Taking the Trolley to Belém

Lisbon's signature building: the Belém Tower

A sunny Sunday in Lisbon is perfect to check out the sights in Lisbon's Belém neighborhood, 20 minutes by trolley to the west of Central Lisbon.

Of course, I'm going to take the trolley.  The town is teeming with them.  But, first, where to find the #15 to Belém.  I ended up right near Praça Dom Pedro (IV, I believe), so I took this arty shot of Dom himself framed by the buildings of Baixa.

But the agglomeration of tourist vehicles let us know we were in Praça da Figueira, where we could take the #15 trolley all the way to Belém.

And soon, through the wonders of Early 20th Century electric transportation technology, we were in Belém.

Outside the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos.  Geronimo's Monastery.  It's a UN World Heritage site.  Vasco da Gama -- the famous Portuguese explorer from the 1500's -- you may have heard of him -- is buried inside -- among other attractions.  Look past the people in the foreground and take a look at all those people in the background of the above picture.  That was the long line to get inside's the Monastery.  (It's not really Geronimo's Monastery, I think, but it's a plausible translation.)

Any line too long and there were other sites to see.  Like this!

Padrão dos Descobrimentos!  The Monument to the Discoverers.

It is the line up of the key Portuguese from the Age of Discovery, when in the decades following Columbus sailing the Ocean Blue, the Portuguese were out exploring the known world.

The Monument is meant to look like the bow of a ship.  And the most important figure leading Portugal into the Age of Discovery is the gentleman leading the line of explorers:  Portugal's Prince Henry the Navigator.

Separate lines of people on the two sides of the Monument.  The previously-mentioned Vasco de Gama is on here somewhere.  But I'm bad with faces so I didn't recognize him.

But I did recognize me, taking my place among the world explorers.

Check out the Ponte 25 de Abril in the background next to the Padrão dos Descobrimentos.

Then it was a short walk alongside the river -- I mean estuary -- to the Torre de Belém.

Photography experts talk about "framing" the subject of the photo.  Here, I have artsily framed a picture of Torre de Belém with what I believe are olive trees.

And right next to the Tower was a biplane.  Commemorating?

Commemorating?  Sacadura Cabral and Gago Coutinho flying from Lisbon to Rio De Janeiro in 1922 in what was the first flight ... across the South Atlantic.  This is the directly-named Sacadura Cabral and Gago Coutinho Monument.

But let's get back to talking about the Tower:

The tower in miniature with, behind it, the tower in maximum.

The next picture is fraught with foreboding:

Take a look at the long line to get in.  Well, when in Lisbon, if you see a line, stand in it.

So I took my place in line to get in the Tower.  It was low tide so the Tower did not appear to be stuck out in the middle of the water.  Which is the case during high tide.  Eventually, I did get in.  Here's proof.

And the views were nice.  But don't ask me about the tight narrow steep spiral staircase.

So when I climbed the tight narrow steep spiral staircase (I thought I told you not to ask me about it) to the top level of the Tower, I thought it was a great time to take a picture of the still-long line to get in.

Apparently everybody is going to Portugal this year.  I spoke with someone simultaneously from various parts of the U.S. who apparently was once a Portugal regular, and she said she's never seen tourist hordes like this in Portugal ever before.  Lucky me.  Riding the wave of where's popular.

Once back outside the Tower, there was busking.  Lots and lots of busking going down in Lisbon.

Two different places in Belém I saw some guy playing an accordion with a chihuahua beside him.  I don't know if you can see this, even if you enlarge the picture, but this guy's chihuahua had a basket for the coins in his mouth.  I love the squeezebox.  And I love chihuahuas carrying baskets of money.  So I tipped.  Thirty euro-cents.  I don't love them THAT much.

Walking past the Monument to the Discoverers to get to the next destination.

Which had a line.

But this line was so worth standing in.  This is the line to get into Pasteis de Belém

They sell a few different types of baked goods, but everybody who is here is here for one baked good in particular: the Pastel de Belém.  It's an egg custard pie.  An egg custard pie made in heaven by the Hands of God and the Virgin Mary working together.

Here's my order getting bagged up with a bottle of water.  It was hot standing in long lines all day and I was parched.  But the Pasteis de Belém exceeded whatever expectations I had.  I bought two.  I immediately ate the first to see how they were.  The first was so good that I ate the second before I photographed it.

Should've bought three.  Or maybe a baker's dozen.  I will end with another picture of the accordion player near the Belém Tower.  A little girl is trying to pet the chihuahua, but the chihuahua is none too happy.  The chihuahua doesn't want her love or affection.

The chihuahua wants coin.