Praça do Comércio

We were accommodated directly in the centre, not far from Praça do Comércio. So after settling in and buying some basic stuff for eating, as well as a bottle of Porto (that we tested immediately to see if we want more) we went out. Our first steps were to Praça do Comércio.

Waiting for customers and not being aware of sneaky photographer.

Praça Dom Pedro IV

Another plaza we have visited was. It was not intention to visit it, we just got there while exploring surroundings, looking for metro stations as well as some place where we could buy famous Ginjinha (cherry liqueur). We found one at north eastern corner of this plaza. (That makes it worth of naming on my blog, does't it?) It was very good, even it was not served in chocolate cup like they do for example in Sintra.

Estação de Caminhos de Ferro do Rossio. Rossio train station. We will need it tommorow for out trip to Sintra.

Elevador de Santa Justa

Not far from previous plaza, actually it is between both plazas, is popular historical lift. It was built in 190x that I consider as impressive feat. Today, it is of course tourist attraction.

We did not pay for the privilege to get up. It connects to other street and we got there while walking around. So we eventually got some photos from roof's perspective, but again we did not pay for possibility to get to absolute top.

View of the lift from bottom. Image on the right is look down the street from top.
    

View from top, showing also the lift.

Lisbon castle in distance. We were warned it is not worth of visiting by more than 1 previous visitor of Lisbon, so it will stay in distance for us.

While searching for some nice restaurant we have found following oriental influence. Unexpectedly it was not Moorish, but south-east asian. It was not far from the lift, so it belongs to this section.

Belem

Maybe the most important must see for every tourist in Lisbon is Belem. It is quite far from center, you need to go there by metro + tram or bus.

Buying a ticket is no simple task. There are single tickets and day tickets. If I remember correctly, single ticket works for metro and bus, but not for train. Fortunately day ticket allows also trams. Then, another surprise was that ticket machine did not accept our card. Fortunately we have found enough coins.

Weather was not very promising when we arrived to Belem. Even worse was that locals were selling rain coats and umbrellas and they knew the region. After taking a few photos of Belem Tower it started raining. We went to nearby restaurant and spent there more than 2 hours. I've never been in restaurant for so long. I would say that also that restaurant enjoyed favorable weather because it was full. When rain ended, we returned to Tower. Peter went to collect geocaches and I have finished taking photos from other side, panoramas and all that.

Even from distance it did not look well. There are too many people waiting. What are they showing inside? Mao?

Sun is shining again, even the sky is not clear yet.

There are many other tourist attractions in Belem or in Lisbon in general. But we were in hurry, as usually so that we just went along Jerónimos Monastery. We did not consider go to in, because when we arrived to Belem, the queue was unbelievably long. Rain helped to dissolve whole queue, but it was too late for us to change our minds after all.