Exploring Portugal – Part 2

On our way to Nazare from Fatima, we rumbled past not one, but TWO UNESCO World Heritage Sites. But we were on a mission, hoping for giant waves and good weather in Nazare, so we had decided we would double back to visit them afterwards.

First on our list was the Mosteiro de Santa Maria da Vitória, or as we like to call it, That Big Thing On The Hill. As a UNESCO site, it’s official name is the Monastery of Batalha, which is the town where it is located.

There are tons of interesting things about these UNESCO sites and there are folks who have dedicated their careers to learning all about them. I try to pick one or two things to focus on. In this case all I know is that it is spikey and scroll-y and fussy and old and I liked it. Also, it is the burial place of Henry the Navigator, or Infante D. Henrique as the Portuguese call him.

Even though it was a couple of British authors who dubbed him Henry the Navigator, with a name like that you’d think he was an explorer who discovered important things. Although he is an important character in Portugal’s Age of Discovery, Henry was a Prince, the son of King John I, and as such had access to money. It was at his direction and patronage that others went out and did the actual exploring, for which Henry gets a ton of credit, rightly so. Through his discoveries new trade routes were opened with west Africa. So, all-in-all, Henry was a pretty good guy and they love him here in Portugal, which is obvious because of all the statues in his honor. They are everywhere!

Next we made our way about 25 kilometers south to Alcobaça where we parked up in the free aire. It was Sunday and most things were closed. We didn’t have much food on board, or at least food that appealed to us, so we set off to find a cafe that was open. We had some yummy pizza just across from the Monastery of Alcobaça, the very reason we had come here. Portugal UNESCO World Heritage Site #4.

I confess by this time I was a bit monastery’d out, plus, our “Entry Fee” budget had long been busted. Thankfully, UNESCO sites are very reasonable, so since it was raining and gloomy out, we went in to explore. The one neat thing I wanted to see here was the kitchen. I learned from Wikipedia that the monks had a kitchen with a stream running through it, which brought fish from the nearby river right into the kitchen. All the cooks had to do was simply pluck their dinner from the stream and that was that. This would be the kind of fishing I think I would excel at.

We concluded our visit to Alcobaça with a visit to a pottery store where I got to feed my need to buy decorative dishes. I know, I haven’t got an ounce of room for them, but they are small and I couldn’t help myself. And they are so cute!

It took us ages to decide where to go next. I really wanted to go to Lisbon, but was not looking forward to driving in a big, busy city. But there was so much we wanted to see, I finally decided I just had to buck up and do it. The drive turned out to be nothing to worry about and Lisbon turned out to be one of our favorite places, starting with that statue at the front gate of our campground, the one pictured in our lead shot. I can’t see one of these at a KOA, can you?

With the sun shining brightly we took the opportunity to hop on our bikes and take off for Belém. Not only is there a ton of things to see there, including a couple of UNESCO sites, but also there is the Pastéis de Belém, a bakery specializing in what has to be the national pastry of Portugal, the pastel de nata. We aimed to try a few and see how they fared against the other 10,000 we had already eaten.

So off we went on our bikes, simply assuming there would be a bike path. There was not. In fact, if you map on Google from our campsite to Belém, there is not even the option to choose a bike route. That would have been our first clue had we bothered to look. Suffice it to say, Lisbon is not bike friendly. Also, getting to Belem took us straight downhill and I thought we might have to call a taxi van to get us and our bikes home. But before we actually had to figure that out, there was loads to see. The one issue we had was, how do we get to it?

There was a multi-track rail system between us and the monuments we wanted to see, and to go around meant biking miles out of our way. Hmmmm. For pedestrians there are stairs and I mean very steep stairs, and we happened to notice a guy with a bike coming up them. On closer inspection, there was a thin tire rail on the side. Bike riders are meant to put their bike tires inside the rail and walk them down with gravity assist. Holy Cow I was sure I would lose control and that my bike would kill someone at the bottom. Those bikes are HEAVY! So much so that I was unable to get mine up the rail, Steven had to do both of them. What a chore!

