Right across the street from the Monastery de Jeronimos is Praca do Imperio, a large well manicured public square that features a beautiful fountain and a nice view of the monastery.
Heading toward the water and crossing under Avenida de Brasilia, you get to the waterfront. You really can't miss Padrão dos Descobrimentos, the Monument to the Discoveries, which celebrates Portugal's glory during the Age of Discovery. This was where all those great sailing ships left from.
Originally, a temporary structure was built on this spot for the 1940 World's Fair. That structure was demolished in 1943. In 1958, a permanent structure was planned and in 1960, marking the 500th anniversary of the death of Prince Henry the Navigator, the structure was completed.
By the way, that's Henry the Navigator leading the way at the point of the structure.
There are 33 figures total on the structure's West and East sides, which include Vasco da Gama, Alfonso the V, and Ferdinand Magellan. Sad, but true story of a recent conversation with a rather young, but highly educated young man. Chatting about our vacation, I mentioned the Age of Discovery; total blank look. I finally said, "you know Magellan, right?" "Of course, he's the person who invented the GPS, right?" Sigh…….
Anyway, Henry the Navigator is holding a sailing ship in his hands…….
It costs a couple of Euros to catch the elevator almost all the way to the top. You walk a couple of flights from there. It's a tight squeeze, but the view is wonderful. The photo of Jerónimos Monastery in my previous post was taken from there.
Here's another panoramic shot of Lisbon and the "25th of April" Bridge in the background (click to enlarge).
We had planned on taking the short ferry ride across the river to Porto Brandao, but having just missed the boat, we decided to just catch the trolley back to Central Lisbon to get something to eat. While walking to the trolley stop we noticed a promising looking restaurant called Restaurante Rosa dos Mares.
The server was very friendly and nice and there was a mix of tourists and locals in the shop. It was interesting, the locals ate in the back of the place while the tourists ate in the front.
The prices really weren't bad and of course the Missus wanted more sardines.
The Missus started with, duh, Caldo Verde (E 1.25), which She enjoyed….though I don't think She's ever met a bowl of Caldo Verde She didn't like!
For some reason, She really took to this simple potato thickened soup with greens.
Of course no real meal is complete without some Vinho Verde, right?
She also got here Sardinas Assadas, grilled sardines (E 6).
These were nicely done, better than what we had at Super Mario's. Moist, nice oil, rich, but not too fishy, good grilled flavor. There's something about the potatoes in Portugal…..it seemed like they had a more intense flavor. Maybe it was just being on vacation.
I got something called Bacalhao Rosa dos Mares (E 12).
Like they say, there's a recipe for Bacalhau for every meal of every day of the week. This was another one for the books. Basically nicely fried bacalhau topped withonions and peppers caramelized in vinegar. A tad too sweet for me, but the texture of the fish was nice and it wasn't too salty. The service was friendly, the Server helpful, and the food not bad.
Restaurante Rosa dos Mares
Rua de Belem 2-4
Lisbon, Portugal
After lunch we headed back to central Lisbon, getting off at Praca do Comerico and taking a walk back to our room/apartment.
As with all trips to large cities, Lisbon had seemed so large upon our arrival, but was shrinking as every day passed. Still, we weren't too sure we'd be able to to find the restaurant where we'd be having dinner, which was located in the tiny, winding, streets of Alfama. One last meal in Lisbon before heading on to our next stop.