Lisbon and its attractions

Lisbon

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All the peoples that were on the move in historic times were interested in the site of Lisbon, it may be a myth that Ulysses discovered it, but there is proof that the Phoenicians did at around 5000 BC, they called their colony ‘Alis Ubbo’- ‘lovely little port’. Later the Romans, the Visigoths and Moorish conquerors from North Africa came, the latter stayed for 300 years (some Portuguese have Arabic features), in 1147 King Alfonso succeeded in driving them back with the help of Crusaders (occasionally one sees tall and blond Portuguese) to say nothing of the Spanish and French occupation.The 16th century saw the real beginning of Lisbon as it is today, Portuguese navigators sailed round th...Read More

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Internacional Design Hotel

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Hotel | "Internacional Design Hotel, Lisbon"

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**Location**More central is not possible. My husband and I had been to Lisbon before and knew the layout of the city. We decided that this time we didn’t want to use the underground, bus or tram to get to the centre, so we opted for a hotel in the Baixa, the low part of the city, which constitutes the centre. The Internacional Design Hotel is at the corner of Rua Bellesga and Rua Augusta, the main artery of the city centre. It runs from the Rossio Square to the PraVa di Comercio which opens up to the river Teide. It’s a pedestrian precinct throughout with small elegant shops on either side. Nightlife is elsewhere, when the shops close, the pavements are rolled up (as the Germans say). Th...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on December 15, 2010

Internacional Design Hotel
Rua da Betesga, 3
Lisbon, Portugal 1100-090
351 213 240 990

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Sana Executive Hotel

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When travelling abroad I don't book hotels online, I somehow don't trust myself, what if something goes wrong? I need someone to blame , so I go to a travel agency I can trust, they do their job well, up to now there has been no need to blame them! When we went to Lisbon at Easter three years ago, they found the Sana Executive Hotel *** for us for the special offer of four nights for the price of three meaning that the double room cost 70 € a night (including breakfast) instead of 160 € (without breakfast, breakfast costs 8 € extra), I‘m sure that was a good deal and I couldn‘t have found a better one myself. The hotel is about a quarter of an hour away from the airport by car...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on November 20, 2010

Sana Executive Hotel
Avenida Conde Valbon 56
Lisbon, Portugal
351 21 7951157

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A Cozinha d’Avó

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When we were in Lisbon at Easter we decided one day to cross the river Tejo by ferry, we had read in the guidebook that there were good fish restarants on the southern bank. We went to a ferry station where we saw a large map of the area on the wall, two ferry lines were drawn to the opposite bank, we opted for the longer one in order to enjoy the ferry ride a bit longer.The man behind the ticket counter was very surprised when we named the destination, he got out of his booth, went with us back to the map and told us that we certainly did not want to go there (we could follow his Portuguese explanation), we were tourists and there was nothing, nada, to see for tourists, we wanted to go to...Read More

A Cozinha d’Avó
Rua Recosta 5a - Barreiro
Lisbon

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Antiga Confeitaria de Belem

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Restaurant | "Antiga Confeitaria de Belém, Portugal"

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Third time lucky! My husband and I always travel with a guidebook and like reading it before we start as well as on the spot, but somehow we managed to overlook the mention of the most famous bakery of Lisbon, the Antiga Confeitaria de Belém, Rua de Belém 84-82, during our first two stays in the city, or we didn’t take the praise heaped on it seriously. When a tourist couple in our hotel raved enthusiastically about it, we decided to finally have a look. Belém is a suburb of Lisbon and can easily be reached by bus, tram or train, a taxi ride from the centre costs about 6 Euro. It’s to the right (across the street) of the Mosteiro dos Jéronimos (Jeronimos Monastery), which is a must for all tourists to...Read More

Third time lucky! My husband and I always travel with a guidebook and like reading it before we start as well as on the spot, but somehow we managed to overlook the mention of the most famous bakery of Lisbon, the Antiga Confeitaria de Belém, Rua de Belém 84-82, during our first two stays in the city, or we didn’t take the praise heaped on it seriously. When a tourist couple in our hotel raved enthusiastically about it, we decided to finally have a look. Belém is a suburb of Lisbon and can easily be reached by bus, tram or train, a taxi ride from the centre costs about 6 Euro. It’s to the right (across the street) of the Mosteiro dos Jéronimos (Jeronimos Monastery), which is a must for all tourists to Lisbon and therefore easy to find.

