Along the Rio Tejo

Saturday began at 5am when the sun rose across the Rio Tejo, which you can just see in the distance from our hotel. I got up and used the coffee making facilities in the room, showered and dressed and edited the photographs from last night and loaded them to Flickr. 

Breakfast

At 7am we went down for breakfast which is served just off the reception at the Holiday Inn

The breakfast was very well supplied. Having had Holiday Inn breakfasts in the USA I was expecting a limited range of products, but the selection of both continental and cooked breakfast items here was excellent. 

For starters I had some lovely seeded bread with a selection of cooked meats and cheese:

This was followed by the cooked options which included sausage, bacon and egg, fried mushrooms and a ratatouille and (an unexpected item) Chinese potsticker dumplings:

While I finished at this point, Drew treated himself to a few little sweet treats which were available.

Route finding for Drew

Our first task of the day was to ensure Drew would be able to get to the start point of the race tomorrow. As we did in Copenhagen last November, we checked out the route.

The race starts in the middle of one of the major arteries into the city. The Ponte 25 de Abril, this huge suspension bridge over the Rio Tejo is only accessible on race day from a train station on the opposite bank of the river, and the train station is only accessible on that day on the Fertagus train. The race organisers had arranged with the local train company that runners can travel for free on the train on the day, so instead of finding the whole route for Drew, we needed to find the route from our hotel to the nearest Fertagus train station - Roma-Areeiro 

We found it with no difficulty, walking back to Alameda metro station which we had used yesterday it is just one stop to Areeiro metro station and a 100 metre walk from the metro to the railway. The station was already full of signs making clear where runners were to go. Drew, not the best route-finder, was confident he could repeat that journey tomorrow morning. 

Just outside the Areeiro station is an amazing statue of Francisco Sá Carneiro, it commemorates Sá Carneiro who was an early member of the Portuguese Social Democrats, Sá Carneiro died in a plane crash after being in office for only 11 months.

Down to the Riverside

Having made sure of Drew's route we got back on the Green (verde) line and headed back towards the Rio Tejo at Cais do Sodré station, which we had visited last night.

We walked along the river in the direction we had initially taken last night - Yes, the wrong turn I made then, was now the right direction for today.  

The Rio Tejo, known as the River Tagus in English, is an impressive sight.  

We strolled along taking in the atmosphere in this comfortable, if cloudy, weather, high 60s low 70s Fahrenheit is not what I'm used to in March, especially after the snow we left back in the UK!

As we strolled it became clear that Lisbon is clearly gearing up for the arrival of World Youth Day in August, with signs about the visit by Pope Francis and the world's Catholic youth all over town.

The river front had some interesting buildings, including the Portuguese Ministery of Defence, Naval Building - Direção-Geral de Autoridade Marítima. While, this is a very august, typical European castle style and colour, it is clearly still a functioning, and busy, arm of government.

The building also had a very striking pond. It looked as if the pond had a lot of algae in it, as well as being well supplied by ducks, but it turns out that the algae is a deliberate feature of the environment as described in Portuguese and English on the signs in the photo below. 

.

Continuing our walk along the river front we saw the area which had caught our attention last night on the bus - the Terreiro do Paço (Terrace of the Palace) which is also known as Praça do Comércio (Commerce Square). This huge space used to be the site of a palace which was destroyed in the earthquake of 1755, it is now among the largest open squares in any European city.

At the heart of the square is a large statue of King José I on his horse Gentil.

The statue is an amazing piece of work, well described in this article by the World Monuments Fund, though they have anglicised the monarch's name to Joseph. The statue is famous enough to be the subject of academic research.

The other great feature of the square is the Arco da Rua Augusta (Arch of Augusta's Street) - the street runs behind the arch, away from the square, and was the name of the street before the arch and square was built. During the post-earthquake renovation, it became the main entry point into the City itself from the docklands around the river. 

Walking further along the river side we get a glimpse up on of Lisbon's many hills, this one has a large church tower in the centre, but exploring up there will be for another day, as we have other places to be today.

On to Belem

The photo of the Church Tower, above, was taken from the bus stop which we had finally found last evening after much searching, today we knew exactly where it was so caught the 728 back along the way we had walked, past Cais do Sodré and on to Mosteiro Jerónimos a 28-minute journey of 4.2 miles.

We got off at the Mosteiro stop and as it was now midday, we stopped for a drink at the Banana Café which was an old tram serving snacks and drinks at the bus/tram stop by the Mosteiro. 

Americano and sparkling water for me, Cappuccino and sparkling water for Drew. The heat has been building during the day, so we need to keep our fluids up!  

