Hello steamians
The second day of our trip to Lisbon we went to Belém. One of the first things you see when you arrive there is Padrão dos Descobrimentos. It’s a 52-meter high building but don’t worry you can take the elevator to the top. Once you're upstairs you have a beautiful view over the Tagus river and the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos but most importantly if you look down you see a word map indicated which Portuguese discoveries were made and which areas were owned by the Portuguese. When, we were still on the ground I had no clue that I was standing on a map… (oops). Let’s say you easily overlook it so just go upstairs you won’t regret it!
(Unfortunately, it was under construction when we were there.)
Across Padrão dos Descobrimentos we find the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. Unfortunately, we couldn’t visit it because the waiting line was over 2 hours long and you have to know it was only 11 o’clock in the morning. Therefore, if you absolutely want to visit it, I suggest to make it the first thing you do.
Then we visited the most famous attraction of Belém, Torre de Belém, which is actually smaller than you would expect it to be but that doesn’t makes it less stunning to see. It is located in a small park with a lot of food trucks which makes it ideal to sit and have something to eat with a view on the Tagus river. My personal favorite was the frozen yoghurt with fresh fruits ... nothing better than something cold and refreshing on such a hot day.
In the afternoon we decided to walk through the little streets of Belem to sniff everyday life ... okay that's not completely true...we were actually looking for the famous tram 28 but apparently you can only take it in another district. So we acted as if this was the original plan and I must say that when you leave the places with all the tourist you really feel like you’re in Brazil, no I’m not saying that because they have the statue of Jesus in the small version, but because of all the small and colored houses and the streets that are slanting upwards.
(This is the wrong tram ;) )
Thanks for reading and tomorrow I’ll tell about day 3 ;)
So happy to see you enjoy lisbon! I grew up there and I've never been to the top of padrao dos descobrimentos, so well done! btw they're just cleaning it!