At the beginning of the 19th century when the story of the now famous pastelaria (bakery) started, Belém was far away from Lisbon and could only be reached by boat. The village had a sugar cane refinery which also contained a general store. When in 1820 all monasteries and convents were closed in Portugal due to the liberal revolution, someone from the adjacent Jeronimos Monastery had the idea of taking sweet pastries to the shop and offer them for sale to earn some money. People from the city who used to visit Belém to admire the beauty of the monastery and the Tower of Belém soon took to savouring the pastries in the store.

It must be said that the ‘Pasteis de Belém’ can also be bought in the pastelarias of Lisbon (the city is full of pastelarias!), but they’re not the real thing as we now know. They’re sold warm but they’re warmed up and that’s not the same as them coming fresh out of the oven.

The Antiga Confeitaria is rather inconspicuous from the outside although it now occupies two houses. One could walk by if there weren’t a queue of people spilling out of the right entrance of the shop onto the pavement. They either buy pastries to take away in special cardboard containers or eat them standing at the counter where they can also get coffee. On the walls beside the counter all the items which can also be bought are on display, crockery with the logo, wine, packed sweets, knickknack.

Customers wanting to sit inside enter through the left door. A wonderful flavour of cinnamon hits our nostrils when we get in, yummy! There are some small rooms behind the counter whose walls are covered with tiles depicting Belém in the Age of Discoveries in the early 1600s. Their tables and chairs are always occupied when we come. So we move further into the building(s) and reach an immense room, the size of a school gym. The German couple from our hotel was even reminded of the Hofbräuhaus in Munich. A waiter tells us that they can sit 510 customers in all rooms! I think that German and Austrian tourists are especially puzzled because they come from countries with a vibrant Café culture. When they think of Cafés, the German word ‘gemütlich’ comes to mind. It’s usually translated with ’cosy’ but it’s not exactly the same, so the Americans have included gemütlich into their vocabulary. Here cosiness is the last thing that comes to mind! One tourists writes on the net, "The place is mobbed from morning till night, seven days a week, by tourists and locals alike." (It’s open daily from 8:00 to midnight). And yet . . .

Even in November the gym-size room is more than half full, the customers are nearly all Portuguese. Although the Portuguese are the quietest Romanic people, the noise level is considerable. A menu offers not only sweet things but most people eat pastries, or rather Pasteis de Belém. Most drink cappuccino or milk coffee with them, one old Portuguese lady I see at a neighbouring table, however, has hers with a glass of beer. Well, "de gustibus non est disputandum", you can’t argue about taste, as the Romans used to say. Most people order two pasteis, one costs 90 cent.

The famous pastries/pasteis are custard tarts which are served fresh out of the oven. On the tables stand two tin containers with cinnamon and icing sugar which one has to sprinkle over them before the first bite. The outside is made of flaky pastry which is hot and crispy, the vanilla pudding inside is just heavenly. On average 14 000 pasteis are made every day, all work is done by hand as in the olden days, no modern machinery is used. And the certain something that makes them so special and better than all other pasteis of Portugal is still being kept secret, only the two head bakers know it.

I found an elaborate recipe on the net but am not going to include it, you’d never reach the real thing, not even from afar. I certainly wouldn’t want to eat it, after tasting the real thing I can’t eat an ersatz pastry any more. For those among you who don’t know the real thing yet: there is no other way but to go to Lisbon and visit the Antiga Confeitaria de Belém. Get to know Pastry Paradise!

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Member Rating 5 out of 5 on November 19, 2010

Antiga Confeitaria de Belem
Rua De Belem 84-92
Lisbon, Portugal
351-21-3638077

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Museu do Oriente

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Attraction | "Museo do Oriente"

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Lisbon has a lot of shabby grandeur. This is not the place to tell you why the grandeur has became shabby but where it came from, at least in parts. A visit to the Museo do Oriente (Orient Museum or Museum of the Far East) provides some answers.It’s located in the port area, next to a yacht marina, between the main road and the railway line and the river Tejo. The address is Av. Brasília, Doca de Alcántara, it can be reached by public transport, the buses 12, 28, 714, 73, 738, the trams 15E, 18 E and the trains to Cascais stop there (station Alcántara). Open 10am-6pm (closed Tuesdays), 10am-10pm on Fridays. The admission is reduced for tourists holding a LisboaCard. The museum is wheelch...Read More

Lisbon has a lot of shabby grandeur. This is not the place to tell you why the grandeur has became shabby but where it came from, at least in parts. A visit to the Museo do Oriente (Orient Museum or Museum of the Far East) provides some answers.

