  Interestingly, when the Tower was built, the river waters were nearly to the walls of the monastery and the Tower was sort of sitting in mid-river.  Today, Teresa was walking around the base of it to get some ‘shots’.  We didn’t go in to check it out, or the Monastery either, which I’m told contains the tomb of explorer Vasco da Gama.  The Tower itself is stark and there is not a lot to see (other than a river view) but mostly though, the hordes are immense and the line ups for both were over an hour.  Portugal is not making much dough off us; one could drop a pretty penny coughing up €10-20 euro each for admission into every little historical place.

 

The Monument to the Discoveries is for a change, not an old relic.  It was built in 1960 to honor the 500^th anniversary of the death of Prince Henry the Navigator.  The giant concrete structure is a fitting tribute to the men who braved the unknown and they are carved in stone standing on the pointed raised prow of a Caravel about to be launched to sea.  At the front, leading the charge is Prince Henry holding a Caravel and a map.  The plaza in front of the Monument has a large beautiful inlaid (in the pavement) marble map of the world, a gift from South Africa.  At the peak of their empire, it was said one could sail from Portugal to China without losing sight of land explored by the Portuguese.  They were a filthy rich tiny nation that laid claim to the entire coastline of Africa, Arabia, India, the Philippines, and south China, plus Brazil.  All that’s really left today are the Azores and Madeiras Islands.

Ok, so done with the history lessons. We were taught this stuff in school anyway but having never been here before, it’s nice to see some of the history that we’ve only read about.  We will only scratch the surface in the week we are here.  There’s too much to see and not enough time.