On Friday morning, we met our guide Leonor in our hotel for more touring of Lisbon. We met our driver in the next plaza over (Paula had told her I am allergic to Jacarandas) so they chose the pick up location in the plaza without them. We drove to the Belem neighborhood and Leonor pointed out some sites along the way including the presidential palace. In Belem, we went to the maritime history museum. The museum starts with the Portuguese explorers and goes until more modern day. It was really interesting to go into more detail about the explorers. There’s also a room like a small airplane hanger that has actual ships from various eras and usages. It was really cool. There is a monastery connected to the museum but the line is always really long and it doesn’t seem to be worth it so we stayed outside the monastery but did go into the church next door. The church was beautiful and it had the tombs of the most famous/important Portuguese poet and Vasco Da gama. After the church, we walked to the bakery that claims to have started making Pastel de Nata. That was one of the best ones we had so far. After the bakery, we went closer to the water to see the monument celebrating the explorers and the Belem tower.
After our tour, we got dropped off at a park with a cafe that is near a botanical garden that was built into the area that used to be a quarry in Lisbon. We visited the botanical garden after lunch and it was beautiful. After visiting the garden, we took a taxi to a shop that was like an artists co-op. And then walked back to the hotel from there.
In the evening, we took the subway to a chef’s apartment for a cooking class. We made mushroom, toasted almonds, sea bass, scrambled eggs and a custard we caramelized for dessert. We gas a really good time and left very full.
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