Lisbon Scenes, 1

Our megalithic visits done for now, we drove west to Lisbon on May 19th, and with a variety of wrong turns and U-turns eventually found Camping Barcelona, the city's big 4 star campground in the northern heights overlooking the metropolis. We spent several days here in 2009, including Xmas (many posts, just search "Lisbon" in the search box). On the 20th we did nothing, and rested, and then on the 21st we took the bus, #714, into town, passing through Belem and the western neighborhoods and even a museum or two we will get to. Our goal for the day was to do the free (for tips) city center tour and then maybe have a nice lunch and visit something else.

The city center is one of many plazas and monuments and
buildings, most all of them dating only from 1755...the earthquake
that killed 90,000..and pedestrian pavement done with the white
and black paving stones, macro-mosaic; imagine walking on
this one if you have vestibular issues...

Even on the old city tour, we saw a number of art nouveaux

And art decaux

And even a famous art nuvo/gothic elevator
designed by one of Eiffel's students

The Portuguese didn't invent tiles, but they
certainly have perfected their use

The above turned out to be the world's oldest
bookstore still in business (according to
Guinness)

Portugal is not a 3rd world country and the tuk-tuks are merely
a tourist novelty; here's a tiled one

We have an uncanny habit of walking onto movie sets...this
one possibly set in the 30s

Anyway, our tour begins; note to self if I ever become a tour
guide: keep verbiage to minimum while customers are standing
in the hot sun on reflective pavement

Monument to Mark Zuckerberg

Former convent/brewery where we had dinner in 2009 (I never
forget convent/breweries)

Pretty street, down to the river

More tiles, more grillwork, balconies

Looking across Alfama to the castle

Jacarandas incredible here too

I thought the meeting of tram and trolley at the former royal
castle really tied things together, color-wise

Monument on the former parade ground; yes, that's an
elephant on the right in the monument; one of the former
kings collected them (this was before Ferraris)

More gorgeous buildings

Some under wraps

Beautiful art deco theatre in North Lisbon

And more monuments

More Belem

This ad is all over Portugal; our Google

translator is struggling to find its meaning

We return to this evening's scheduled programming: the

Monastery of St. Geronimo, across the park

The very famous Monument to the Discoveries; that is, the

Age Discoveries, which Portugal truly led

Prince Henry at the lead

The Tower at Belem, the last of Portugal the Explorers would

see upon leaving, the first they would see should they return

In the Tower of Belem

The Portugese crossed the Atlantic by air, from Lisbon to

Brazil, in 1922, five years before Lindbergh; a replica of

the plane in Belem

Church of St. Geronimo

Ceiling and column in the church of

St. Geronimo

Altar; OK, it's pretty Baroque

Tomb of Vasco da Gama; he was the guy, educated in Prince

Henry's navigation school, who found the way, past Africa,

to India, the Indies, and Portugal's golden age; no mean feat

Detail; a caravel, of course, the ship of the Age of Discovery

Geronimo!

OK, if you are a US male of my vintage, you know that "Geronimo!" is what US Army parachuteers exclaimed as they jumped out from the plane in WWII. According to Hollywood. Possibly not this Geronimo. Little did I know, as a nine-year-old, that St. Jerome would come to have a very different meaning--the scholar, the contemplative saint--later in my life. Belem's St. Geronimo monastery and church are two of the major sites of Lisbon. Except for the windows, neither was seriously damaged in the 1755 earthquake.

San Geronimo monastery and church, Belem

San Geronimo cloisters

Incredible stone work throughout

For example...

Tile in the refectory (the parable of the big britches)

St. J himself, with pet cat

Refectory

\

Arcade in the cloisters

All through Portugal the churches were featuring folk art

nativity scenes--this, at St. Geronimo--was my favorite

OK, if you are a US male of my vintage, you know that "Geronimo!" is what US Army parachuteers exclaimed as they jumped out from the plane in WWII. According to Hollywood. Possibly not this Geronimo. Little did I know, as a nine-year-old, that St. Jerome would come to have a very different meaning--the scholar, the contemplative saint--later in my life. Belem's St. Geronimo monastery and church are two of the major sites of Lisbon. Except for the windows, neither was seriously damaged in the 1755 earthquake.

Belem

Sunday morning we took the bus out to Belem, down the river a few miles, in an area the 1755 earthquake did not destroy, and which contains several of Lisbon's major monuments.

The Coach Museum; early in the 20th, the Queen of Portugal

realized that coaches were going to become a thing of the past,

and so she converted the Royal Stables to a museum of royal

coaches; a fun place

Central nave of coach museum

Not solid gold, hopefully

The landau in which King Carlos and his son, the heir, were

assassinated, 1908; pretty much the end of the monarchy in

Portugal

Bullet holes...

The Rio Tejo, Portugal's great river; we encountered it later

upstream in Toledo; by the time it reaches Lisbon, it is an

estuary, like the Gironde in Bordeaux; the bridge was done

by the same firm that did the Golden Gate in Fan Francisco;

the Jesus statue on the right

The San Geronimo monastery in Belem; more later