September 1, 2019

September 1, 2019

Our flight to Lisbon, Portugal was uneventful.  After dinner we had a glass of sweet Port paired with ice cream. Delicious. Port is a fortified wine named after Portugal’s second city of Oporto.

With a Lay-Flat seat, this is the first time Aimee and I both slept for three hours straight on a plane. We arrive in Lisbon relatively free of jet lag. We approach Lisbon airport following the Tagus River past the district of Belem. Most of the houses are of a consistent style; white with orange-tiled roofs.

From the airport, we take a taxi to our downtown hotel location. It is way too early to check-in; but luck is with us, and they have a room available. After stowing our luggage, we buy a Metro day pass from the Concierge and hop on the trolley that follows the riverfront west. We exit five miles away at the mouth of the Tagus River in Belem (Portuguese for Bethlehem).

Belem has the World Heritage Site of the Monastery of St. Jerome. This large ornate structure was built four hundred years ago when Portugal became rich trading spices with India. Today the monastery is owned by the government and contains museums. This site is teeming with tourists and we wait in several lines to get our tickets and enter. We start with the National Archeology Museum. Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in Europe with a long history of civilization. This important Atlantic port city was founded by Phoenician traders probably 3200 years ago. Later Celts and Romans invaded Iberia. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Visigoths and Muslims built empires here. The most interesting artifacts are the heavy metal necklaces from the Bronze Age. Apparently life in ancient times while harder wasn’t as different as one imagines.

We then visited the historical Cloister of the Monastery. It is wonderful and highly decorated in lacy Gothic. A lot of the ornamentation looks almost organic. We then went next door and visited the church which is still active. Because today is Sunday, the line to enter was long. One of the chapels contains the tomb of Vasco da Gama, the most famous of the Portuguese explorers. We visited an outdoor market and then had lunch at the museum cafeteria. For dessert we had one of Lisbon’s famous miniature custard tarts.

After lunch we visited the extensive Maritime Museum. The Portuguese initiated Europe’s Age of Exploration. It started 600 years ago in 1419 when Madeira Island was discovered in the Atlantic off the African coast. The effort was led by Prince Henry the Navigator. Being the fourth son of the King, he was motivated by the need to make a living. Madeira was planted with sugar and vineyards to produce cash for further exploration.

The trade of gold from Sub-Saharan Africa via Camel Caravans was dominated by the Muslims. Prince Henry thought he could capture that lucrative business by sailing down the Atlantic coast of Africa and around the Sahara Desert. It was not as simple as jumping in a boat however. It took a lot of continuous technology development. First they invented the Caravel with Lateen sails that could tack against the winds that blow generally north along the African coast. Venturing west into the Atlantic they found winds and currents that would allow faster southern movement. These needed to be charted. Venturing out of view of the coastline required the development of instruments like sextants for navigation. To carry cargo long distances required shipbuilding techniques of larger and larger vessels.

The museum ended up being much more extensive than we would have imagined with room after room of sailing ship models.

We took the trolley back downtown stopping at Praca do Commercio. This riverside square was the site of the royal palace before it was destroyed in the 1755 Earthquake. It now has a large equestrian statue of King Jose with the Arco Da Rua Agusta to the north. Passing under this Triumphal Arch we follow the main pedestrian street back toward our hotel.

My feet are tired so halfway back, we jump on a passing Trolley car and ride it around for an hour. We have to wait awhile till the car clears out so we can grab window seats. The trolley to Belem was relatively modern, but this line uses vintage trolleys that remind us of ones we’ve seen in old movies set in San Francisco. Interestingly, the driver had to get out once in a while to manually switch the tracks. This trolley line eventually drops us off right in front of our hotel.

We are feeling some jet lag, so we take an hour power-nap before meeting our tour group for a welcome dinner. We toast with a glass of dry white port. I could get use to drinking port. Our meal is Bacalhau, the national dish of Portugal. It is imported Cod that has been dried and salted, the traditional method for preserving food. It is reconstituted by soaking in water overnight. Apparently even with modern refrigeration the Portuguese still prefer the taste over fresh frozen. I loved the Cod in Iceland and Scotland but found Bacalhau to be a little chewy.