Honeymoon: Euro Trip - Day 4

We got up around 7:15 and this new time zone was getting a little bit easier to get used to. We got ready and started pack up our stuff so we could check out and eat breakfast. I got tired of waiting for Ben, so I went downstairs to meet up with Brenda and Ray. I grabbed a plate and loaded it up with a croissant with jam, bacon, eggs, 2 Pastel de Nata's, oranges and mango juice. Ben finally graced us with his presence and came downstairs for breakfast. 

During breakfast, we found out our tour guide, João, and his van were broken down, and he had to drive to Centro to get the other van they use for their tours. Ray was disappointed because now, it was going to alter our day. He told us that he was going to get there sometime between 10:15 and 11:00 with the alternate van. We had no control of the situation, so we sat in the lobby and hung out until he let us know he was on his way.

He let us know he was on his way and ended up arriving just after 10:15. We loaded up and drove out to Jerónimo's Monastery in Belém. Along the way, he shared with us on some of the history of this historic building we were about to see. We found a place to park, grabbed our stuff and made our way to the monastery. João told us that this city was known for panhandlers and reminded us to keep alert of our surroundings and to just ignore their requests. 

We made our way across the street and over to the side of the monastery. João shared more information about the history.  

Here is a quick snippet: 

"The Jerónimo's Monastery is one of the most prominent examples of the late Portuguese Gothic Manueline style of architecture in Lisbon. It was erected in the early 1500's near the launch point of Vasco da Gama's first journey, and its construction funded by a tax on the profits of the yearly Portuguese India Armadas.

In 1880, da Gama's remains and those of the poet Luís de Camões (who celebrated da Gama's first voyage in his 1572 epic poem The Lusiad), were moved to new carved tombs in the nave of the monastery's church, only a few meters away from the tombs of the kings Manuel I and John III, whom da Gama had served.

In 1983, the Jerónimo's Monastery was classified as a UNSECO World Heritage Site, along with the nearby Tower of Belém."

After he was done sharing the history, we worked on the two caches, Mosterio dos Jerónimo's (GC892CE) and Mosterios dos Jerónimo's EC (GC63BXY). We had to explain to João what geocaching is and what exactly we were doing. He thought it was fascinating.

We walked across the street, through the park, to the Monument of the Discoveries.

Here are some fun facts:

"The monument was reconstructed in 1960 to mark 500 years since the death of Henry the Navigator. This time it was made of concrete and rose-tinted Leiria stone masonry, with the sculptures made of Sintra limestone masonry.

A stylized caravel seems to be setting out to sea, with Henry the Navigator in its prow. On the two lateral ramps ascending to the symbolic figure of the Price are some of the significant characters of the Portuguese overseas expansion and cultural names of the age of the Discoveries, 32 in total, all portrayed with symbols that allude to their identity: navigators, cartographers, warriors, colonizers, missionaries, chroniclers and artists. 

Composed of a vertical element consisting of a stylized mast-oriented North-South, with two Portuguese coat of arms on each side with its five small shields, surrounded by a band with 12 castles and stylized fleur-de-lis in the center.

On each side there are three triangular structures, each with one curved side, giving the illusion of sails blown out by the wind.

The north side is formed by two giant stones with near the inscriptions in metallic letters. On the left side, the inscription above the anchor reads "To the infante Dom Henrique and the Portuguese who discovered the sea routes". On the south side, the inscription above the laurel wreath reads, "On the V Centenary of the Infante Dom Henrique 1460-1960".

The middle of the monument, a flight of nine steps gives access to a platform with a view over the entire surrounding area. The second flight of five stairs and a portal with a round arch formed by vaulted stones lead through to the interior of the monument. The monument is flanked by two metal armillary spheres on two parallelepiped platforms. 

The map mural next to the monument showed the routes the navigators explored and how it looked back in the Age of Discovery."

We took a bunch of pictures, read all the inscriptions and of course, did the virtual and earthcache. Gente da Minha Terra (GC891JG) and Calcanos do Monumento aos Desobrimentos (GCAEGXN). We had to make sure we took good notes on the questions that were being asked since I wasn't going to be logging them until at least a month after we got back home.

