When one hears the phrase "have fun storming the castle" one would think it just means "to have fun" but what is not explained is that the "storming the castle" part could really be arduous and not for the faint of heart.
In Lisbon, the castle to storm is the São Jorge Castle (click here for tickets). It sits atop the highest point in Lisbon and offers a magnificent view of the city and the ocean. The castle was our first stop after we left the train station. From our home base in Porto, Lisbon is about a 3-hour express train ride from Porto Campanha station. Get off at the beautiful Lisboa Santa Apolonia station, the oldest in the city.
We often got lost navigating the ever-steepening narrow passageways leading up to the castle and had to keep asking for directions. One can only imagine the suffering of medieval warriors in their heavy armor trudging up the hill to capture the castle. Luckily, today, there are many vendors offering the refreshing cherry drink ginjinha to ease the pain (just kidding - the walk is beautiful on its own as one is in the middle of the Alfama, Lisbon's medieval quarter, and probably the best place to stay in the city). From Wikipedia: Ginjinha or simply Ginja, is a Portuguese liqueur made by infusing ginja berries (sour cherry, Prunus cerasus austera, the Morello cherry) in alcohol (aguardente) and adding sugar together with other ingredients, with cloves and/or cinnamon sticks being the most common. Ginjinha is served in a shot form with a piece of the fruit in the bottom of the cup.
(Click on each photo to enlarge.)
Here is the reward once inside the castle: skyline of Lisbon as seen from Sao Jorge.
This wasn't part of the castle tour, but we were amused for a while watching a homeowner and his personal trainer do their morning exercise routine.
There are many peacocks and peahens wandering about in the castle grounds.
The castle has decoys - passages and stairways leading to dead-ends - and it was fun trying to explore them to see if we could discover which ones were decoys and which ones were real.
One fascinating part of our castle tour was the archaeology tour of the Iron Age remains uncovered inside the castle grounds.
From Wikipedia:
The Alfama (Portuguese pronunciation: [alˈfɐmɐ]) is the oldest neighborhood of Lisbon, spreading on the slope between the São Jorge Castle and the Tagus river. Its name comes from the Arabic al-ḥamma (الحَمّة), meaning "hot fountains" or "baths," akin to "hammam" (حَمَّام)
The
Igreja de Santo António de Lisboa is one of the many churches inside the Alfama. The site of this church is supposedly where Saint Anthony of Lisbon (more popularly known as Saint Anthony of Padua) was born in 1195.
We rode this romantic tram twice around while we were exploring the Alfama district. This tram (number 28) uses a vintage streetcar and is a legitimate attraction in itself (don't put your head outside the windows as it could get chopped off). Here is a
description:
The nostalgic tram 28 is an institution in itself. This wooden tram will transport you to another era. Its horn rings constantly to warn absent-minded pedestrians to move out of the way when it runs past the city’s long and narrow streets.The tram links São Jorge Castle and Bairro Alto, crossing various picturesque neighbourhoods for 6.2 miles (10 km), including Graça, Mouraria, Alfama, Baixa, Chiado, Madragoa and Bairro Alto. Thousands of tourists take this tram every day.
I found a video of the ride in
Youtube.
We lingered for a while at
Sé de Lisboa, the Lisbon Cathedral.View outside the Cathedral, standing from outside the big stained glass.
We reached the
Praça do Comércio. From Wikipedia:
The Praça do Comércio (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈpɾasɐ ðu kuˈmɛɾsju]; transl. Commerce Plaza) is a large, harbour-facing plaza in Portugal's capital, Lisbon, and is one of the largest in Portugal, with an area of 175 by 175 m (574 by 574 ft), that is, 30,600 m2 (329,000 ft2).Facing the Tagus (Tejo) to the South, the plaza is still commonly known in Portuguese as Terreiro do Paço ([tɨˈʁɐjɾu ðu ˈpasu] (transl. Palace Yard),[1] as it hosted the Paço da Ribeira (transl. Royal Palace of Ribeira) until the latter was destroyed by the great 1755 Lisbon earthquake (the subway station located there is still named after the old name of the plaza).
The arch is called Arco da Rua Augusta. Beyond it are myriad shopping and eating choices.
I am standing here by the Cais das Colunas. From
Lisbon-id.com:
Cais das Colunas is located at Praça do Comércio, in the historical center of Lisbon; its marble steps used to be the noble entrance into the city, through which heads of state and other prominent figures have arrived. It used to give access to ferry boats and other vessels connecting Praça do Comércio to the Tagus' south bank. The pier was named after the two columns (colunas) that can be seen on the side of the main steps. These simple yet elegant pillars were designed by architect Eugénio dos Santos and were part of the city reconstruction plan after the 1755 earthquake nearly destroyed it. The two columns are replicas of those thought to have been in Solomon's temple. They're representative of wisdom and devotion.
Across it is the
Centro Cultural de Belem.
A short walk from the monastery is probably the most famous of all pastry shops in Portugal,
Pasteis de Belem. The custard tart they make here is the origin of the pastel de nata found all over Portugal. But only the original could be called Pastel de Belem (pasteis is the plural of pastel).
Here's a short video introduction of the shop and its most famous product.
We found a pleasant park away from the crowd to eat our pasteis.
We headed back to the train station.
Eating hot chestnuts is always a great way to end any trip in Portugal.
