Lisbon

After spending a few days in Porto in May, we took the train to Lisbon and had fun revisiting a few favorite places from our honeymoon as well as discovering some new spots.

The center of town is a valley between two hills.  We spent a peaceful afternoon wandering around the Castelo de São Jorge, an 11th-century castle on top of one of the hills.  The views over the city were spectacular and the weather was perfect.

We also took a trip out to Belém, a neighborhood west of the city center.  Bélem is home to a number of interesting spots, including a gorgeous monastery, the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, and a bakery famous for making custard tarts.  When we got back to Paris we were excited to find a Portuguese store in the market area near our apartment that sells the same kind of tarts.  They are delicious!

The monastery is situated across a park from the Tagus River, which runs past Lisbon out to the Atlantic.  Many of the Portuguese explorers set off on their journeys in this area.  Their contributions are memorialized by the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, a large riverside monument featuring statues of some of those explorers, such as Ferdinand Magellan and Vasco de Gama.

We had a great time climbing up and down hills around the city, soaking in the sunshine and enjoying the break from Paris's cool, rainy spring.