What Else?

Yesterday I had to move out of my private room at Lisbon Lounge into a 4-bed female dorm. All the private rooms were fully booked for the weekend. The rooms have quirky decorations. This was mine: it’s actually a mirror looking at a painting on the wall:

Walking up the hill towards the Resistance Museum, the road passes the Cathedral, so I paid a quick visit:

Because of the sloping terrain, the cloister had to be positioned at the end, as this diagram shows:

I enjoyed a brunch omelette at a popular cafe called Dear Breakfast:

It was sunny and the outside tables were in demand.

Back at Lisbon Lounge, I expected to be in a crowded dorm, but amazingly I had it to myself and no-one else came to occupy the other 3 beds.

Regime of the Dictator

Today I visited the Resistance Museum, the Aljube. The name is from the Arab “al-jubb” meaning “well without water”, in other words a prison. I’ve visited this before, but there is so much to take in. I couldn’t manage it all before, and I couldn’t now.

The following pics give a flavour of what it’s like:

It’s on many floors: you just have to keep climbing the stairs. In the past, there was a cafe on the top floor (which you needed!) but not any more. There is a really nice view over the Cathedral towards the River Tagus:

The place was once used by Salazar, who ruled Portugal as a dictator from 1926 till his death in 1970, to imprison his political opponents. It is now a chronicle of the resistance to the regime.

An illicit printing press:

Fake documents:




Secret meetings of the Resistance:

Testaments of prisoners:

A little cell for solitary confinement, measuring only 1x 2 m:



On 25 April 1974, the regime was overthrown in the “carnation uprising”:

Celebrations at the Carmo Convent, where I was yesterday:

Carmo Convent and Beyond

Today I took the Santa Justa lift to go up to the Baixa Alta. This is featured in Michael Portillo’s long weekend in Lisbon, if you have seen it on TV.

View from the top of the lift looking towards the castle:


The Carmo Convent is a beautiful shell of a building, a reminder of the 1755 earthquake, when the roof collapsed onto the congregation inside. It is now an open air museum with pieces of architecture from all over the city:

There was a mirror set up for selfies, so I couldn’t resist:

A slide show described the history of the convent, but unfortunately it broke down in the middle:

I was feeling peckish at this point, so I stopped for a banana pancake:

It was a beautifully sunny day (and probably the last one!). Everyone was out and about, strolling near the waterfront:

I joined the crowds and sat in the sun with a small beer:

Dinner was pretty delicious at the Bessa Restaurant:

The boss kept his eye on everything:

Luscious dessert of chocolate mousse:

JERÓNIMOS Monastery

Today was quite a challenge, as I negotiated the Lisbon public transport system. I’m staying about 5 minutes walk from the metro station Baixa-Chiado, where I bought a 24 hour ticket. The metro is really deep: down 4 escalators:

Then I had to take a yellow tram towards Belém and Jeronimos. There was an enormous queue to get in and everyone was booking online, which I found quite difficult because the sun had darkened my glasses. Two German girls behind me came to my rescue and I gave them my phone and let them get on with it. (Of course, they were impressed by my German!) The following pics are of the monastery, mainly the cloisters. It turned out that the interior of the Church was closed for renovations, but we still had to pay the full price.

The carvings were all pretty impressive. It’s a Unesco world heritage site. Inside the Church is the tomb of Vasco da Gama, so no chance to see it on this trip.

It was lunchtime so I went down the street to the place where the famous Pasteis de Nata were first made and are still produced in quantity:

I ordered a duck and spinach pie, as I’d had loads of Portuguese custard tarts every day already.

I learned that egg whites were used in the monastery to starch the white vestments, so they started making the custard tarts in order to use up the yolks.

Funchal to Lisbon

The weather in Madeira started to improve just as I was leaving. Typical! I packed my bag ready for check out and went for a quick walk down the hill to the Lido. The big pool would be lovely in summer. Today the air temperature was 16 and the water temperature 19. (My pool at Burswood is heated to 26 and I’d still like it a bit warmer). A few brave souls were swimming lengths:

It’s a really big pool, with hundreds of lounge beds for sunbathers (none today!) and the Atlantic waves were pounding the rocks below. Growing nearby is this magnificent tree:

Then it was time to get a taxi to the airport, where I had a couple of hours wait for the plane:

It was very windy as we walked across the tarmac to board. The plane took off into the wind and all was well.

The arrival in Lisbon was most depressing: heavy rain was falling. I’m staying in a private room in Lisbon Lounge Hostel, one of the first hostels to be built in the city for budget travellers. Dinner was available at 7.00 pm and I found myself eating with a group of 16 year olds from the American School in London:

They were very polite. I told them to read Never Let Me Go.