Nonetheless, we had managed to get ourselves over to the Tower of Belém and the Monument to the Discoveries which celebrates the 15th and 16th century explorers. This is one of my favorite sites in Portugal. Each person represented on that monument tells a story. And interestingly, the monument itself was created as a temporary exhibit for the 1940 Portuguese World Exhibition. Afterward it was destroyed, but a few years later a permanent monument was built. Much like Paris’s Eiffel Tower and Seattle’s Space Needle, both built as temporary structures for World Fairs, the monument in Belém has become an iconic installation. And who is that man in front? Yep, Henry the Navigator!

After visiting the waterfront area, we made our way back through the tunnel, wrestling those heavy bikes up the rail to make our way to the nearby bakery. I stayed with the bikes while Steven stood in line to get our pastries. This little eggy custardy goodness is on every street corner, in nearly every food store, and in IKEA restaurants, too. We have eaten our weight in these little three-bite wonders but the ones in Belém were purported to be the best. And they were. We bought a dozen of them and when they were gone two days later I swore I’d never eat another. Alas….

Our trip back to the campground turned out to be easier than we thought and we made it back in good time. I guess we have learned a few things about our bikes since Bilbao and the uphill sections were easier for us to manage. Once again, we are loving our E-bikes!

To get the lay of the land in Lisbon we took a one hour Hop On, Hop Off tour of the old city. From there we stayed on the bus until we circled back around to the spot we wanted to see , and that’s where we got off the bus to walk. We had a great day for it. I admit that I was slow to come around to Portugal, but I realize the weather played a huge role in my mood. Now that we were heading south, the sun was shining and my mood was lifting! We walked all around and took in hilltop vistas in Alfama, sat and watched the tourists go by on Tram 28 and window shopped for beautiful pastries. We managed to pass them by without eating any, because we had our sights set on Lisbon’s Time Out Market, a place with 26 restaurants and eight bars under one roof. The concept is you can try a little of everything and that’s exactly what we did. Wow, the food was fantastic!

By this time we had a favorite taxi driver, Alexander, who was part driver, part tour guide. On our last day he drove us to Sintra, a town about 30 minutes from Lisbon. On the way there he told us all about the royalty that used to come to this area to hunt and many built fabulous castles. Thus, Sintra is a major tourist destination in Portugal. We, of course, are spoiled by places like the Knights Templar Convento de Christo in Tomar where we practically had the place to ourselves, so arriving 35 minutes before opening to find a line snaking down the hill was a little disappointing. Yes, I get that we are also tourists, there’s no denying that. Still….

Also, Sintra is known for its beautiful views of the ocean, none of which we were able to see because the entire area was socked in with fog. We did tour the Pena National Palace which looked like it was made out of Play-Doh. It was so crowded that Steven and I got separated and when he went inside for the tour, he found it so claustrophobic that he was looking for a way to escape. All-in-all, Sintra was the least enjoyable part of our stay in Lisbon. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site (#7, in case you’ve lost count), so I’m glad we went there even if it wasn’t great for us. We know others who thoroughly enjoyed their time there.

We left Lisbon with only two more destinations on our journey before we would stop and catch our breath. Both were overnights with just a couple of hours visiting. The first was the historic center of Evora (#8!!) and the Chapel of Bones and the second was Sagres, literally the end of the continent. Henry the Navigator established a nautical school and many of his ships were launched from here. In many places the continent just stops and the ocean begins not with lovely sandy beaches but with 100+ ft. cliffs. Amazingly, despite the dangers, people actual fish from these cliffs. The cliffs are so huge it’s easy to overlook them, but then you see a flash of color and zoom in to find several people fishing!

We spent the morning watching the fisherman, then made our way to Turiscampo resort where we had a reservation to do absolutely nothing for the next four weeks. I cannot tell you how much we were looking forward to this downtime!

NEXT UP: Slow days in the Algarve

…