Strolling in Lisbon, Conquering History

It's a celebration all around us. Once again, we arrive on a special day. After Palm Sunday in Santiago de Compostela or the double canonization in , we land in Lisbon on the evening of the Champions League final, a Spanish finale pitting Madrid against ... Madrid (Madrid won!).

We begin our Portuguese adventures with a walking tour of the city center: a great way to get our bearings and have a delightful first impression of this city that is entirely new to us.

Margarida, our guide with a smile as charming as her name, taught me a lot. Lisbon, the oldest city in Europe, deserves, with its history and legends, to have a television series filled with twists and colorful characters. Game of Thrones should be worried!

In Rossio Square, where we start our tour, Margarida introduces us to the first king of Portugal who proclaimed himself emperor of Brazil, Pedro IV. Behind this boldness lies a well-structured argument in three points:

Note to ourselves: we need to verify all of this, a trip to Brazil is a must...

If the football match atmosphere enveloped our evening the night before, today a festive martial atmosphere vibrates through the center of Lisbon: military personnel, young and old, march proudly under the loving gaze of their families.

As we leave the square, Margarida presents one of the specialties of the region, a liquor that must be tasted when visiting Lisbon: ginjinha. Invented by a monk, it was initially intended for medicinal purposes: the prescribed dose was 6 glasses a day, starting with breakfast! Margarida teaches us that the real miracle remedy is thus not the apple:

We didn't dare to drink it at breakfast, but rather at the end of the evening, in a tiny chocolate shot glass. Verdict? Delicious!

Portugal has gone through a series of eras, occupations (Moorish, Spanish ...) and has been influenced by its colonies (Brazil, India ...).

The result is very interesting: a beautiful representation of >!

One of the most beautiful testimonies of this cultural mix can be found in the downtown station that connects Lisbon to Sintra. It's my favorite building, truly a coup de cœur. I am excited at the thought of returning when we set off for Sintra: the interior of the station is also worth the detour.

The guide shares with us the highlights of her city's history through the streets and buildings: the last king of the country, independence, dictatorship, and revolution ...

We arrive at Largo do Carmo Square with its magnificent trees bearing purple flowers, imported from Brazil.

I completely understand her! This square exudes a very special atmosphere, partly due to its small size and numerous colorful trees providing cool shade for the leisurely visitor resting on its benches; and partly due to its ruined church. Lisbon experienced a terrible earthquake in 1755 (magnitude 9 on the Richter scale!): the whole city was destroyed (except for the Alfama district, miraculously spared). This catastrophe took place on a Sunday, with all the Lisbon locals in churches, leading to over 30,000 deaths, many crushed by the ceilings of their sacred buildings. In commemoration of this tragedy, the Convento do Carmo was left as it was.

This square also holds a trick: free access to the Santa Justa lift! The view of the city is magnificent.

Passing through the Baixa district and its shopping streets, we stop to taste a famous regional pastry: the pastel de nata (knowing that this one is nothing compared to the one we will have in Belém!). We then proceed to Praça da Figueira, where we hop on the old tourist tram, the famous line 28: heading towards the Alfama district!

The tram sighs, glides, and wheezes through the steep climbs worthy of San Francisco. The narrow alleyways testify to the age of this neighborhood, a heritage of the Middle Ages. We leave the tracks and overlook Alfama alongside the statue of São Vicente, the official patron of Lisbon. We learn that this Spanish patron is not favored by the people, who fervently pray to São Antonio, the patron of lost objects and love restored.

After all these stories, these streets, and these stairs, it's time for comfort: tasting Portuguese charcuterie with a good glass of wine! White and gray breads, cheeses, salami, and chorizo: we enjoy.

The end of the visit rings as we reach Praça do Comércio. We bid farewell to our guide, passionate about history and her city, who kept us on our toes for these three hours, which quickly passed in her charming company.

Time for improvisation for what's next... After a good meal, some bits of information gathered here and there (for example, that all museums close on Monday, a dead day in Lisbon!) and some intense pondering, we decide to spend the afternoon in Belém.

Arriving in Belém, the sun also shows up. We walk past THE pastry shop in the city, so famous that locals and tourists alike crowd in, waiting in line on the street.

We start by visiting the Jerónimos Monastery (Mosteiro dos Jerónimos), which feels like a pilgrimage because the tomb of a relative of François is here: Vasco da Gama! Explorer blood runs in our veins...

The church impresses more with its size than its elegance, but there's a unique atmosphere surrounding this place that pays tribute to the great navigator.

