Monument to the Discoveries, Lisbon

A great day, spent doing tourist things. There's a metro stop close to our apartment, so we went there to get travel tickets. They have a 'Zapper' system which allows you to top up a travel card and covers metro, buses, trains and trams until the credit runs out. All very efficient (not like at home, where we still don't have integrated ticketing even after years of planning and who knows how much spent on reports and implementation boards and the like). Not only are the different transport systems integrated in Lisbon, but you don't even have to take the ticket out of your wallet to validate it at the machines!

Anyway, we took the metro one stop down the line to Cais de Sodré, a beautifully designed station, then switched to tram 15 for our trip to Belém. We (well, I did, to be totally honest) thought we needed to go to the end of the line, but shouldn't have. So we had a bite to eat and then got the tram back to where we meant to be. We cut rhough the Centro Cultural de Belém, stopped for some photos near the Museums beside the Monastery which was on our list of places to go, and generally admired the gorgeousness all around, including this statuary in Praça do Império (which very nearly became today's blip). We made our way through the underpass over to the Monument to the Discoveries on the banks of the river Tagus (erected in 1960 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of Henry the Navigator (the guide book says). It's hugely impressive, with emphasis on the huge bit.

We took the lift up to the top of the monument to enjoy the fabulous views, and finally set off towards the Tower of Belém which was the main attraction we'd planned to see. A lunch stop on the way was much needed and well enjoyed (Super Bock, incidentally, as we already found out yesterday, is the beer you get here if you don't specify otherwise (and very nice it is, too). The Tower of Belém dates from the 16th Century, was built as a fortress and later served as a prison when Portugal came under Spanish rule. We paid the very reasonable fee for the tour inside.

We got off the tram at Alcântara on the way back home, had a couple of beers (or was it a few?) in the riverfront bars there, freshened up, and went out for our evening meal to a nice nearby restaurant which is called L'Entrecôte and serves only that. One cocktail in the Bairro Alto finished off a hectic, tiring but hugely enjoyable day.