From there, we walked back across the park, and I noticed a traditional cache along the way. We thought it would be fun to show João what a traditional cache looked like, since those were physical containers. Mosterio de Stͣ Maria de Belém/Jerónimo's Monastery (GC3E4CW) was magnetic hide a key underneath the park bench. He thought that was pretty cool and even considered starting. This was my first traditional geocache in Europe.

We walked back across the street to have the real version of the Pastel de Nata at the world famous Pastéis de Belém. We walked inside the restaurant, and it was buzzing with people. The building was deceptively huge and had many rooms with people eating all kinds of pastries and drinking coffee. We were shown to our table, and we briefly looked at the menu because we already knew what we were going to have.

We made some small talk and our pastéis arrived. Everyone had coffee with theirs except for me. These custard treats were amazing!  I could see why this place is recognized worldwide. 

While we ate, we talked to João about what it's like living in the US. He was shocked to hear about how much everything cost to live. He told us that he lives comfortably in Portugal with the tourism job he had. We finished up, paid and browsed the artwork on the walls. 

A little bit about the Pastéis de Belém:

"In 1837, the baking of the Pastéis de Belém began in the buildings attached to the refinery, following the ancient "secret recipe" from the monastery. Passed on and known exclusively to the master confectioners who hand-crafted the pastries in the "secret room", this recipe remained unchanged to the present day.

In fact, the only true Pastéis de Belém, contrive, by means of a scrupulous selection of ingredients, to offer even today the flavor of the time-honored Portuguese sweet making."

João drove us around the streets of downtown Lisbon while on our way to Castelo de Sao Jorge. He dropped us off at the base of the castle and we were scheduled for a self-tour of the castle grounds. He said he would be available when we were done. We entered in at the gates, showing them our tickets, and was in awe on how large the inside of the castle was. We wandered around, looking at the various look out points of the city of Lisbon, the statues, the ruins of inside the castle and the historical markers. We even got to see a cluster of peacocks hanging out inside the castle walls. Of course, we did two geocaches, an earthcache - Os Terramotos E Suas Consecquências - EC61PM (GC7506D) and a virtual - A Great View of Lisbon (GC513F), an oldie from April 2002.

Some info on Castelo de São Jorge:

"It is a historic castle in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, located in the frequesia of Santa Maria Maior. Human occupation of the castle hill dates to at least the 8th century BC while the oldest fortifications on the site date from the 2nd century BC.

The hill on which Castelo de São Jorge stands has played an important part in the history of Lisbon, having served as the location of fortifications occupied successively by Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans and Moors, before its conquest by Portugues in the 1147 Siege of Lisbon. Since the 12th century, the castle has variously served as a royal palace, a military barracks, home of the Torre do Tombo National Archive, and now as a national monument and museum."

We wandered around the museum on our way out. I enjoy learning the history of what I just visited. I learned that Portugal was one of the oldest countries in Europe and following its formation, it became a leading maritime power during the Age of Exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries, establishing a vast global empire.

We were reaching our time limit, so we made our way back to the entrance to meet up with João. We stopped at one of the vendors on the outside of the castle and Brenda and Ray bought themselves a necklace from him. He made unique necklaces out of coins.

João had pulled the van over in a roundabout and we hopped right in. Our next stop on the tour was the Sanctuary of Christ the King or Cristo Rei. We drove over the Abril 25 Bridge, which was built by the same person who built the Golden Gate Bridge. It did look like a miniature sized Golden Gate Bridge. Once we got to the other side and in the parking lot, João parked and we got out. Ray had been having some issues with heights so he and João stayed behind on the ground while Brenda, Ben and I went up.

We got in line and bought our tickets. Then we had to wait in a line because there was one elevator and only 12 people could go up at a time. When it was our turn, we went up and enjoyed a 360-degree view of the surrounding area of the Tagus River and the city of Lisbon. We were up there for about 20 minutes or so. We did two geocaches, Is This an Artificial Earthcache? (GC6YYXT) and a virtual cache, Varanda para Lisboa (GC7B9VC). Both were pretty easy, but we knew we wouldn't be logging them for a while, so I took notes.

