Girls Be Trippin'...Portugal!: Lisboa

Not pronounced Lisbon here. Lisboa.

This aquaduct runs 28 miles from Lisbon to Sintra. The water comes from the springs in the mountains of Sintra. We saw the beginning of the aquaduct when we visited there.

This is the Tower of Belem where the navigators would pay the taxes before unloading their cargo at Commerce Square. This was also where they would defend the entrance to the city.

This is a monument to overseas combatants. Names of the 9000 Portuguese who died in service between 1909 and 2009 are on the walls. There are 2 live guards and an eternal flame.

They are big on churches here, which is not surprising since Portugal was owned by the church until 1800. Still today, 80% of Portuguese are Catholic. This is the Monastery of St Jerome, more commonly known as the Monastery of Pepper. Pepper was more valuable than gold at this time. It took 100 years for this to be built. It’s important because the sailors would come into port and party with prostitutes on Friday night, then come here to mass and to confess on Sunday (we’re not making this up!).

Also a fun tradition is for single women to drown a statue of St Anthony in a cup of water. They rescue him when they have found a husband. (Not so different than putting a rosary in a bush for good weather or burying St Joseph to sell your house....).

This is the tomb of Vasco da Gama:

These are the bones of Luis Camoes (mixed in apparently with some other random bones), who was a great Portuguese poet.

A Portuguese Olympian won a medal and this memorial was created. Picture postcard of Portugal (better with Michigan Girls and our Canadian friend, Laura)!

So when the church no longer owned all of Portugal, the monks were kicked out of their Monasteries and began selling furniture and documents, etc to live. One of the things they sold was the recipe for traditional custard tarts. Only 5 people have the recipe: two owners and 3 bakers of Pastéis de Belem. Custard tarts are available all over Portugal, but if you don’t get them here, they are but a cheap imitation. (A delicious imitation). But these were extremely yummy.

This is the secret recipe, but of course some ingredients are missing or it wouldn’t be secret! (And it’s in Portuguese so good luck with that.)

Yum!!

Michelle and Sheila along with new friend Laura, attended the Fado dinner with the group. Fado is a mournful style of music for which Portugal is famous.

Deb, Lori, Cindy and I had dinner at a great Italian (?!) restaurant across the street from the hotel in an area called The Bull Ring. This is where they hold bull fights. There was an event tonight and Cindy and Lori were ready to grab a sign and join the protesters wanting to “liberate the animals”.