Belém

Hello again!

Today we slept in a little bit because of the show last night (I posted this morning about it, scroll down to read!). We woke up to pouring rain. I've been very lucky this entire holiday and only had one bad day of rain in Rome so I wasn't too disappointed. But still annoying!

So we headed off with our umbrellas and caught the number 15 tram to Belém, a suburb about 20 minutes outside of Lisbon where famous explorers and navigators used to set sail. The minute we got off the tram and walked to the Navigators' Monument the wind picked up and just about blew us away, and it started bucketing down!! So we had a coffee in a nearby restaurant and it cleared in about 5 minutes.

Then we had a look at the Navigators' Monument which was erected in 1960. It was huge!! Then we walked to the Belém tower, which is a 16th century defense tower that was also used as a prison, customs post, telegraph station, lighthouse and health station. It's also the site of where Vasco da Gama set off to eventually find India. We went inside and up the tower and the sky cleared a little bit which was good.

Next we went to Jeronimo's Monastery, which was built to honour Vasco da Gama and he is buried there. We had a look in the main church area, then at the exhibition. There was a display of 500 years of history to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the monastery and I also enjoyed looking at the other areas of the monastery.

Then we went to the famous Pasteis de Belém, a cafe/shop. We had a sandwich each for lunch. We also had a coffee each because the man misunderstood that billy wanted a coffee and I wanted water. Now those of you that know me well know I hate coffee, but I wanted to be polite. So I put that much sugar in it that it no longer tasted like coffee and drank it!! Haha. Then we went to the front of the shop which sells cakes. The shop is world famous for its pastel de nata or Portuguese custard tarts. Everything is so cheap here, they were only €1 each!! So we got 6 and ate 4 of them in the park across the road. YUM.

We went to the Coach Museum at the Belém Palace and looked at pretty royal coaches!! Then we caught the tram back which was absolutely packed and rather unpleasant as a result! We had a mojito and a ginga (portuguese drink) at a cafe in Praca do Comercio and then bought some groceries. Billy has a bad stomach ache so were staying in tonight and I'm having fruit and the leftover custard tarts for dinner later. Yumyumyum haha. The weather is meant to be sunny for our last 3 days :)

Love to all,
Claire
Xoxox