We decide to open our wallets to access the cloister, a lovely patio bordered with light stone arches: I love it! François struggles hard to get me out so we can continue our discovery of Belém: heading to the Monument to the Discoveries.

Built along the Tagus River, the > resembles a caravel ready to set sail for new conquests. Dedicated to great explorers, it was erected for the 500th anniversary of the death of Henry the Navigator (Infante Don Enrique), who stands at the bow of the building, a caravel in hand, followed by 32 notable figures of the time: navigators, scientists, cartographers, evangelists, patrons, poets ...

Under the distant gazes of tourists and the more ironic looks of the Portuguese (who nickname this monument >), we continue our stroll along the water toward the famous Torre de Belém.

This famous tower was once the residence of the port captain. Small, its lower spaces are of little interest: the main goal is to enjoy the view from its top. We speed up the stairs, as a light regulates the flow of movement: the spiral staircase is so narrow that we cannot pass each other.

Arriving at the top, breathless, we barely enjoy the view: a line is growing by the minute with all the tourists eager to leave the heights of the tower, waiting for the green light. Finally, we manage to descend: like paratroopers jumping from the sky, we race down. The end of passage signal sounds: wisdom tells us to stop at the next intermediate landing, but no, we want to get out of here and escape this infernal spiral!

Two Indian tourists in front of us charge ahead, and I take the chance to follow. We finally reach the ground just before the signal sounds for the tourists waiting to go up. Panting, the Indian smiles at me:

We leave the tower with a beautiful goal to recover from the descent: the pastries of Belém!

Our morning guide, Margarida, had warned us: there is always a monstrous line in front of the pastry shop.

So we easily bypass the tourists in line and enter: the place is much larger than it seems at first glance. The rooms follow one another endlessly, each larger than the last. But finding a table is still not easy: everything is full, and lines of hungry people form here and there, like vultures watching for any sign of a table becoming free. We play the game and quickly find a table. We are finally going to taste the local specialty and solve a great question: is the > better than the > from Lisbon?

The pastry we taste is beyond all comparisons: I, who am not a big fan of such desserts, enjoyed this crunchy pastry, still warm. A pure delight: the wait times are justified!

As usual, we travel day by day, without a program. Our only requirement: spend two days in Sintra. After a first day filled with activities in the center of Lisbon and Belém, we therefore have two beautiful days to explore the capital by ourselves.

We decide to create an itinerary connecting the different funiculars and elevators of the city. After Santa Justa and the old tram of line 28 that we saw the day before, we still had to discover the main funiculars: da Glória, Bica, and Lavra.

To take beautiful photos, get some exercise (we need to burn off those pastéis!), and save some money, we did not ride in these antique lifts. However, the stroll along the tracks was worth it: we're putting together a beautiful photo gallery dedicated to Lisbon's trams and funiculars (coming soon!).

To mix things up, we then decide to leave the center and take the metro to visit the Palácio Marquês de Fronteira. In addition to showcasing a beautiful collection of azulejos (painted ceramics), the guided tour of this palace allows us to revisit the history of the country through the lineage of Fronteira, who earned their noble title for their participation in the battle for liberation from Spanish rule in the 1640s.

As a note, we chose to take the guided tour in English, while a French tour was happening simultaneously. But the small size of the English-speaking group, its diverse ages and nationalities (Spain, Brazil, Italy, Portugal ...) as well as the stiff demeanor of the guide (whom we referred to among ourselves as >) led us to prefer the tour in the language of Shakespeare. The man organizing the French tour, besides seeming rather unfriendly, did not appear to take the same delight in revealing the secrets and meticulous details of the palace and the history of the family as our baroness did.

Unfortunately, we have no photos of the interior of the palace to share with you (photography is forbidden for security reasons ...), which I regret because here too, the blend of styles and eras is palpable.

However, we made up for it in the Italian garden, adorned with colorful azulejos, statues inspired by mythology, fountains, and ponds.

We spent our last moments in the capital wandering around, stopping occasionally for a drink. Our main strolling objectives were gastronomic (we can't help it!).

Thus, we went, under our host's advice, to the Mercado de Campo de Ourique. A very beautiful space in > style with its wrought iron structures and a wide variety of fresh and regional products: a must-try!

Here we are at the end of our travel tales in the Portuguese capital. Coming soon: Practical Lisbon. Followed by the travel story to Sintra, and an article > (6 Reasons to Go to Sintra) about this magnificent city that should not be missed!

Have you ever discovered the Portuguese capital? Any memories of Lisbon to share?