Our last destination in Portugal lead us from Porto to Lisbon, or Lisboa.  Lisbon is the largest city in Portugal and also the Capital of the country, which is the most widely known city in Portugal.  I’ve heard a lot about Lisbon before coming here, but we really didn’t know what to expect.  We were going to have around a day and a half here, arriving in the morning as always, but leaving the afternoon the following day to Rome.  This gave us ample time to explore the city, and see a little more than the previous cities.  We arrived in Lisbon Oriente train station to start off the day, and the obligatory train station shot to show the differences of architecture of every train station.

Melody and I decided to head out away from the central city to Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, which is a go-to religious and historical site in Lisbon.  And because Lisbon is a lot larger than the other cities we visited before, minus Barcelona and Madrid, we ended up using public transportation to save our legs and a little bit of time.

The outside of the building was a little non-assuming, and wasn’t as grandiose as the interior.

And before we headed into the grounds, we toured theIgreja Santa Maria de Belém on the side of the entrance, the line was long to get in so we decided to walk around a bit.  The arches hold up the ceiling was prevalent in this area.

We soon headed inside to buy tickets for both the monastery and the tower of Belem, then started to explore inside.

More of the ceiling arches that lined the monastery.

The hallways around the central square was very ornate and lead all the patrons through detailed ceilings and columns.

A close up of the ceilings.

And as we looked across the central square, you can see the arches on the outside of each hallway.

A view of the columns that lead you around, and you can imagine how this place looks as we walked through it.

And of course, I had to get a few photos of Melody.

From the inside of the monestery, you can view a different angle of the Catholic church, and there was some pretty interesting and moody light.

We were allowed to walk upstairs and see how the church looked form above as well.

Melody and her camera!  Oh yeah, and the hat that she bought, a fedora, from Sevilla.  It was the gift that we kept taking from each other, so we could look fashionable while traveling.

And when we were upstairs, there was some interesting lights, that caught the silhouettes of the arches onto the marble ground.

And a view from above.

Lastly, I found a place to get an interesting photo of Melody, to capture the”essence” of the monastery.

We headed down to Torre de Belém, for the second part of our tour, before we started to head back to town.  The light wasn’t the best and it was extremely crowded, but definitely a interesting structure to see.

Inside, armed with a few cannons.

Melody upstairs, sitting on a spot for a view of Lisbon from afar.

And more of the archers that reinforced the ceilings were seen inside the tower as well.

From the top, looking down.

I figured, I would go down and get a shot of Melody from up top as well!

And last but not least, the view of the tower as it stands.  Not the most photogenic place, and the tide seemed to be low, to prevent any interesting shots.

Melody heard of Pasteis de Belem, from our tour guide, so we went in to see what all the fuss was about.  This place was known for it’s delicious Portuguese pastries, especially the egg tart.

The line from outside, a very famous place.  The bakery was known to bake form an ancient recipe from the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos.

We were headed back, when Melody decided to do a little shopping at LX Factory.

LX Factory is very interesting, a space for some local boutiques as well as other shops and restaurants.

Here was a little goods shop

As well as a little red riding hood, locked up.

And also a few different arts installments that was a little different from the graffiti we see around all the Spanish and Portuguese cities.

And Melody’s favorite store, of course a book store.

As we headed back to retire for the night, we wandered around the Praça do Comércio, and central square of Lisbon.

And a view of a golden gate like bridge during sunset.

So I decided to go out and get a few shots of the railcars that ran around the area before we headed out, so we went away from the square.

And got a little night time shot of the iconic yellow railcar, similar to the red car that used to tread around in the Los Angeles Area back in the day.

Rua Augusta, the morning after.  This walking street leads down to Praça do Comércio and is a main walking street in the area.

It is lined with restaurants and stores, and usually littered with seats and tables for people eat and people watch.

Our plan for the day was to take the Tram 28 tour, or just ride the tram 28 around the Alfama neighborhood.

There were lots of other people that rode it, which range from locals

and some tourists!

Melody enjoying the wind from outside.

The street car dominates the city and provides a traffic free alternative to moving around the city.

The inside resembles the Angel City Landing back in Los Angeles as well.

And Melody. sitting inside.

Sound graffiti as we decided to do a little bit of walking around the Alfama, and also to find a viewpoint of the city.

Melody and a little street car, tram 28.

Alfama from above, at the Miradouro Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen.

And then my goal was to try to capture a shot of the street car in the Alfama, which was kind of difficult because of the light and also looking for interesting backgrounds.

more of tram 28.

And our stop

And we ended up walking, to find a few places for some shots.

I was looking for leading rails as well as some interesting curves.

Another view of the redeveloping Lisbon.

Another curved rail, which was promising with the interesting pastel backgrounds.

And a landscape version

After exhausting the most interesting options to photograph, we headed down to the Praca de D. Pedro IV – Praca do Rossio

Our ultimate destination was the Elevador da Glória, a cute road car that lifted you up the hillside

and was a quick 5 minute ride

We ended up saying goodbye to Lisbon and headed to the airport on our way to Italy, with a final destination in Rome.