Belém, Lisboa, Portugal
09/06/2022
The next morning we took the bus to Belém, the western area of Lisbon famous for pickpockets, Torre de Belém and the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, a monastery which was our first stop of the day. The bus ride took us a bit over 40 minutes and we were greeted by sunshine and blue skies upon stepping off the bus.
Despite online tickets being available, most people wanted to wait for half an hour at the ticket booth. Not us though, so after a 5 minute wait at the entrance we were already inside.
After exploring the Monastery and taking in its impressive architecture, we walked towards the Torre de Belém. It did not take us long before spotting Museu Coleção Berardo, a museum for modern art that we spontaneously decided to visit.
We then had sandwiches and fruit in the park next to the Tower, which is also where these aerials shots were taken.
You can find the video of Torre de Belém on YouTube here.
Next up we explored the surrounding area by foot. The low tide allowed us to even walk to the waterfront of the tower.
After this we took an e-scooter to cover the distance to “Museu de Arte, Arquitetura e Tecnologia” and the associated “Museu da eletricidade – Central Tejo“, an old powerstation used both as museum for electricity and as place for art exhibitions. The old structure was impressively maintained and offered an authentic way to explore electricity generation of a coal power plant.
After walking through the electricity part of the building we entered the modern part to take a look at the art.
Next up we entered the much more modern main building to see another exhibition shortly before the museum closes. There was a show of slow-motion videos from daily life in China as well as a collection of general street art that was quite interesting to look at.
As it was already the early evening and the museum was closing for the day, we left and went on top of the roof for some touristy pictures with Ponte in the background.
Once done, my sister and I took yet another e-scooter to get to the viewpoint of Fundação Champalimaud, a biomedical research station right next to the ocean. With the sun setting this allowed for some really wonderful photos.
As we had gotten quite hungry from all the walking we had dinner at a nearby Pizzeria and went home afterwards.
Tchau!