Thursday 26th September
The bus from the marina goes all the way down past Belem so we headed there one afternoon with our 'zapping' travel cards (top up €5, swipe the card on each trip on bus, metro and possibly tram and €1.25 is deducted per trip).

The wind was blowing strong from the south with white horses in the river, ominous black clouds were lurking about but when the sun broke through it was still hot. Our main reason for visiting Belem was to see who could find the rhinoceros carved into the Belem Tower first. Colin won, but the carving is looking a bit worn down by wind and weather.


Rhinoceros carving

Just beyond the tower is a fort with a military museum and the Portuguese memorial to fallen servicemen in the wars. A military guard stands on duty and we watched them do their changing of the guard ceremony. On our way back we saw one of the previous guards lounging on the wall of the fort, aviator shades on and fag hanging out - perhaps the reward for having stood still on guard for however long!


War memorial

We had a look from land this time at the Monument to the Discoveries and then walked to the Mosteiro de Jeronimos for a look inside (it was free). Worth a look as the architecture is very impressive.

We decided to walk back along the river to the centre of Lisbon with the aim of a cocktail in a pavement cafe as a reward. The first part of the walk was pleasant alongside parks and then under the Ponte 25 de Abril. Still the same intense buzzing noise as when we passed under in Emerald, they have even turned the noise of it into artwork. The cars drive over a metal mesh which generates the vuuuummm noise - imagine being locked in a box with lots of angry bees and that should be close to how it sounds. The trains then add a slightly different pitched vruuuuummm every so often.


Bridge vruuuummmm artwork

We could still hear the bridge noise, albeit fainter, by the time we got to Doca de Alcantara so we were glad we hadn't gone here instead of Parque das Nacoes, although we could see many visiting boats were in. The sky was getting darker and the walk scenery had deteriorated into derelict warehouses and before long we were being rained on. We took shelter for a while and then dashed for it during a lull, but we still looked like two half-drowned rats by the time we got on the steaming bus, all thoughts of cocktails replaced by a desire for a nice, hot cup of tea. Oh dear!