Mosteiro Jerónimos

We only had to cross the road to reach Mosteiro Jerónimos. The monastery is an amazing building, built on the site of a former hermitage it was developed in the 1500s into a monastery for the Order of the Friars of St. Jerome. It epitomises a Catholicism unknown in the UK, at the time when the monastery that did exist were being broken apart and sold to the highest bidder by King Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell, here in Portugal, the faith was in its pomp. Portugal too was in its era of wealth. With Vasco De Gama being the first European to find the sea route to India in 1498, Portugal gained much from its trade with the East and the King was able to levy a 5% tax on all trade which was funnelled into this building. 

The distinctive style seen above in the work on the top of the building and below in the careful carved stone above the statues has its own architectural name - Manueline - named for King Manuel who instigated the work on this building it describes a distinctive Portugese form of high Gothic design.

 

The great south door has Our Lady holding the child Jesus as its focus with the royal coat of arms above. 

It is an amazing building, a true delight for the eyes, even without seeing anything else in Lisbon, seeing this amazing edifice would be enough.

Jardim da Praça do Império and Padrão dos Descobrimentos 

Across the road from the Mosteiro Jerónimos is the very pretty Jardim da Praça do Império (Empire Square Garden). The gardens were built for the Portuguese World Exhibition in 1940, to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the founding of Portugal in 1143 and the 300th anniversary of the Restoration of the Portuguese monarchy after 60 years of Spanish rule in 1640. 

The garden's centre piece are the mythological figures of two horses with the tails of marine animals.

The Portuguese Empire at its height, included the Azores, Madeira, Cape Verde, São Tomé, Principe, Cochin, Goa, Colombo, Macao, Nagasaki, Mozambique, Angola and Brazil. As well as the Empire Square Garden it is celebrated along the river here with an amazing monument called Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries). 

It was designed for the World Exhibition in 1940 but it was only built in 1960 for the commemorations marking 500 years since the death of Prince Henry the Navigator the third son of King João I who was so influential in the development of trade relationships which led to the empire. It is Henry whose image appears to be at the front of the ship as it heads into the Rio Tejo - the yachts on the river enhanced the reflection on the importance of this huge river on Lisbon, Portugal and indeed Europe.  

Along the Tejo

We continued along the river and the yachts showed the liveliness of the river as they raced along it.

The river also gives a wonderful view across to the southern coast where the famous Statue of Christ the King stands on the hill with the Ponte 25 de Abril in the foreground. This statue is really famous for being inspired by the more famous, and older, statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro.   

The riverside gets busier and busier on this Saturday afternoon and it is clear that the food offers aren't just local! Though it came as a surprise to see Canadian Food, the famous Quebec Poutine (of which I wrote in our 2018 blog), on offer. 

Spain was represented too, with Mister Tapas. I did like their approach to marketing. Rio Tejo to the left, tapas, drinks and takeaway to the right - clearly designed to get their priorities right.

Torre de Belém

The importance of the Rio Tejo to Lisbon and Portugal is further evidence by the development of the Torre De Belém (Belem Tower) at the point when the river grows closer to the Sea.

The Tower was built in 16th century and its original purpose was to be a fort, protecting Lisbon from incoming raids along the river. It quickly came to mark the beginning of voyages for the sailors and the last sight of land, so became more important as a symbol than in its practical value as a fort. 

From the land side it is quickly evident that the Manueline style was adopted here. While being built a little later than the Mosteiro it was built from the same materials.  

Later in history the Tower became a lighthouse and then a political prison, so the inside is far less interesting than the outside, which is very impressive as it looks as if the Tower is built over the river, not just beside it.

Monuments 

The Torre de Belém Gardens leads on to the Museu do Combatente (Army Museum) and the impressive Monumento aos Combatentes do Ultramar (Monument to the Overseas Combatants).

Then the Monumento aos Combatentes das missões Paz, the Monument to Combatants of the Peace Missions.

Return to the hotel

Having walked through the Belem Gardens and beyond we made it to the Algés area of the city where we were able to catch a modern tram (the E15) back along the river front. 

The tram takes us right under the bridge from which Drew will be beginning the race tomorrow.

The tram terminates at the stop called Calvário (Calvary) and from there we catch a bus back to Cais do Sodré and from there by Metro to Alameda arriving back at the hotel at 3.15pm, feeling we've made good use of our visiting time today.

A brief note on Carris Card use

For those, like me, who like to keep a record of our savings on public transport, it is worth noting that we bought our Metro Card for €6.60 at 2.15pm yesterday. By 2.15pm today we had used it for 3 metro and 3 bus trips last night, and two metro, two bus and one tram by 2.15pm today - i.e. 11 trips at €1.65 each - €18.15 a discount of €11.55 over the pay as you go option! 

Time to buy another card at Cais do Sodré (at 2.20pm) before our metro trip back to the hotel.