14:47:23  05/01/2022

Day four in Lisbon took us to Belem, a community within the city of Lisbon.  To get there we took the tram over from the stop at the waterfront.  The ride took us about 30 minutes.  The stop in Belem left us right in front of the monastery / church.  We hoped to see the monastery cloister.  So we got out early, 8:30ish to get there around 9:30/10:00) when they open. 

We had not yet had anything to eat, and had a few minutes so we grabbed something from Starbucks.  We, along with all the other foreigners were very confused when the ticket office was not open at 10:00am as the signs said.  We checked the doors and they were locked, we were all very confused.

So we decided to see some of the monuments along the shore of the river.  The rio tejo, open out to the Atlantic ocean, its where the great Portugese explorers took sail from, and where they would be greeted upon their return.  Some of these include Magellan, who was the first to circumnavigate the world.

So we took a couple of hours just wandering along the shoreline, along with all the other tourists, got some great shots and took in the heat of the day.  We then decided to go back to see if we could get access to the cloister, there was a church volunteer at the front of the church entrance and he told us that the cloister was closed today as it is a national holiday, its Labour Day here.  So that explained why any of the sites that required access like the cloister or the carriage museum were closed.

We grabbed some lunch in Belem; I got some of the local clams, and Krista got the prawns (which honestly are very much like shrimp).  The clams were tiny, so what we would call baby clams.  Along with a glass of wine and a beer (Sagres) it was enough for us to take us through the afternoon.  After lunch we grabbed the tram back into the core of the city.  

We then decided that since all the indoor venus were closed we would go check out the castle at the top of the Alfam (which is a region within Lisbon, similar to how Belem is a region or neighbourhood within the city).

The Rick Steeves guide probably saved my knee today, instead of having to climb all the way up the hill, not a small hill, to get to the castle, we instead took two elevators which almost took us to the top.  We would have never found these without the guide, both were in buildings, with a walk between the two.  One of the instructions was walk into the building with the grocery store marked elevator.  From the top the views were awesome, but it was unfortunate that we could not enter into the main part of the castle grounds we could only visit the town directly behind the castle wall, holiday and all.  We wandered around, hung out with the local Peacocks, went to the top of the tower to get a better veiw of the city and then explored the streets.  

We then, using the Rick Steeves, walking guide made our way down the hill.  Down is worse for me than up, but hey we're in Lisbon so all is good.  We walked through the narrow cobble stone streets along the side of the hill, stopping at each neighbourhood square along the way to take in the city and rest my knee.  Taking our time we finally made it to the bottom of the hill where we found the Fado Museum.  Fado is a style of music, sung by either men or women, depending on what part of the country you are in, but never both at the same time.  This is a traditional form of music here.

Tonight we're going to dinner with music, Fado to be specific.  It should be good aparently its the best in town.

We packed our stuff because tomorrow morning we leave Lisbon behind for a couple of weeks as we explore the rest of the country.  We're off to the south of Portugal.