Lisbon, Portugal
After thoroughly enjoying our time in Porto, we decided to head to Portugal’s capital city, Lisbon. We left the station for a 3-hour train ride. It was a great opportunity to catch up on some language arts homework so we could explore the city when we arrived.
“World School”
I was looking forward to wandering around Lisbon’s beautiful neighborhoods and enjoying their breathtaking views. It has everything you dream about traveling in a European city…a Moorish castle, cobbled narrow streets, laundry hanging out the windows, and colorful houses covered in tiles and clay roofs. Beyond that and the pictures I’ve seen, I wasn’t familiar with Lisbon’s history. We learned that in 1755, Lisbon experienced three major earthquakes. The tremors brought on devastating fires and a tsunami and forced the once thriving city into economic ruin. Zach has read every “I Survived” book he can get his hands on, so he had lots of questions, and it gave us an opportunity to do some research. History lesson for the day…check!
On our first day out we toured the Belém District that included the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos which was founded in 1501. Inside the church, Igreja Santa Maria de Belém, which is attached to the monastery, lies Vasco da Gamma’s final resting place. When we explained to Zach who this great navigator was, he was anxious to go back to our place to see what all the fuss was about. After he looked at the map he said, “Dad, why didn’t he just got through the Mediterranean?” Which then led to a discussion about the Suez Canal. History lesson #2…check! Next, we headed across the street to enjoy the limestone monument marking Henry the Navigator’s death and major figures of Portuguese exploration. And, of course, we couldn’t miss the 16th century Tower of Belém, a fortress of the Atlantic.
Lisbon is extremely hilly with steep inclines, so it was interesting getting around. It reminded me of San Francisco with the inclines and the trollies everywhere. We definitely did a lot of walking in each day, but we also utilized all the public transportation options. That’s definitely part of the adventure for us, and Zach is having a lot of opportunities to understand navigating around bigger cities. Let’s see…we used Ubers, trollies, trams, commuter ferry, and a tuk-tuk. Zach was pretty excited about the Tuk-Tuk as were we!
One of our favorite days was taking a ferry boat across the Tagus River to the city of Almada. When we arrived we took a tuk-tuk up to the to the top see the sweeping views of Lisbon, the Ponte25 de Abril, and the The National Sanctuary of Christ the King. If you notice, the bridge looks very similar to that of The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the sanctuary . We walked down to the bottom near the river and came across charming cafes and restaurants.
We have really enjoyed spending time in Portugal and hope return one day in the future. We spent five days here and just touched the surface. There is so much more we would like to explore!
