Saturday morning we only had a few hours to explore before we needed to head to the airport. We slept in a bit, had some breakfast in the hotel, then caught a Bolt (kind of like Uber) to the western end of the city along the river. There are three major sights in that area, so with a few hours to play with, it seemed like a good choice. We had the driver drop us off near the Tower of Belem, the first stop on our mini tour.

The Tower of Belem is a nice, short site to see in Lisbon. I’ve never been inside as I just can’t be othered dealing with the crowds.

But from the outside, it’s pretty nice from almost every angle.

The tide was out, so you could get close.

Definitely worth a visit if you’re in Lisbon.

And boy was it busy! That ended up being the theme of the day, at each of our three stops. We walked around the tower for a while, trying to get some shots of the tower without too many people in them. The tide was out, which gave us a chance to walk up close and get some slightly different views. We didn’t stay too long, eventually walking along the waterfront path over to the Monument of the Discoveries.

This sculpture is quite famous and is quite amazing to look on. Its huge and gleamed white in the bright autumn sunshine. We got very lucky with the weather, with it still being sunny and over 30C. It might have been too warm.

The sculptures are mainly historical figures, prominent in the exploration culture Portugal was known for in colonial times.

Again the crowds were a bit much. Out front of the sculpture inlaid in marble, is a map of the world showing the places that the Portuguese "discovered" during their period of global exploration in the 1500s. It really was quite impressive. The compass rose and mappa mundi, was a gift from the Union of South Africa created from beige, black and red limestone. There were so many tour groups wandering around, you couldn’t get my real pictures of it.

After that short stop, we crossed the highway and walked over to the monastery. The Jeronimos Monastery opened in 1601 and is one of the most spectacular buildings grounds will ever see. As was witnessed by the most insane line up we had experienced while in Portugal. It would have been nice to go inside, but we were not dealing with the craziness. So instead we walked some of the garden and took some pictures from outside. That would have to do with our limited time.

Look at the insanity of the line to get in!

But even the outside is spectacular.

From there, we walked up the street a little way to purchase a couple of pasteis de nata pastries from Pasteis de Belem, the most famous bakery in Lisbon.

We had our treat later in the day, and they were delicious! It would have been nice to have gone inside and sat and enjoyed the day, but as we’ve seen (theme continuing to develop…) the lines for inside were ridiculous. But the takeaway line was short and moving fast. So we did not head inside. It was probably for the best

After that brief stop, we grabbed a Bolt back to the hotel, packed up our bags and headed to the airport for our flight to London. The Lisbon airport was a pretty easy go - check in was a breeze and we were through security pretty quickly. They had a pretty nice lounge for our wait - it was packed, but we found a table to sit at. We also found some excellent gin and tonics at the bar! They used some unusual ingredients - cinnamon sticks and peppercorns- but it really worked. May have to try that ourselves.

We had a couple of hours to kill, and it ended up being a bit more stressful than it needed to be, as the morons running customs only had one of the automated passport machines running. There were at least 5 sitting there unused! It’s inexplicable.

While a rush, we made our flight and 3 hours later we were in London! Customs here was a breeze, our bags came quickly and in no time we errr at the hotel.

The last adventure of the trip was to take an Uber about half an hour away to meet up with Michael and Maureen, Justine’s godparents Bally and Glynbo, and their good family friends Mike and Jane for dinner. Maureen and Michael were staying with Mike and Jane for a few days, continuing a friendship more than 50 years deep. I’ve only spent time with them a few times over the years, but each has been wonderful. Both couples are warm and generous, and it was a shame we didn’t have more than just a few hours over dinner.

From the bottom left - Jane, Michael, Bally, Mike, Maureen, Glynbo, Justine and some random guy.

Dinner was great, if too short, and before long it was time to catch an Uber back to the hotel. Sleep came quickly, and then it was time to pack up and head for the airport for the long flight home. It was an amazing trip - we jammed in a lot, but have a ton of great memories to take back.