It’s located in the port area, next to a yacht marina, between the main road and the railway line and the river Tejo. The address is Av. Brasília, Doca de Alcántara, it can be reached by public transport, the buses 12, 28, 714, 73, 738, the trams 15E, 18 E and the trains to Cascais stop there (station Alcántara). Open 10am-6pm (closed Tuesdays), 10am-10pm on Fridays. The admission is reduced for tourists holding a LisboaCard. The museum is wheelchair friendly.

The museum opened only in 2008, the six-storey concrete structure was used to store bacalhau (dried cod) before it was turned into a museum with show rooms, an auditorium, a restaurant on the top floor, a cafeteria and a shop on the lower level. An educational centre offers courses in Asian cooking and culture. Temporary exhibitions on different topics are shown on the ground floor, the Museo do Oriente proper occupies the first and the second floor.

I knew already that Portugal had been a maritime power in the 16th century with overseas possessions in Asia (and in South America, but logically, this part of Portuguese history is not dealt with in the Museum *do Oriente*). What I did not know, however, was that the Portuguese didn’t sail to far away places, conquer them and carry home whatever precious goods they could lay their hands on to enrich Crown and Fatherland. No, the Portuguese arrived in Japan in 1543 and then established trade routes in the far East. The Japanese coined the phrase ‘Nauban trade’, Nauban meaning ‘Southern barbarians’. The Portuguese shipped goods from one far away country to another without touching base in Portugal. Of course, they got rich this way; what did they do with their wealth? The Asians, wisely, never allowed them to really get into the country and settle there, the Japanese even excluded them from further trading in 1641. In China they were restricted to Macau, in India to Goa. They could only take their wealth back to Portugal and show it off there - if they hadn’t died on the seven seas before.

A gilded screen depicts a ship, Portuguese traders and Japanese dignitaries, which is like an illustration of a history lesson. Wherever Portuguese sailors and tradesmen were allowed to settle, for example in Macau, Jesuit missionaries could be found as well. This review is not the place to discuss what good they did there to the indigenous population - if any at all. Another screen with biblical scenes shows that the Asians interpreted Christian stories their way, I hadn’t seen the Holy Family with Asian features and clothes set in an Asian landscape before. But then the Holy Family is black in Africa.

From the net, "Visitors with poor night vision might want to watch their steps in the galleries which are kept dark to show off objects in the illuminated display cases." The positive effect of this arrangement is that the exhibits really look wonderful. Chinese folding screens, costumes, jewellery, snuff boxes, religious statues, vases, paintings - you name it - from Goa, China, Japan, East Timor and other Portuguese outposts or trading areas from the 1500-1900s are clearly laid out in the showcases and lit with spot lights to show their beauty.

The negative effect is that the explanations in Portuguese and (correct) English are often hardly decipherable because they aren’t lit with an extra light. That is very negative indeed, especially as the museum doesn’t have audio guides, not even in Portuguese. Not that I could understand the language, but it’s a shame in my opinion. On the one hand 30 million Euro were invested for the conversion of the building into a museum whose annual costs for staff and maintenance must also be considerable. Where does the money come from? I bet it’s tax money, and then the visitors who’ve paid for the museum so-to-speak can only get glimpses of information should they decide to pay the museum a visit.

The exhibition on the second floor has the title ‘Gods of Asia’, it explores religion and mythology through costumes, masks, paintings, statues, 13,000 objects all in all. I didn’t find it so fascinating because it lacks the obvious reference to the Portuguese history of exploration, trade and Christian missionary work, topics I’m more interested in.

Despite my niggles I can recommend a visit if you’re in Lisbon and have some free time left.
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Member Rating 4 out of 5 on February 9, 2011

Museu do Oriente
Avenida Brasalia, Doca De Alcantara (Norte)
Lisbon, Portugal
(351) 213 585 244

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