We quickly went into the gift shop and then got in line to go down the elevator. We met up with Ray and João down below in the park area. We walked over to the edge of the park where we could see the Tagus River, the bridge and Lisbon. We saw some pretty amazing views from this side of the bridge. We hopped back in the van and João took us back over to Lisbon. I was scrolling through my phone and saw a post about Lisbon, Portugal having an earthquake! What? I checked the time. It was when we were at the Castelo de São Jorge. None of us felt anything while we were there, not even the 4.6 earthquake.

We went back to Belém because João wanted to take us to the Belém Tower. It wasn't on our itinerary, but he took us there to make up for the broken-down van earlier that day. We found a quick place to pull over, and he let us out to wander around for about 20 minutes. We took pictures, read the informational signs and did the virtual cache, Lisboa Tower, Torre de Belém (GC7B7EK) and the earthcache, Torre de Belém (GC6W2GX). It was built between 1514 and 1520 under King Manuel I. It evolved from a defensive fortress to a customs house, a prison and a lighthouse. It was a nice way to end the tour.

João took us back to the hotel. We paid him, thanked him for a fun tour over the past two days, grabbed our stuff and he drove off. We grabbed our luggage, used the restroom and checked out of the hotel. We left Lisbon and headed south towards Pêra in the Algarve region. We had to help Ray navigate because the roads were crazy and all the signs were in Portuguese. We drove over the longest bridge in Continental Europe, the Vasco da Gama Bridge. It is 10.7 miles tolled bridge. Construction began in February of 1995 and officially opened in March 1998.

About an hour into our drive, we stopped at a rest area to stretch our legs and hopefully get some food since it was getting late. It was too early but too late and none of the food places were open while we were there, so we pressed our luck inside the convenience store. They really didn't have a lot of choices or gluten free options, so we all grabbed some chips, a candy bar and a couple of drinks to tie us over. They eat dinner late in Portugal and we were in the hour in-between. We didn't want to wait another hour for places to open.

We chatted and ate our snacks the last hour on the highway. Once we got closer to their town, we stopped at the Continental grocery store for a couple things for breakfast the next day and a few more snacky items. Portugal sells hotdogs in jars!

We went to their apartment, unloaded the car and got settled in. They gave us a quick tour of where everything was and the view from the balcony. Brenda made us tuna fish sandwiches, and we ate the rest of our chips with it. It hit the spot after not eating for half a day. We hung out and talked the rest of the evening. We all got ready for bed and went to bed around 2 a.m.

Next Adventure: Honeymoon: Euro Trip - Day 5

Honeymoon: Euro Trip - Day 3

Ben and I got up around 7:30 and it felt great to finally sleep after the previous days of long travel. We both got ready for the day. I wasn't sure how the weather would be outside, so I dressed in layers. I grabbed my orange backpack and stuffed it with the things I thought we would need while touring around Lisbon. We met Brenda and Ray downstairs for breakfast at the hotel.  The spread was off the charts! I had breakfast bread, kiwis, a banana, mango juice, scrambled eggs, bacon, strawberry yogurt and a pastel de nata, the official pastry of Portugal. We chatted while we ate.  The food hit the spot. 

We went back to our rooms, used the restroom one more time and waited for our tour guide, João, who was supposed to be there by 9 a.m. We waited.  Ray messaged him because it was after 9 and we had no idea where he was.  He ended up parking in the back, and we didn't realize he was going to park back there. We thought he would come by the front and get us.  We walked over to the back door, we had our introductions, loaded up into the van and headed to our first stop, National Palace of Pena.

The roads were super windy and narrow.  There were times I thought we would hit parked cars on the sides of the roads. As we got closer to our destination, we started going up in elevation and I noticed the cloud cover got thicker. It engulfed the mountain, which made our drive up misty. We got to our destination, João dropped us off at the entrance and went to park the van. He said he would meet up with us in a few minutes to check us in. He walked up to the ticket office, had our tickets scanned and we went in. We had to walk up the hill, while we walked, he told us the history of the place. He told us about the areas of the grounds while we waited to go into the inside of the castle to open at 10:30. When it got closer, we got in line and went into the castle once it was our turn. The fog was heavy at the top of the mountain, but it soon started to dissipate so we could see the amazing view from the top.

