Tuesday, June 11, 2024 – Touring around Lisbon

Travel Blog 2 Minutes

I decided to sign up for a walking tour this morning to get acclimated to Lisbon.

This is Beatrice our tour guide.

We started the tour at the Comercial Square. In the past when Portugal had a lot of colonies all the ships from the colonies would bring their cargo to the Comercial Square to be valued and taxed.

A statue of one of the Portuguese kings in the middle of The Comercial Square.
The gates of the city on the north side of the Comercial Square. After the cargo was valued and taxed it could then enter Lisbon through these gates.

As we started our walking tour we passed through these gates and down a beautiful pedestrian only boulevard lined with shops and restaurants. Two of the restaurants caught my eye.

Goodfellas was a movie about the Mafia in New York. This restaurant serves Portuguese food. Why would they name a Portuguese restaurant after a Mafia movie?
This is a restaurant on the same block. I am pretty sure the Godfather was Sicilian, not Portuguese.
This is an observation tower they built so they could charge tourists 5 bucks to take panoramic pictures of Lisbon.
This is the first cafe in Portugal that started serving espresso more than 100 years ago. They are crazy about espresso in Lisbon.
This is the old castle. It is up on a hill and it is quite a hike to get up there. No more uphill hikes for me on this trip.
We ended our walking tour in this square. The Portuguese king on the top of this column skedaddled to Brazil when he heard that Napoleon was heading to Portugal. Like Great Britain, Portugal has had good kings and not so good kings.

After the walking tour I was feeling a little peckish so I decided to have lunch.

A burrito in a bowl. It was very tasty.

After lunch I took a walk along the River Tagus to Belem on a dedicated walking/biking path. It was a 10 kilometer walk but the path was lined with bars and restaurants and ice cream shops so I took a number of refreshment breaks. When I got to Belem I decided to take a champagne boat tour. It turned out to be a great decision.

This is our boat. It was me and a couple from Switzerland.
This is our tour guide and master of the champagne bottle 🍾, Paulo.
The people of Lisbon decided that if Rio had a huge Christ the King statue they had to have their own huge Christ the King statue.
This is a monument to commemorate the 500 year anniversary of the Portuguese discovering Brazil.
This is the Belem Tower. It was built in the shape of a ship on an island in the middle of the river and stocked with cannons to discourage the pirates who preyed on ships entering and leaving Lisbon.
Another shot of the Tower of Belem.

After the boat tour and a fair amount of champagne I decided to take a cab back to my hotel, as opposed to walking 10 kilometers. I think that was another good decision.

Lamb saag for dinner. Very flavorful but not too spicy.

That’s it from Lisbon, Portugal. I hope you are having a good day wherever you are.

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Published by abeandmarkonthecamino

I've been retired from the Union Pacific Railroad since 2017. I've been planning to walk the Camino for about 6 months and can't wait to get started.

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