Belem Portugal - Mark Eclipse Photography

Day 2 - Wednesday, August 10 - Lisbon, Belém

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Day 2 Stats

Lunch: A Padaria Portuguesa in Belém

Snacks: Pastéis de Belém. Pastéis de Nata are everywhere in Portugal, but these were easily the best.

Dinner: Belcanto in Lisbon, a Michelin 2-star restaurant. $745. Well worth the splurge. It's one of the world's 50 best restaurants.

Hotel: My Story Hotel Augusta, $390 for 2 nights

Extras: Entry to Jeronimos Monastery, Belem Tower. Definitely buy your tickets online instead of waiting in the ticket line. Get to Belem as early as possible in the morning. The lines get long fast. We went to Jeronimos Monastery first thing in the morning. The line for the attached church (free admission) was just as long as for the Monastery. We skipped the church in the morning and walked right in at the end of the day without waiting in any lines.

Transportation: Metro to and from Belem with a stop in Alcantara. Here's a tip: to get to Belem, board Tram 15E at Praça da Figueira. This is the tram's first stop. As more and more people board further down the line, it gets more and more crowded until there's no more room. Make sure to get a prepaid Metro card (Via Viagem). With it, trams are 1.50 Euros. Without it, they're 3 Euros.

Walk: 25,100 steps, 9.6 miles

Things that are overrated: Belem Tower. There was a line to get into the main building. And then a line immediately inside the building to go up the tower. And then basically a continuous line from floor to floor (there's only one stair so they have to alternate groups going up and down the stairs). There's really nothing to see inside. I kept expecting to get up to the roof but that never happened. I would have rather spent time walking around outside it. You can actually walk out to it at low tide. Otherwise, it's surrounded by water.

Wish we could have spent more time at: I think that we spent enough time at Jerónimos Monastery, but I was surprised at how beautiful it is so we probably spent more time that then we had anticipated.

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Day 2 Itinerary

A. Morning Walk Through Chiado and Cais do Sodre

Pink Street (Rua Nova do Carvalho) is one of Instagramer's favorite spots in Lisbon. It's all about the nightlife so it was interesting to see it in the morning. We returned at night a few days later to almost get run over by drag queen Brittany Spears on roller skates.