We toured it for a while, walking from room to room and taking it all in.  We all got a couple of photos of the stuff we liked. It was my first historical castle. 

Before we left to go on to our next tour, we stopped at the entrance of the castle up on the hill and Ben, Brenda, Ray and I did the virtual cache, Palácio Nacional da Pena (GC7B9F7).  We had to get a group picture in front of the entrance and had to answer a couple questions. João took our photo.

We made our way back down to the van and made the drive to our next destination, the National Palace of Monserrate. We pulled up to the palace, parked and walked to the entrance. João shared with us some of the history and stories of the property before we walked through the park to the palace. He stayed behind with the van. Along the way there, we stopped to see the waterfall, a large cork tree (we learned that one of the main exports in Portugal is cork) and some of the native plants, animals and insects. The area was beautiful even though it was winter.

We went inside the palace and explored the many rooms, tapestries and artifacts. It's amazing that a lot of the architecture in these old countries have survived wars, weather and people. We went outside, admired the tiles and the sculptures and the amazing views of the property. Even the weather was beautiful! Once we were done, we made our way back up to the van and met back up with João. 

From the National Palace of Monserrate, João took us along the southwestern coastline of Lisbon to show us the magnificent views of the Atlantic Ocean. He pulled over on the side of the highway in a wide spot, parked and had us walk a short distance out on the cliff to really admire the coastline. We were there for about 10 minutes soaking it all in. I still couldn't believe I was standing in Portugal looking at the Atlantic Ocean to the west. We all got back in the van, and he asked us if we were hungry since it was approaching lunch time. 

We told him that we could eat. He was excited to take us to 3 Gomes, a popular restaurant along this stretch of highway, known for their delicious fresh seafood. We found a place to park off the highway and walked right in. They found us a table right away and we ordered some drinks. Water isn't free in Europe either. I looked at the menu and the salmon with lime risotto and a side of broccoli sounded tasty, so that is what I ordered. It was amazing! Everyone else ordered some great food as well. We had fun eating and getting to know João. We paid for our food, thanked the owners, and walked back out to the van.

Our next stop on our tour was Cape Roca. We pulled up to a parking area and João found a parking spot and told us to go explore the grounds. The lighthouse is a beacon/lighthouse located 541 feet above the Atlantic Ocean on Portugal's (and continental Europe's) most westerly extent. It is located in the civil parish of Colares, in the municipality of Sintra, situated on a promontory made up of granite boulders and interspersed limestone. It is a third-ordered lighthouse, which originally began operating in 1772. We walked down to the marker and had to wait our turn to get a picture with it to suffice another virtual cache, Cabo da Roca Virtual Cache [Sintra] (GC89059). We admired the views of the Atlantic Ocean and the light house in the distance.

We walked back to the van and João drove us along the coastline and to the city of Cascais, a posh town, known for its beaches and sophisticated atmosphere. It was once a fishing village but now a wealthy resort. He told us this is where most of the celebrities and futbol players lived. He took us to the city center and dropped us off for about a half hour to look around and find our third virtu geocache, Cascais - Praia dos Prescadores (GC88ZJX). The sun was beginning to set, we walked back to the van, and we started our 40-minute drive back to the hotel. 

João pulled up to the hotel, we grabbed our stuff, we paid, and Ray told him that we would see him tomorrow morning around 9 for the second half of our tour around Lisbon. We went into the hotel, and all agreed to meet up in the lobby in about an hour and a half. Ben slept and I posted pictures and wrote in my journal. It was nice to relax for a little bit. 

Around 7, we met up with Brenda and Ray in the lobby. We ordered drinks, Ray and I got the Super Bock (the official beer of Portugal), Brenda got tea and Ben got a Jamison on the rocks. 

We ended up moving into the restaurant portion of the hotel because Ben got hungry. He ordered the honey chicken and fries (he said it was okay) while Brenda and Ray shared some chocolate cake. We talked and visited until about 10 on various topics. We went back to our rooms, got cleaned up, posted more pictures and continued writing in my journal of the day's events. Both ben and I texted and messaged our family and friends. We ended up going to bed around 12:30.

Next Adventure: Honeymoon: Euro Trip - Day 4