After lunch, we jumped on a bus for the 15-minute ride to the Belém neighborhood, home of several key sites for Lisbon-area tourists. We’d visited twice during our previous trip but focused our time on the famous custard pastry spot and a boat tour which didn’t go as well as hoped.
Jerónimos Monastery was first on our itinerary, as it was recognized by Lonely Planet as one of the 500 Ultimate Travel destinations in the world. The ticket lines, however, were even longer than we’d experienced at the castle or the trolley, and the process far more disorganized. We had purchased the Lisbon Card, which made the attraction free, but we still had to show the card to print the needed tickets to enter. No “priority” option seemed to be available here, but when I finally made it to the ticket booth, sure enough, there was a sign showing that special groups, including families with young children, could skip the line.
The monastery was impressive, and once we’d made it through the long ticket process, the site was relatively uncrowded. We hung around for a while, appreciating the intricate designs and unique architecture, and grabbing a number of photos featuring different combinations of travelers and angles.
Eilidh got in a little nap during the first part of our visit.
Eilidh had a different reaction than Emmie to Amanda’s impromptu photoshoot.
Another site, the Belém Tower, was also included with our Lisbon Card, but it would have required at least a 45-minute round-trip walk to visit. A similar attraction, in terms of providing great views of Belém, the famous 25th of April Bridge, and Lisbon in general, was just across the street.
Amanda attempted to organize a final photo outside the famous monastery.
Across the street from the monastery, the kids enjoyed looking at ducks in the ponds.
The Monument to the Discoveries was built in 1960 and designed to honor the most famous Portuguese explorers, like Vasco da Gama, who discovered the sea route to India, and Pedro Álvares Cabral, who found Brazil, which became part of the Portuguese empire for more than 300 years.
While the monument featured some intricate carvings, going inside wasn’t particularly rewarding. We walked a few steps to an elevator before riding to the top of the monument to reach a viewpoint with walls so high we had to lift each kid to be able to take in any of the surrounding scenery.
Next on the itinerary was Pasteis de Belém, which produces something like 20,000 of its famous custard tarts each day for locals and tourists. We’d planned to go inside for table service, which seemed to be a bit of a shortcut last year in avoiding the lengthy takeaway lines. However, this year, the 400 indoor seats were occupied and the line stretched through one of the back dining rooms. Again, Eilidh provided the assist, as a waitress saw our family and the next available table was ours.
Noah, 2018, in front of the blue tiled wall.
Noah, 2017, wearing the same shirt, in front of the same tiled wall.
We ordered 10 of the famous pastries, plus water, white milk, and chocolate milk. We generously added cinnamon and powdered sugar, and everyone except Eilidh finished at least one pastry. Noah, who claimed to not even be a fan, was hungry enough to eat two of the warm pastries.
After a brief stop for a piece of highly-touted chocolate cake, this one richer and less unique than the first, the girls jumped into an Uber to return to our Lisbon house, while Noah and I did the cheaper, but lengthier, bus/subway combo.
Noah outside our apartment, following our return from the city.
Once we arrived back, I left right away, intending to grab a takeaway order of stir-fried noodles from one of our favorite, hole-in-the-wall restaurant spots from last year’s trip. However, upon arrival, the familiar and friendly cook was not present, and a red “X” had struck our favorite dish from the menu.
Not wanting to significantly delay dinner, and also not wanting to make the rest of the family leave our apartment, I decided on pizza to-go from the cheap (but reasonably tasty) Telepizza, which we’d eaten a year prior. I made the 30-minute round-trip walk to the pizza place, bringing back three sort-of-hot medium pizzas to share.
One, specifically for Noah and Emmie, had just ham and cheese; the other was similar but included mushrooms and onions; the final pizza was their “volcano” pizza, which had a cheesy center and was topped with chips for a Mexican-twist. We worked our way through roughly half of the pies, with Emmie ensuring all the chips and cheese from the volcano pizza were consumed.
