Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: The Portuguese Connection (2012)
Guess who's coming to visit
| A repeat
performance of the previous day's breakfast in the Executive
Lounge preceded the now-familiar walk to the Zoo metro
station, where we each re-charged our Viva Viagem
card with a fresh five-euro day pass. We rode the metro to Baixa on this occasion and quickly found the No 28 tram line at a different part of its route from the section that we had experienced the previous day. We travelled uphill past the cathedral to the Miradouro de Santa Luzia, where we enjoyed the views from both sides of the little church before crossing the road and heading up through the steep, narrow and winding streets to St George's Castle. |
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| ABOVE: Miradouro de Santa Luzia | |||
After buying the necessary admission tickets, we began our visit to the castle by admiring the stunning panoramic views across the many red-tiled rooftops of the city. We then had a look around the castle itself and walked part of the walls.
| BELOW: Castelo de São Jorge, probably the finest viewpoint in the city | |||||
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We also took a stroll through the narrow streets of Upper Alfama, just outside the castle walls, and stopped at a local cafe for some light refreshment.
| BELOW: Upper Alfama, just outside the castle walls |
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Back on the main road, we then followed the tram tracks downhill and paused for a quick look around the cathedral.
| BELOW: Walking back down from St George's Castle, past the cathedral and its near neighbour, St Anthony's Church | |||||
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Once back at Praça do Comércio, the next stage of the plan involved catching a sleek, modern No 15 tram to the suburb of Belém, some 6km west of the city centre. Confidence was shaken slightly by the 'Service disrupted' message that was appearing on the electronic indicators at the tram stop. Our fears were confirmed when the tram that we eventually boarded turned into a depot a good way short of our destination and everyone was advised to get off and catch a bus. Our replacement bus followed a rather convoluted route involving several uphill sections that took us further and further away from the tram tracks. In due course we were advised to get off and, sure enough, we could see the famous Mosteiro dos Jerónimos downhill from where we had been dropped off.
| Once downhill,
it became abundantly clear that there was far more to the
disruption than originally thought: there were huge numbers
of police in attendance and access to the monastery was
completely cut off. We decided to go for lunch and soon discovered a nice place with a popular outdoor area. The food turned out to be really good: I had grilled fish, which was excellent. |
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| ABOVE: Belém was in a state of security lock-down, but it didn't in any way spoil an excellent lunch | |||||
As we ate, it was interesting to note how different the southern European way of life was. Quite apart from the obvious point of eating outdoors in November, we noticed that no-one seemed to be in a hurry or showing signs of stress, and nearly all the customers - even those who looked like they had work to go back to - were enjoying a glass of wine or other alcoholic beverage. In many ways, people looked happier.
After our leisurely lunch was over, we found that we were frustrated in every attempt to reach anything of interest, whether it was the monastery, the Belém Tower or the Monument to the Discoveries. At this stage, we still had no idea what any of this was about. There was certainly evidence of some protestors, but they appeared to be massively outnumbered by police. It was only later that we discovered the explanation: German Chancellor Angela Merkel was in town. Even once we decided to abandon the visit to Belém, our attempts to adopt a 'Plan B' were also disrupted and we eventually decided that enough was enough.
Back at the Marriott, we had cocktails in the lobby bar and another room service dinner.